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Workday unveiled four agents on autopilot. Customer Dow has not switched one on.

Workday announced "autopilot" modes at Workday Rising on 13 October: agents for talent acquisition, payroll, accounting and deployment that do routine work in the background and bring a person in to approve.

ERP LEADERS news desk · · First reported by diginomica · Edition no. 37
Photo: Coolcaesar/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · original

Talent acquisition is open to early adopters now; the other three follow in early 2027.

The same day, diginomica reported that Dow, a Workday customer since 2019, has not activated any agents in its own Workday system. One reason is Flex Credits, Workday's model that charges for the work AI does instead of per seat. Sarah Jo Rowley, Dow's HR digital product and AI leader, told diginomica: "HR doesn't pay the bill. IT pays the bill for our SaaS providers. … So where does the governance on consumption sit?" On credit budgets she said: "I think many of us will go over." She added that she is not criticising the model.

Workday's release does not mention Flex Credits or explain how agent work turns into credits used. Are credits spent when the agent acts, or only once a person approves? Are retries counted?

If IT pays for the agent credits HR uses, who sets the limit?

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Companies in this story
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Our file on Workday

  1. 17 OctFiled later

    Workday's CEO saw ten layers between him and a developer. He cut 525 jobs.

  2. 16 OctFiled later

    Workday told analysts customers spend tens of millions on outsourcing. It wants that budget.

  3. 15 OctFiled later

    Workday agreed to buy C1.ai, which controls what AI agents can access.

  4. 8 Oct

    SAP agreed to buy HR startup TechWolf. Rivals Workday and ServiceNow had backed it.

  5. 6 Oct

    Workday said demand for basic AI skills peaked in January. Then it fell 25%.

All 13 Workday stories

For your next steering committee

Questions for your own programme. They are not findings about any company in this story.

  1. 1Ask which AI tools already touch your ERP or finance data, including the ones nobody approved.
  2. 2Ask what each tool is allowed to change, and who reviews what it changed.
  3. 3Ask how the result is measured, and who decides to switch a tool off.

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