Workday Launches Work Intelligence to Help Companies Prepare Jobs for AI

Workday has introduced Work Intelligence, a tool that helps companies identify which tasks within a job can be automated using artificial intelligence (AI), which require human involvement, and what skills employees need as roles change.

Announced at Workday Rising 2026 in Las Vegas on October 13, Work Intelligence breaks jobs into individual tasks and maps them to the skills required to perform them. It helps companies understand how AI is changing work, identify employees with relevant skills, and plan training and recruitment.

The tool draws on Workday Skills Cloud, which is used by more than 3,450 customers and is built on an ontology of over 75,000 skills.

“The basic building block of work is shifting from the job to the task,” said Nikki Helmer, Vice President of Talent Management and Insights at Workday.

“Without that view, most companies are left guessing whether to hire, build skills, automate, or redesign roles, with no way to know which guess is right,” Helmer said.

Work Intelligence is now available to early access customers of Workday Human Capital Management (HCM).

Workday said traditional workforce planning, which relies on headcount, job titles and reporting structures, does not show how AI affects the tasks employees perform. The new tool provides a task-level view to help companies decide where AI can support work and where employees need to develop new skills.

According to Workday, AI does not necessarily change an entire job at once. Instead, it affects individual tasks, changing the skills employees need to perform their roles.

The company cited its 2026 Workday Global Workforce Report, which found that 76% of heavy AI users expect AI to create new career opportunities.

Work Intelligence is intended to help companies identify these opportunities by showing which employees already have relevant skills and where additional training may be needed.

Work Intelligence works with Workday Decision Intelligence to help companies assess whether they should develop skills internally or hire new employees.

Decision Intelligence helps leaders identify employees with related skills and compare the time and cost of training existing workers with those involved in external recruitment.

Workday said the tools do not make decisions about employees. Instead, they provide information to help leaders understand how work is changing and decide how to respond.

Companies can also use Workday Learning, powered by Sana, to create personalised learning paths based on employees’ skill requirements and career opportunities.

For example, a financial analyst whose manual reconciliation tasks are increasingly supported by AI could identify forecasting as a skill needed for career progression. Workday Learning can then recommend training to help the employee develop that skill.

Work Intelligence also helps companies track how AI affects employee responsibilities and workforce requirements.

Leaders can examine changes in tasks, how employees allocate their time, which skills are becoming more important, and whether workers are moving into new roles or taking on different responsibilities.

Workday said this information can help companies assess whether their AI investments are delivering business value, rather than relying on assumptions or one-time workforce studies.

The tool also addresses the emergence of new roles as companies adopt AI agents. These could include positions focused on coordinating work between people and AI agents, measuring AI’s impact, managing agent performance, and determining where AI should be used.