U.S. Enterprises Turn Workday Into Finance-and-Workforce Hub as AI Goes Into Production

AI And New Use Cases Are Reshaping U.S. Workday Deployments

U.S. enterprises are taking Workday beyond its roots in human resources and turning it into a unified platform for finance, operations and workforce agility, according to new ISG research released October 10, 2025.

For HR leaders, this shift means tighter alignment with Finance, new AI-driven workflows in talent, and a faster path from workforce data to business decisions.

What This Means For HR

• Workday is increasingly used as a single platform to manage people and money. Expect closer collaboration with Finance as Workday Financial Management replaces legacy tools and brings real-time insight to planning and analysis.
• AI is moving from pilots into day-to-day operations. Organizations are automating workflows, speeding up talent acquisition, and improving forecasts with machine learning.
• Agentic AI is gaining traction. Teams are deploying agents to run multistep tasks-candidate sourcing, interview scheduling, and other high-volume admin-freeing recruiters and HRBPs to focus on higher-impact work.
• Skills-based talent strategies are advancing. Workday Skills Cloud supports skills mapping, demand prediction, and internal marketplaces that improve mobility and retention.
• Employee experience is becoming more personalized through Workday's consumer-grade engagement features.

Key Capabilities Gaining Traction

• Workday Financial Management: Replacing legacy finance systems to deliver real-time visibility and better planning. This tightens headcount-to-budget decisions and strengthens HR-Finance partnership.
• AI and ML in production: Automated workflows, smarter candidate matching, and operational forecasts reduce cycle times and improve consistency.
• Workday Extend and Marketplace: More open and extensible options let teams build custom apps and plug in specialized services, supported by a broader range of service providers.

Actions HR Leaders Can Take This Quarter

• Audit data readiness: Clean, structured data is essential for reliable AI. Confirm data ownership, standards, and governance across people, skills, and finance datasets.
• Prioritize 2-3 agentic AI use cases: Start with high-volume pain points (sourcing, interview scheduling, requisition routing). Define success metrics, guardrails, and review cycles.
• Align with Finance: Pilot Workday Financials reports that connect headcount, vacancy, overtime, and spend. Use shared dashboards for monthly talent and budget reviews.
• Build your skills backbone: Standardize skills taxonomies, activate Workday Skills Cloud, and launch or refine an internal talent marketplace.
• Select the right partner: Match your needs (transformation, deployment, optimization, or innovation) with providers recognized in ISG's Workday quadrants.

Ecosystem Highlights From The ISG Report

ISG evaluated 30 providers across four quadrants: Transformation Services; Deployment and Integration Services; Performance and Optimization Services; and Innovation on Workday.

• Leaders in all four quadrants: Accenture, Cognizant, Deloitte, Huron, Invisors, KPMG, PwC, Strada, TopBloc.
• Leader in three quadrants: IBM.
• Leaders in two quadrants: Hexaware, Kainos.
• Leader in one quadrant: Mercer.
• Rising Stars: Kainos (two quadrants), CrossVue (one), DXC Technology (one).
• ISG CX Star Performer 2025: Invisor earned the highest customer satisfaction scores in ISG's Voice of the Customer survey.

Why This Matters Now

• Faster decisions: Consolidated people and finance data improves scenario planning, workforce shaping, and speed-to-hire.
• Skills intelligence: A consistent skills model clarifies gaps, informs upskilling, and boosts internal mobility.
• Lean operations: Automating repetitive tasks reduces administrative load and improves experience for candidates, employees, and managers.

Where The Market Is Headed

• Data and AI governance: Expect stronger controls for privacy, bias monitoring, and audit trails as AI scales across Workday modules.
• Composable extensions: More organizations will build targeted apps with Workday Extend and tap Marketplace partners to address niche needs without heavy custom work.
• Provider differentiation: Global SIs, boutiques, and software-focused firms are specializing by vertical, use case, and innovation pace. Choose for fit, not just brand.

For deeper context on provider performance and selection criteria, see the ISG Provider Lens series.

Upskill Your HR Team For AI-Enabled Workflows

If you're building skills-based talent practices or planning Workday AI use cases, explore curated AI learning paths by job role: Complete AI Training: Courses by Job.