Workday Rising: Driving Business Forward Faster

At Workday Rising 2025, one of the definitive AI conferences of the year, the theme is "Illuminate your work day." It's all about empowering and enabling customers to move their businesses forward faster, firmly placing them as the heroes in this era of human-AI collaboration.

At the event's Innovation Keynote, Workday leaders shared the company's bold vision for the future of work, and how it's driving business success and transformation. The announcements included Workday Build, an open platform for customers and partners to innovate, and Workday Data Cloud and Flex Credits, which help customers get started without new contracts.

On Tuesday, Workday also announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Sana, a leading AI company building the next generation of enterprise knowledge tools. Sana will power a new Workday experience-where knowledge, data, action, and learning come together as one and create the new front door for work.

Watch the video to learn more. The edited transcript is below:

Amir Khostavan: From the broadcast studio in San Francisco's Moscone Center. Ladies and gentlemen, it is the Workday Rising Daily. My name is Amir Khostavan.

Cari Gushiken: And I'm Cari Gushiken. It's been an incredible jam-packed day here at the Moscone Center. So let's dive right in. Today on the Rising Daily, we'll recap the amazing innovations, announcements, and breakout sessions.

Khostavan: We'll review the buzz on social media.

Gushiken: We'll chase Nathan around the Moscone and find out how old Workday really is.

Khostavan: And we'll get a sneak peek of what's coming up tomorrow.

Gushiken: Of course, the highlight of today was the Innovation Keynote, where Carl and Gerrit laid out a bold vision for what's next.

Khostavan: Including Workday Build, an open platform for customers and partners to innovate.

Gushiken: Workday Data Cloud and Flex Credits, which help customers get started without new contracts.

Khostavan: Yeah, AI was in the spotlight with Workday Illuminate designed specifically to deliver real value to every organization.

Gushiken: And we learned about the acquisition of Sana. This acquisition will power a new Workday experience where knowledge, data, action, and learning come together as one and create the new front door for work.

Aneel Bhusri: From the beginning, as you know, we've strived to put Workday at the center of how people work, and that has always started with how people engage with the system. And what you've seen today builds on that in new and powerful ways, but we're not stopping there.

Imagine that every employee had an AI-driven intelligent assistant, a personal guide to the world's knowledge and all the company data out there. That sounds pretty cool.

Gerrit Kazmaier: It's awesome.

Bhusri: An assistant that just doesn't find information, but it can reason, it can anticipate, and it can act. This is the future, what we've been building for and imagining for years. And I'm thrilled to tell you the future is here. Workday has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Sana.

Sana is a leading enterprise AI platform that combines enterprise search, no code agent builder, and workflows, and their technology will enable a new native AI experience at the front end. The work that user experience is gonna change pretty dramatically. Very, very exciting. Where enterprises can gain knowledge, data, action, and learning.and it all comes together in one place. It's really gonna be transformational in the way all of you interact with Workday.

And it's not just a better UI, it's a better holistic experience. It's gonna turn Workday into a system of daily engagement and a new homepage for work. Pretty exciting.

Kazmaier: A new Workday.

Bhusri: A new Workday, yeah. That's a good company name, it turned out. So making Workday the central hub for knowledge discovery, task automation, getting work done across the enterprise, it's really a transformational moment for us.

Amir Khostavan: Cari, from bold ideas to bold moves, Workday, it looks like they're really setting the tone for tomorrow.

Cari Gushiken: The conversation got even more focused after the Innovation Keynote in our role-based keynote sessions, which connected Workday's vision to the specific needs of HR, finance, and IT leaders.

Khostavan: In the CHRO keynote, the big idea was the evolution from a chief human resources officer to a chief work officer. This is the future of HR, leading a new era of human AI collaboration using technology to unlock human potential and design more intelligent impact in work.

Gushiken: In the CFO-focused keynote, human-machine collaboration was framed as an imperative to transform accounting, procurement, and FP&A using AI to sharpen the competitive edge.

Khostavan: And for technology leaders, the CIO keynote laid out the architecture of the future of work. And the key takeaway? Workday is delivering an open platform for CIOs to build, manage, and govern a new blended workforce of both humans and agents.

Khostavan: Three distinct keynotes, one unified message. Workday is the innovation partner to help every leader become future ready.

Gushiken: Missed the keynote? Catch every moment in the Rising digital experience.

Khostavan: Lots of insights and answers are there, Cari.

And that does it for Workday Rising Daily. From a new open platform, to a deeper commitment to the community. Today has truly set the tone for the future.

Gushiken: But the week is far from over. Tomorrow we celebrate our customers because the theme is community. See you tomorrow for our Workday Rising Live with Rogerio and myself.

Khostavan: Yes. Take care everyone.