How Agentic AI through Workday HCM Boosts Learning, Hiring, and Management
With all the complicated and interconnected processes driving human resources, automation and artificial intelligence have been a resounding success. Robotic process automation and generative AI have streamlined routine HR tasks and accelerated vital document creation.
Those using Workday already benefit from a number of the AI-enhanced features incorporated into HCM. However, the enterprise SaaS leader is now exploring opportunities to harness the next evolution in this technology: AI agents.
AI agents in Workday can empower HCM users to reinvent how they maintain an exceptional work culture through a new host of autonomous and proactive systems. Here are some AI use cases that could transform your operations and how an enterprise technology services team can help.
Laying the Groundwork for AI Innovation
Workday has grown from investing in machine learning over a decade ago to creating their Workday Illuminate™ AI model, built on a massive HR dataset of 70 million employee records. Now, they are part of the vanguard embracing agentic AI.
We have discussed the intriguing possibilities of agents in the context of AI in ERP software, but Workday is clearly convinced this evolution in machine reasoning is worth their investment. They are creating an ever-expanding roster of AI agents that can act autonomously, use and understand context, and continuously learn as they attempt to achieve an outcome or goal. Think of them as digital employees reasoning through problems alongside your physical team members.
In addition to Workday-built agents, Workday is encouraging customers to:
- Use Extend-Pro to customize Workday apps
- Access third-party apps registered through Workday Marketplace
- Connect third-party apps through the Workday Gateway communication layer
The Agent System of Record (ASOR) will act as a clearinghouse for the digital workforce, coordinating everything under one roof. ASOR can handle onboarding, managing, and optimizing AI agents, so Workday users can mitigate fragmentation risks as they unify the power of AI agents with human workers across HR. Here’s what that means in practice.
Practical AI Use Cases for Human Resources in Workday
Smoother operations, engaged employees, and faster decision-making are central goals of Workday Human Capital Management. By embedding AI in their HR suite, Workday has automated workforce management so leaders can focus on promoting better talent, culture, and growth.
Ongoing Learning
Workday has created greater opportunities for continuous learning and upskilling. They’ve developed an ML/AI-driven categorization system to help organizations connect existing talent with internal opportunities and keep their workforce agile. These automated processes and notifications alert employees about training, potential mentors, and stretch assignments that can help top performers to upskill.
The recent partnership with TechWolf’s AI-powered skills intelligence is enhancing Workday HCM to further optimize workforce training and career development to align with business goals. The Workday Skills Cloud now proposes suggestions for new skills right into employee workflows, pointing them in the right direction so they can quickly update their skills profile.
Recruitment
The talent acquisition lifecycle has been a prime target for automation. Many elements of sourcing, background screening, interview scheduling, and candidate engagement have been automated for some time due to their routine or repetitive nature. Now, even some of the more complicated elements of recruitment stages are being shifted over to machines as large language models (LLMs) and agentic AI evolve.
AI in Workday can instantly surface qualified candidates by analyzing your job descriptions against internal and external talent profiles—automatically. No more hours spent combing through resumes. AI does the legwork, surfacing best-fit candidates so you can spend your time actually getting to know them.
Plus, Recruiting Agent, one of the first AI agents released by Workday, is already increasing recruiting capacity by 54% and decreasing hiring manager review time by 35% in early adopters. When provided with an open role to fill, this agentic tool proactively:
- Matches talent to business needs
- Reevaluates candidates and employees in your existing talent pool
- Accelerates sourcing by grading candidates based on their job requirement match
This helps to boost the efficiency of recruiting processes and has even increased the diversity of candidate pipelines.
Workforce Management
Streamlining day-to-day operations is another benefit of Workday Illuminate. Scheduling, time tracking, leave, and other daily workforce management activities are increasingly automated, further enhancing labor productivity through the Workday app. Artificial intelligence has been transforming this function completely.
As a starting point, Illuminate can generate schedules and forecast demand based on historic and real-time data. AI features match availability, preferences, and skills to shift needs, ensuring accurate coverage and preventing burnout. Plus, the machine learning demand forecasting feature can anticipate demand fluctuations by using external data to optimize schedules to fit the workforce needs of any given moment.
Plus, Frontline Agent promises to enhance time tracking, absence, and scheduling. This AI agent offers workers the ability to send SMS updates about absences to the Workday system from outside the native app. Then, the intelligent shift coverage feature automatically notifies managers, suggests optimal replacements based on Labor Optimization Engine and CBA rules, and confirms the successful shift assignment.
Bottom line? AI in Workday doesn’t just support your HR function, it empowers it, turning everyday processes into strategic opportunities to create a more agile, data-driven, and people-first organization.
Empowering Customization for Your Niche Needs
While Workday continues to roll out AI-driven features across its platform, it also recognizes that every organization has unique goals and workflows. That’s why customization remains central to its approach. Through Workday Extend and tools like Developer Copilot, customers can build their own AI-powered applications, receive intelligent recommendations for code and orchestration, and tailor dashboards and features to match their exact needs.
For teams with specific use cases or industry nuances, this level of flexibility means Workday isn’t just a system you adopt, it’s one you can shape. And with emerging tools like AI Widgets, which can help users find automated answers to common questions or navigate common tasks, that potential is only growing.
As a Workday Services Partner, TEKLEIGH is here to help you unlock that potential. From implementations and development to long-term support and optimization, we work alongside your team to make HR AI agents work for you.