Thoughts on Workday With Illuminate

Workday Expands AI Across HR and Finance Platforms with ‘Illuminate’

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Workday is significantly enhancing its AI capabilities within its HR and finance platforms through a new set of updates called Illuminate. These updates aim to improve automation and increase productivity by embedding AI more broadly across various HR processes. From routine tasks like content generation to complex problem-solving, Workday’s AI now identifies inefficiencies in HR workflows and offers recommendations for improvement. Thoughts on Workday With Illuminate follow.

A key feature of Illuminate is a series of AI agents designed to assist in areas such as succession planning. These agents can suggest internal candidates that HR teams might overlook, helping organizations identify potential leaders within their workforce.

During a press briefing ahead of the Workday Rising conference, TechTarget asked if the AI agent used in succession planning could fully capture the intricacies of the employee experience and assess leadership potential. David Somers, Chief Product Officer at Workday, acknowledged the sensitivity of succession planning but emphasized that AI is used to augment—not replace—human decision-making. The agents provide recommendations, while the final hiring decisions still involve talent acquisition professionals and interview panels.

Workday’s updates include tools for a wide range of tasks, from content summarization to more advanced capabilities such as detecting bottlenecks in onboarding processes and suggesting optimizations.

“These AI agents will streamline common business workflows, boosting productivity and freeing up users to focus on strategic, meaningful work,” Somers explained.

While AI has long been part of Workday’s offerings, generative AI is now driving rapid transformation in HR practices. Workday’s Illuminate platform combines data with contextual insights, offering features like compensation data tailored to a company’s specific information.

Users can access these AI capabilities through Workday Assistant, a generative AI chatbot that integrates with Microsoft Teams and Slack. This tool will be generally available early next year, making it easier for teams to interact with Workday’s AI-powered systems.

HR industry expert Josh Bersin sees Workday’s Illuminate as part of a broader trend of AI agents in the HR space, similar to SAP’s Joule. He believes Workday’s new AI agents will be a major focus for the company, though building out all the necessary Workday transactions into these tools will take time.

Bersin does not foresee trust issues among Workday users regarding Illuminate, noting that the platform isn’t open to non-Workday data, which limits concerns around data security. Bersin’s own AI assistant, Galileo, is also expected to integrate with Workday’s platform in the future, further enhancing its capabilities.

rativAccording to recent Gartner surveys from March and June, the majority of HR leaders are adopting AI in their organizations. Only 15% of respondents indicated they had no plans to incorporate generative AI into their HR processes, signaling widespread acceptance of AI tools like those Workday is rolling out with Illuminate.