At Workday Elevate 2026 in New York City, leading enterprises discussed practical insights on embedding AI in daily workflows, highlighting employee education, co-creation, and the importance of explainability to drive adoption.
- Workday’s AI agent reduces HR calls by 25%, boosts productivity by 20%
- Visa credits AI education for transforming employee attitudes
- Cushman & Wakefield highlights co-creation as pivotal for AI buy-in
What happened
During the 2026 Workday Elevate event, major global companies including Pfizer, Visa, and Cushman & Wakefield shared their early successes with embedding agentic AI into enterprise workflows. Workday reported that over 400 customers have adopted its self-service AI agent, leading to a significant 25% reduction in HR call volumes and a 20% improvement in employee and manager productivity. These results demonstrate early validation of AI's practical benefits when aligned with organizational processes.
Keynotes and discussions focused on real-world experiences, with executives revealing how initial resistance among employees was addressed through education and collaborative technology deployment. This contrasted with common narratives of AI projects struggling due to cost overruns and lack of meaningful integration, signaling a maturing phase for embedded, contextual AI applications in large enterprises.
Why it matters
The event underscored how significant cultural and organizational factors determine AI adoption success beyond the technology itself. Visa’s SVP of Global People emphasized that internal education shifted AI perception from a mere tool to an empowering business accelerator. Meanwhile, Cushman & Wakefield credited co-creation with business teams for converting AI skeptics into advocates, unlocking innovation momentum.
Explainability and trust were reaffirmed as foundational requirements for deploying AI in sensitive domains such as HR, where privacy and governance cannot be compromised. Workday’s vast data ecosystem—supporting 80 million users and over a trillion transactions—positions its AI platform uniquely in delivering lawful, agentic AI solutions that comply with enterprise policies and security frameworks.
What to watch next
As organizations continue to operationalize AI, monitoring how these early wins scale across industries will be key. Attention will focus on expanding explainability features and maintaining robust governance frameworks to prevent the risk of 'lawless' AI behavior that bypasses secure business processes, a concern highlighted by Workday’s CEO Aneel Bhusri.
Further insights are expected from Workday’s upcoming podcast series and customer case studies detailing long-term impacts on workforce productivity and business outcomes. Enterprises will likely invest more in employee-centric AI education and participatory development to drive acceptance and harness AI as a transformative enterprise capability.