Workday turns its Sana agent into the first screen every user sees

Workday says the old default made users search for what they needed. "For too long, enterprise software forced you to do the work, searching for apps, data, and processes," CEO Aneel Bhusri said during the keynote ^[3]. His replacement is a prompt: "Instead of hunting through menus, instead of looking for the work you need to get done, you simply ask, like it's a simple AI prompt," he said ^[4]. The user states the outcome and Sana chooses the agents that carry it out ^[2].

Workday also launched Autopilot Agents, which work continuously in the background across hiring, payroll, accounting, and compliance ^[5]. The agents that need no prompt matter more to HR and finance than the ones that wait for one. In our view those are the functions where a wrong action lands on an employee's pay or a regulatory filing. This quarter's decision is who reviews what those agents do. Next quarter, we'd expect the exceptions they flag to arrive as work for the same teams.

Work Intelligence breaks every job role into tasks and ties each task to the skills it requires ^[6]. Business leaders then see what AI can automate, what it should augment, and what has to stay human ^[6]. Bhusri was direct about the direction. "Jobs are going to change; there's no question about it," he said ^[7]. A home screen that routes work to agents and a tool that sorts roles into automate, augment and human came from the same keynote, so the staffing conversation arrives with the interface.

"The question is not whether we should embrace AI or fear it. The question is how do we harness its power and make it safe, reliable, and trusted?" said Gerrit Kazmaier, president of product and technology at Workday ^[8]. Sana is already the default. ITPro's report does not include a rollout schedule, pricing, or whether the menu navigation stays available beside Sana.