HR software maker Workday is joining the list of tech companies pushing into the hot niche of AI agents, or using AI to complete tasks autonomously. But in an exclusive interview with Fortune, CEO Carl Eschenbach emphasized that AI agents will be able to take on more than just one specific, step-by-step task like writing software code, fraud detection, or invoice processing. Instead, he foresees AI agents as learning and adding new skills over time, ultimately taking on entire roles in a company.
In effect, Eschenbach says AI agents will become “digital employees” that will “peacefully coexist” with human ones. He dismissed fears that agents would replace human workers, generally speaking, but acknowledged they would make certain roles obsolete.
The company on Tuesday introduced a hub for businesses to manage large numbers of AI agents, which can be unleashed to handle basic digital chores with minimal oversight by humans. Workday also debuted a handful of agents specialized in specific job roles, including jockeying payroll, financial auditing, and contracts.
“A lot of the lower-level tasks are super-repetitive in payroll,” Eschenbach said. “I think our new payroll agent can take over those tasks, and the existing workforce that works in payroll can move on and do more higher-level, more strategic tasks around payroll, around planning.”
He continued: “Humans are going to be re-skilled. They’re going to want to do different things. They're going to be doing tasks that they don't get to today because they're stuck doing the mundane.”
In moving into AI agents, Workday joins other enterprise software companies like Salesforce, ServiceNow, Microsoft, and Oracle that see AI agents as the next frontier for their offerings. If they can transform their products into dynamic, automated assistants that never sleep, they have the chance to retain customers, gain new ones, and boost revenue.
As for the hub for managing AI agents, Eschenbach said companies will use it to define AI agent roles and responsibilities, track their impact, and budget and forecast their costs. He likened it to "onboarding" human employees with the right security, transparency, and access controls.
Workday's announcement about its AI agents comes a week after it laid off 1,750 employees, or about 8.5% of its workforce. The layoffs, he said, would help Workday, which has a market cap of $72 billion, better focus on customers’ needs and shift more of its focus onto AI.
Eschenbach told Fortune the AI agent announcement is unrelated to Workday's layoffs. “This is a restructuring of our company to make sure we’re aligning our workforce at Workday around the biggest opportunities,” he said.
In a sign of his optimism, in a year, he anticipates that Workday will have more employees than before the layoffs. “It’s about restructuring to get more dollars to spend on innovation and meet the customer demand,” he said.
But when it comes to Workday's customers who look to the company to help manage their workforce, Eschenbach said he fundamentally believes that going forward, labor will come in multiple forms, both human and digital. Its AI agent hub, he emphasized, will support that future through reduced costs but also using those savings to drive growth—including generating revenue, taking on new opportunities and gaining a competitive advantage.
"I've said over and over, there will be jobs that AI can do much better than the human, no doubt," he said. "But that doesn't mean that a human is no longer needed in the workforce—humans are going to be re-skilled."
