Aug 27, 2026 earnings call — AI agents and Sana platform expansion
Workday reported Q2 subscription revenue of $2.407 billion and said AI SKUs reached nearly $600 million in ARR.
Revenue $2.6B (est $2.6B) · EPS $2.75 (est $2.61) · Next-quarter revenue outlook $9.9B–$9.9B
Key quotes
"AI products alone drove more than 100 million of new ACV, which accounted for more than 25% of all new ACV closed in the quarter."
"Sana Enterprise is our AI workbench for HR, finance, and IT to build, orchestrate, and run AI across the entire enterprise."
"Our focus now shifts to driving adoption through flex credits. We have already signed 200 customers this quarter, and we expect to significantly grow that number in the second half as we add more GA agents and expands our platform and data cloud capabilities."
Analyst Q&A 7
AI monetization and pricing risk
Q (Gabriela Borges · Goldman Sachs): Analyst asked how Workday plans to charge for its headless AI agents and whether new AI features will pressure pricing for core products.
A: Management said they can monetize AI use across multiple paths—agent/API usage or Data Cloud—and that AI expands their market rather than taking away opportunities. They do not see compression on core products and say AI is helping win new platform deals. Some answers emphasized that competitors lack a single data model, so Workday is ahead on AI outcomes.
"So we feel like we are pretty covered in all ways that AI gets used, and it does not take away any opportunities." — Aneel Bhusri (CEO)
Model choices and open models
Q (Michael Turrin · Wells Fargo): Analyst asked where Workday stands on open weight models, frontier models, and if recent industry shifts change their focus; also asked about private equity headlines.
A: Management said they will do what is best for customers on model choice and work with many model types for performance and cost. They are model-agnostic now, deploy a mix of small, open weight, and large frontier models, and are excited about open weight models for optionality and international needs. They also started an internal research lab to specialize models for HR and finance.
"As of today already, we deploy a large set of models for multiple vendors." — Gerrit Kazmaier (PRESIDENT)
Does AI replace other sales efforts?
Q (Kirk Materne · Evercore): Analyst asked whether AI focus is crowding out sales of other Workday products or is substitutive rather than incremental.
A: Management said AI is not crowding out other products; agents iterate faster and drive adoption that broadens conversations with customers. They emphasized adoption is the priority, noted many customers sign UMSAs to access AI, and said consumption-based pricing delays revenue recognition. They cited thousands of customers already using agents and fewer signed for flex credits, explaining the revenue lag.
"I would add there is a lot of excitement around AI, but our focus has really been about getting adoption." — Robert Enslin (PRESIDENT)
When will Workday be an AI platform?
Q (John DiFucci · Guggenheim): Analyst asked how long it will take Workday to become an AI platform and when they will feel they have “arrived.”
A: Management said they are building hard, deep agents (self-service, financial audit) that are difficult to replicate and that arrival is happening now and will improve over years. They pointed to milestones like making Sana the default home for Workday and large agent rollouts as signals that Workday is transforming the work experience and moving into the AI era.
"You heard in the prepared remarks that Sana is going to be the default home for Workday coming rising this year." — Gerrit Kazmaier (PRESIDENT)
How agents monetize and impact spend
Q (Alex Zukin · Wolfe): Analyst asked how agents are monetized (flex credits, upgrades) and what agent use could mean for customer spend and net expansion; timing for revenue impact.
A: Management said agent workloads can be substantial and they model agent spend against existing labor spend, not traditional software spend. Their near-term focus is adoption—using programs and promotions to drive usage—so quantifying sales dollars now is hard, but they see large monetization potential as usage rises. They also noted AI ARR growth this quarter and that AI will be a bigger part of incremental ARR from FY 2028 onward.
Margin guidance and cost focus
Q (Karl Keirstead · UBS): Analyst asked about the drivers behind the preliminary 200 bps margin expansion forecast and whether investment priorities changed.
A: Management said they intentionally invested heavily in AI this year but are now prioritizing and using scale to run expenses thoughtfully. They are leveraging AI internally and aim to do more with flat head count, focusing on what to do and what not to spend on, which supports margin improvement.
"it is really been about the team focusing on what matters and rethinking what we are doing and, as importantly, what we are not doing." — Zane C. Rowe (CFO)
Acquired AI products and integration
Q (JPMorgan): Analyst asked how acquired AI companies and agents are integrated into product road map, monetized, and how they will affect FY 2028 outlook.
A: Management said acquisitions are deeply integrated right away and bundled into Workday agents rather than kept separate. They cited HiredScore, Paradox, and Sana as integrated into talent and learning agents, said these widen agent skills, and pointed to AI product ACV and ARR growth as evidence that integrated AI solutions are driving wins.
"they are basically agentic skills as we evolve our AI systems." — Gerrit Kazmaier (PRESIDENT)