Workday and Microsoft to Deliver Unified AI Agent Experience for the Enterprise
Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) has announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft to enhance enterprise AI agent management. The collaboration integrates Workday's Agent System of Record (ASOR) with Microsoft Entra Agent ID, enabling organizations to securely manage AI agents built using Microsoft Azure AI Foundry and Copilot Studio.
The partnership offers four key benefits: seamless agent registration across platforms, actionable analytics for ROI measurement, enhanced human-agent collaboration through interoperability, and robust governance and security features. This integration aims to help organizations better manage their AI workforce while maintaining security and operational efficiency.
- Strategic partnership with Microsoft enhances Workday's AI management capabilities
- Integration enables seamless registration and management of AI agents across platforms
- Provides comprehensive analytics and ROI measurement tools for AI investments
- Improves workflow efficiency through unified human-agent collaboration features
- None.
Insights
Workday-Microsoft partnership creates integrated AI agent management, addressing enterprise security while providing ROI measurement and collaboration tools.
Workday's strategic partnership with Microsoft represents a significant advancement in enterprise AI governance. By integrating Workday's Agent System of Record (ASOR) with Microsoft's Entra Agent ID, the companies are tackling a critical pain point for organizations: the secure management of an increasingly complex AI agent ecosystem.
The technical architecture enables seamless registration of AI agents built using Microsoft Azure AI Foundry and Copilot Studio within Workday's management system. This solves the fragmentation problem that plagues many early AI implementations, where agents operate in silos without proper oversight.
The partnership's focus on actionable analytics is particularly valuable. Organizations can now track agent usage, productivity improvements, and ROI—metrics that have been notoriously difficult to quantify in AI deployments. This visibility will likely accelerate enterprise AI adoption by providing the governance framework executives require before expanding AI initiatives.
The human-agent collaboration features are equally noteworthy. The cross-platform interoperability allows employees to initiate workflows in one system (like Microsoft 365 Copilot) and complete them in Workday without disruption. This integration model reduces the context-switching that typically diminishes productivity in enterprise software environments.
While the announcement positions this as a breakthrough, the real test will be implementation complexity. Enterprises will need to evaluate whether the integrated governance approach delivers enough value to justify the technical overhead of maintaining these agent management systems. Nevertheless, this collaboration addresses genuine enterprise concerns around AI governance, security, and measurement—key barriers to widespread AI agent adoption in regulated industries.
New Integration Between Workday Agent System of Record and Microsoft Entra Agent ID to Elevate Human-Agent Collaboration
Partnership Provides Companies with the Business Context to Effectively Manage Their AI Agents and Unlock True AI Value
"As AI agents become a huge part of how we work, managing and securing them across different systems is a real challenge. Our commitment to an open ecosystem is about giving organizations the flexibility to build their fleet of AI agents on the platform of their choice," said Gerrit Kazmaier, president of product and technology, Workday. "Through our strategic partnership with Microsoft, we're giving organizations one secure system to manage both their people and their AI agents – so they can focus on results, not complexity."
From Chaos to Control: Securing Your AI Workforce
AI agents are growing more prevalent and tracking their access, roles, and value is crucial for any business. As agents become more autonomous and handle important work, organizations must manage their identities, permissions, and define oversight. Without a centralized system, organizations will face fragmented operations, ineffective governance, greater security risks, and difficulty realizing the true value of their AI investments.
"Our partnership with Workday is a breakthrough in delivering the trust organizations need to adopt AI," said Charles Lamanna, president, business and industry Copilot, Microsoft. "By seamlessly registering agents built with Copilot Studio and Azure AI Foundry into Workday's Agent System of Record, we're giving customers full visibility into their AI ecosystem. This integration equips leaders with actionable analytics to measure ROI, enforce governance, and ensure their AI agents are secure and delivering real value."
Empowering the Intelligent Enterprise
This latest innovation between Workday and Microsoft will create a seamless and secure experience for building and managing AI agents across the enterprise, allowing customers to:
- Seamlessly Build and Register Agents Across an Open Ecosystem: Organizations that build AI agents using Microsoft Azure AI Foundry and Copilot Studio can then easily register and manage them within Workday ASOR. For example, a developer that builds an agent in Copilot Studio to streamline employee onboarding will be able to easily register it in Workday, so that it can be made available to the enterprise.
- Get Actionable Insights and Measure ROI: Business leaders can use the agent analytics within Workday ASOR to understand how AI agents are being used and the value they bring. These dashboards show how people and AI agents work together, helping companies measure their total value and return on investment. A leader can easily see which agents their team is using and then get detailed reports on agent usage, time saved, and improved productivity.
- Enhance Human-Agent Collaboration: The new integration between Workday and Microsoft's agent systems will allow seamless interoperability between different AI agents. For example, an employee could ask a Microsoft Employee Self-Service Agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot to update career goals or submit a peer review. The request would be handed off to the Workday agent inline, allowing the employee to complete the workflow in Workday agent without leaving Microsoft Employee Self-Service Agent. This will help deliver a unified, secure, and context-preserving experience in the flow of work.
- Gain Robust Governance and Security: Because AI agents built with Microsoft Copilot Studio and Azure AI Foundry are given Entra identities, all agents remain secure and under control. For example, Workday administrators will be able to easily check for agents with extra access or unusual activity to help ensure work stays compliant and secure.
For More Information
- Register to attend Workday Rising sessions in the digital program:
- The Workday Platform: Transforming Work with Agentic AI [25-KEY2], Sept. 16 at 8:45am PT.
- Accelerating CIO Transformation with an AI-First Open Platform for Work [25-KEY6], Sept. 16 at 11:00am PT.
- Workday Everywhere in Agent Platforms and Collaboration Tools [25-ITLP1295], Sept. 18 at 11:00am PT.
About Workday
Workday is the enterprise AI platform for managing people, money, and agents. Workday unifies HR and Finance on one intelligent platform with AI at the core to empower people at every level with the clarity, confidence, and insights they need to adapt quickly, make better decisions, and deliver outcomes that matter. Workday is used by more than 11,000 organizations around the world and across industries – from medium-sized businesses to more than
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements including, among other things, statements regarding Workday's plans, beliefs, and expectations. These forward-looking statements are based only on currently available information and our current beliefs, expectations, and assumptions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control. If the risks materialize, assumptions prove incorrect, or we experience unexpected changes in circumstances, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements, and therefore you should not rely on any forward-looking statements. Risks include, but are not limited to, risks described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including our most recent report on Form 10-Q or Form 10-K and other reports that we have filed and will file with the SEC from time to time, which could cause actual results to vary from expectations. Workday assumes no obligation to, and does not currently intend to, update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release, except as required by law.
Any unreleased services, features, or functions referenced in this document, our website, or other press releases or public statements that are not currently available are subject to change at Workday's discretion and may not be delivered as planned or at all. Customers who purchase Workday services should make their purchase decisions based upon services, features, and functions that are currently available.
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