Workday Announces New AI Agent Partner Network and Agent Gateway to Power the Next Generation of Human and Digital Workforces
- Partnership with major tech leaders (Accenture, AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft, PwC) strengthens Workday's AI ecosystem
- New Agent Gateway enables seamless integration and management of AI agents across platforms
- Built on substantial data foundation with over 1 trillion transactions annually
- Expansion into AI agent management creates new revenue streams through Workday Marketplace
- Early market positioning in managing both human and AI workforces could provide competitive advantage
- Agent Gateway won't be available to early adopters until end of 2025, potentially allowing competitors to catch up
- Heavy dependence on partner integration success for platform effectiveness
- Potential cybersecurity and compliance risks from managing sensitive data across multiple AI agents
Insights
Workday's new AI Agent system positions them as a central hub for enterprise AI workforce management, expanding their core value proposition.
Workday's announcement represents a significant strategic expansion of its platform capabilities, establishing the company as a central orchestration layer for AI agents across the enterprise. By introducing the Agent System of Record (ASOR) and Agent Gateway, Workday is extending its traditional role in managing human resources and financials to now include the management of AI agents as part of a unified workforce.
The partnership ecosystem they've assembled is particularly notable, including major cloud providers (AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft), consulting giants (Accenture, Deloitte, KPMG, PwC), and specialized AI companies. This broad coalition suggests Workday is positioning itself as the enterprise "system of record" for AI agent management rather than trying to build all agent capabilities themselves – a shrewd platform strategy.
The timing is strategic as organizations increasingly struggle with managing proliferating AI agents across departments. Workday's approach addresses key enterprise concerns around governance, security, and integration of these digital workers. By treating AI agents similar to human employees – with formal onboarding, permission setting, performance tracking, and cross-system collaboration capabilities – Workday is creating a management framework that leverages their existing strengths in workforce management.
The introduction of Agent Gateway with shared protocols (Model Context Protocol and Agent-to-Agent Protocol) suggests Workday is working to establish technical standards for agent interoperability, which could become increasingly important as AI agents proliferate. Making these agents available through Workday Marketplace creates an immediate commercialization path and distribution channel.
This initiative leverages Workday's enterprise data advantage – "more than 1 trillion transactions a year" – providing contextual understanding that could make their AI implementations more effective than generic models. The 2025 timeline for general availability indicates this is a forward-looking initiative rather than an immediately deployable solution.
Accenture, AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft, PwC, and Others Will Connect their AI Agents to Workday's Agent System of Record, Enabling Seamless Agent Collaboration and New Levels of Productivity
New Agent Gateway Will Enable Partners to Seamlessly Connect and Integrate Agents with Workday to Streamline Workflows Across Leading Platforms
Customers Can Now Find and Deploy Powerful AI Agents from Workday and Partners on Workday Marketplace
Workday also announced Agent Gateway, which will enable customers to seamlessly connect and manage AI agents from Workday and its Agent Partner Network within the Workday Agent System of Record.
"For nearly two decades, Workday has helped organizations manage their people and their money on a unified, secure platform," said Matthew Brandt, senior vice president, global partners, Workday. "Now, as AI agents increasingly collaborate with human workforces, customers are looking to Workday to manage everything – people, money, and agents – together on one platform they can trust. That's why we're partnering with leading technology organizations to ensure they can do so seamlessly while maintaining enterprise control."
The Next Generation of Workforce Management
The workforce is undergoing a fundamental shift. It's no longer made up of people alone, but a mix of humans and AI agents working together across every function. These AI agents – tasked with everything from streamlining operations to enabling entirely new ways of working and supporting decision-making – are quickly becoming an essential part of how work gets done. This new reality is reshaping roles, workflows, and the very definition of a team. As digital workers increasingly support workforces, organizations must rethink how they hire, manage, ensure compliance, and measure their impact, just as they would for human employees.
Unlocking the Full Potential of AI Agents in the Enterprise
As AI agents become a core part of the workforce, the Workday ASOR will provide the tools to hire, onboard, assign responsibility, and manage agent outcomes the same way businesses manage people. It will help businesses set clear roles for agents, define what data they can access, control what actions they take, and track their performance – so every human and agent contributor are aligned to business goals. Whether an agent is built by Workday, a partner, or a customer, the Workday ASOR will help ensure it operates securely, efficiently, and with accountability.
By connecting their AI agents to the Workday Agent System of Record, partners including Accenture, Adobe, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Auditoria.AI, Compa, Deloitte, Glean, Google Cloud, IBM, Kainos, KPMG, Microsoft, Paradox, PwC, and WorkBoardAI will help create a more seamless, intelligent, and collaborative experience across systems. This will drive greater efficiency, agility, and impact on how work gets done. It's a critical step toward managing the workforce of the future – one that includes both humans and AI agents.
For example, when a recruiter or hiring manager needs to quickly schedule an interview, they can use the Paradox Interview Scheduling agent within the Workday ASOR. Because Paradox integrates directly to Workday Recruiting, users have access to the Scheduling agent that helps them across the entire interview process, from coordinating scheduling, sending reminders, answering candidate questions, and more.
Agent Gateway: Bringing AI Agents Together Across Systems and Partners
Workday's new Agent Gateway will make it easy for Workday partners to connect their AI agents with Workday's ASOR. Using shared protocols, including Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Agent-to-Agent Protocol (A2A), these agents can collaborate and exchange information seamlessly – whether they're built by Workday or Workday partners. This means Workday Illuminate agents can operate wherever people are working, across systems, to deliver real-time support and automation that saves time and reduces friction.
Introducing AI Agents on Workday Marketplace
Starting today, agents from Workday and its Agent Partner Network are now available on Workday Marketplace. Workday Marketplace makes it easy for customers to discover, procure, and deploy a wide range of apps and agent solutions that solve their business needs. Illuminate agents available today on Workday Marketplace include Business Process Optimize Agent, Financial Audit Agent, Payroll Agent, Recruiting Agent, and Talent Mobility Agent. Customers will be able to easily deploy and manage these agents through the Workday ASOR.
Workday Illuminate: AI to Power the Future of Work
Illuminate is the next generation of Workday AI. Built on the largest and cleanest HR and financial dataset – fueled by more than 1 trillion transactions a year – Illuminate understands the business context around the data to transform business operations by elevating humans, accelerating finance, and managing an organization's entire fleet of AI agents. From skills to performance, goals, cost and ROI metrics, organizational models, and individual identities, Illuminate has deep contextual understanding of how work gets done. This leads to measurable business impact, such as faster decision-making, better workforce planning, and improved productivity.
Support from the Workday Agent Partner Network
"AWS is powering the future of AI agent development through Amazon Bedrock's comprehensive foundation model ecosystem and enterprise-grade development framework," said Swami Sivasubramanian, Vice President of Agentic AI, AWS. "With Workday's Agent System of Record, organizations will be much better positioned to ethically manage all these agents. We're excited to collaborate with Workday to reshape the future of work through agentic AI. Together, we'll empower organizations to unlock exponential value while maintaining our shared commitment to security and responsible AI."
"Through Deloitte's strategic alliance with Workday, our AI agents will enable organizations to address their specific needs and industry processes to drive efficiency while maintaining quality," said Abdi Goodarzi,
"Digital colleagues, or AI agents, will become an increasingly common addition to the workforce, and Workday's Agent System of Record is well positioned to help organizations meet the moment of monumental change," said Steve Chase, Vice Chair of AI and Digital Innovation, KPMG LLP. "We're thrilled to collaborate with Workday to help our shared clients manage the new digital workforce with confidence just as they do full-time employees and contractors."
"The Workday Agent System of Record marks a meaningful step toward making AI not just available, but truly usable – transparent, trusted, and tightly integrated into business workflows," said Matt Wood,
Agent Gateway will be available to early adopter customers by the end of 2025.
For More Information
- Learn how Workday is putting the power of Illuminate into the hands of developers with the new AI developer toolset.
- Explore new agents from Workday and partners available today on Workday Marketplace.
About Workday
Workday is the AI platform for managing people, money, and agents. The Workday platform is built with AI at the core to help customers elevate people, supercharge work, and move their business forever forward. Workday is used by more than 11,000 organizations around the world and across industries – from medium-sized businesses to more than
© 2025 Workday, Inc. All rights reserved. Workday and the Workday logo are registered trademarks of Workday, Inc. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
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.
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/workday-announces-new-ai-agent-partner-network-and-agent-gateway-to-power-the-next-generation-of-human-and-digital-workforces-302471895.html
SOURCE Workday Inc.
FAQ
What is Workday's new AI Agent Partner Network and when will it be available?
Which major companies are partnering with Workday (WDAY) for the AI Agent Network?
What types of AI agents are available on Workday Marketplace?
How does Workday's Agent System of Record (ASOR) manage AI agents?
What is the data foundation behind Workday's Illuminate AI system?
