From an HR platform to the hub of enterprise automation

Workday is no longer just a human resources management tool. With more than 11,500 customers worldwide — including over 65% of Fortune 500 companies — it has become the backbone of corporate operations for HR, finance, and now IT. And with the acquisition of Swedish AI startup Sana Labs for $1.1 billion in September 2025, Workday made a clear statement: agent-based AI will not be just an add-on but a foundational layer of enterprise software.

The Sana platform launched for all customers in March 2026 and consists of three products: Sana for Workday (a conversational interface replacing traditional menus), Sana Self-Service Agent (over 300 pre-built skills for HR and finance), and Sana Enterprise (connectivity with external tools like Gmail, Slack, Salesforce, Jira, and more). Yesterday's announcement adds a fourth and fifth pillar.

Sana for ITSM: When IT support isn't built on tickets

The key new offering is Sana for IT Service Management — an agent that automates IT support for employees across the entire lifecycle: from onboarding through role changes to offboarding. In practice, this means:

• Common requests such as password resets, software installations, or access permission changes are handled conversationally right in the Workday interface.
• New hire onboarding automatically triggers access provisioning across identity, security, and collaboration tools.
• More complex requests are routed to the right team along with full context — who is requesting, what permissions they have, who approves.

Joel Hellermark, Chief AI Officer at Workday, summed it up clearly at the summit: „IT teams don't wake up wanting to close more tickets. They want fewer tickets and cleaner operations.“ According to Gartner, by 2028 33% of organizations will use agent-based AI in ITSM. Workday isn't waiting for this prediction — it's offering the solution today.

Travel Agent: The end of manual travel expense reporting

The second new offering targets the painful reality of corporate travel. Workday processes over 5 million expense reports monthly. But flight and hotel bookings have historically taken place in separate systems, meaning double work for employees and delayed visibility for finance departments.

Travel Agent brings both parts together into a single conversational experience:

• The employee plans a trip, checks the budget, books a flight and hotel — all in compliance with company policy.
• Once the trip is approved, expenses are automatically generated in Workday Expenses.
• The finance team gets real-time visibility — not weeks later when the employee submits their travel report.

Max Wessel, SVP of Product at Workday, aptly commented: „The best expense report is the one you never have to file.“

Why it works: Context, policies, data

What sets Workday apart from generic AI assistants is deep integration with enterprise data. Both Sana for ITSM and Travel Agent run directly on the Workday platform, which means:

• They already know the organizational structure, approval chains, and company policies.
• They inherit the existing security model, access rights, and audit trail.
• Every agent action goes through the same compliance checks as any standard transaction in HR or finance.

This is a fundamental difference compared to general-purpose tools like Microsoft Copilot or freely available ChatGPT. While those can answer a question, they cannot directly make a change in a payroll system or approve access rights — because they don't run inside the system that holds the data, policies, and permissions.

Consulting firm McKinsey defines four prerequisites for successful deployment of agent-based AI in ITSM: an accurate CMDB (configuration management database), APIs with built-in policy controls, a governance model defining what the agent can and cannot do, and active monitoring of inference costs. For existing Workday customers, three of these four conditions are automatically met.

Real-world results: 90% adoption in 40 days

Early deployments show these aren't just marketing claims. Consumer goods company Berner achieved 90% adoption of the Sana platform within 40 days while also canceling 400 ChatGPT licenses. Employees had been using general AI tools as a workaround for gaps in HR systems. Sana brought that activity back under corporate governance with full compliance controls.

Telecom company Telavox, which tested the platform early on, saw an impact that went beyond individual tasks — teams began redesigning entire processes around what the agent could handle and what required human approval.

The competition isn't sleeping: SAP Joule and ServiceNow

Workday isn't alone in the agent-based automation space. SAP offers the Joule assistant with five specialized agents for SuccessFactors (more coming throughout May 2026). ServiceNow recently completed its acquisition of the Moveworks platform, a direct competitor to Sana, and continues to expand its Now Assist platform.

For IT buyers, this raises a key question in the second half of 2026: deploy a specialized ITSM solution from ServiceNow, or leverage a platform that already knows every employee, their role, access rights, and approval chains? Workday has decided to compete on both fronts.

What does this mean for Czech companies?

Workday is known on the Czech market primarily among larger corporations and multinational companies operating in the Czech Republic. The Sana platform supports Czech within its conversational interface, which is crucial for local teams. Pricing is based on so-called Flex Credits — a credit system that customers use to purchase individual modules and agents. The agents themselves (Self-Service Agent, Sana for ITSM, Travel Agent) do not require additional licensing fees beyond the existing Workday HCM or Financial Management subscription.

For Czech HR and IT directors, the message is clear: if your company already runs on Workday, the transition to agent-based automation is more of an evolutionary than a revolutionary step. The agents use data already in the system and operate according to policies already in place.

Availability

Sana for ITSM will be available to initial customers in the second half of 2026, with general availability planned by the end of the year. Travel Agent is already available for early adopter customers and is also heading toward broad launch by the end of 2026.