Workday Rising 2026 arrives at a turning point. Workday says its Las Vegas event, scheduled for October 12–15, will put agentic HR and agentic finance at the center of the conversation. With more than 400 sessions, product roadmaps, customer examples and hands-on labs, the difficult part will not be finding AI content. It will be separating useful operating decisions from impressive demonstrations.
For CHROs, CFOs, CIOs, Workday leaders and transformation teams, the most valuable Rising conversations should therefore begin with questions—not product names. The following discussion guide is designed to help leaders test whether an idea can improve a real workflow, remain governed at scale and create measurable value after the conference.
Why agentic HR and finance will dominate Workday Rising 2026
Enterprise AI is moving from assistants that answer questions to agents that can plan and complete multi-step work. In HR, that could mean coordinating recruiting activities, answering policy questions, recommending learning or helping managers resolve workforce issues. In finance, it could mean monitoring exceptions, supporting close activities, reviewing expenses or accelerating supplier processes.
The change is important because an agent does more than generate content. It may interpret context, use enterprise data, initiate actions and involve other systems. That creates a larger potential benefit—and a larger need for process ownership, access controls, audit trails and human judgment.
Workday is framing Rising around “real rollouts, real results and real ROI.” Leaders should use that standard throughout the event: What is live? What is repeatable? What is controlled? What outcome improved?
The 10 questions leaders should take to Workday Rising
1. Which agentic workflows are production-ready today?
Ask speakers and vendors to distinguish generally available capabilities from pilots, roadmaps and conceptual demonstrations. Request a specific workflow, deployment time, volume, exception rate and owner. A compelling demo is useful; a production reference with operating data is far more valuable.
2. Where should an AI agent act, recommend or stop?
Not every step deserves the same autonomy. A low-risk information lookup may run automatically. A compensation change, payroll adjustment, termination step or financial posting may require review. Discuss a clear autonomy ladder: inform, recommend, prepare, execute with approval, or execute within a defined policy.
3. Who owns an agent after go-live?
Ownership becomes complicated when an agent crosses HR, finance, IT and third-party systems. Identify the business-process owner, technical owner, risk approver and support team. Then ask how changes are tested, access is reviewed, incidents are handled and performance is monitored.
4. How will Sana change the employee and manager experience?
A unified conversational front door can reduce searching and system navigation, but only if the answers are trustworthy and actions are understandable. Ask how Sana handles permissions, source citations, multilingual workforces, incomplete data and handoffs to a person. The goal is not another interface; it is less friction in moments that matter.
5. Is the data foundation ready for agentic work?
Agents amplify the quality of the data and process rules available to them. Discuss security domains, business-process configuration, job architecture, skills data, finance master data, integration reliability and retention rules. If inputs are fragmented or ambiguous, automation can make inconsistency travel faster.
6. How will value be measured beyond time saved?
Hours saved can be a starting metric, but it rarely tells the complete story. HR leaders can measure candidate conversion, manager self-service, case resolution, onboarding speed or internal mobility. Finance leaders can measure close-cycle time, exception resolution, forecast accuracy, policy compliance or working-capital outcomes. Agree on a baseline before the rollout.
7. What skills will the Workday team need next?
Agentic systems do not eliminate the need for Workday expertise; they shift it. Teams need stronger process design, data literacy, security, integration, testing, prompt and instruction design, AI-risk judgment and adoption skills. Functional specialists become especially valuable when they can translate policy into testable rules and recognize exceptions that automation should not decide alone.
8. How are payroll and finance exceptions controlled?
High-volume processes contain rare but costly edge cases. Ask how the system identifies uncertainty, routes an exception, preserves evidence and prevents duplicate actions. For regulated or financially material work, leaders should be able to reconstruct what the agent saw, what it did and who approved the result.
9. When should we use a Workday capability, a partner agent or a custom build?
The answer should depend on differentiation and control—not novelty. Standard Workday capabilities may offer tighter context and simpler governance. Partner solutions can add industry depth. Custom agents may fit unique processes but increase lifecycle responsibility. Compare data movement, supportability, upgrade impact, observability, total cost and exit options.
10. What will we do in the first 90 days after Rising?
A conference creates momentum only when it changes a decision. Before leaving Las Vegas, choose one bounded workflow, one executive sponsor, one process owner, a baseline metric and a small cross-functional team. Define the human checkpoints and risk controls before the first build.
A conversation framework for every session
Use five lenses to make notes comparable across sessions:
This framework turns a list of interesting sessions into a portfolio of comparable opportunities.
How HR, finance and IT leaders can divide the agenda
CHRO and HR teams should prioritize recruiting, talent, skills, employee service, manager experience and workforce planning. CFO and finance teams should focus on close, planning, spend, expenses, supplier operations and financial controls. CIO, security and data teams should investigate architecture, identity, integration, monitoring, governance and the Agent System of Record.
The highest-value debrief happens when these groups compare notes. A use case that looks attractive in one function may depend on another team’s data, controls or capacity.
What not to do after Workday Rising
A practical 90-day action plan
Organizations that need a common baseline across HR, finance and IT can use a role-based enablement program before the pilot. ZaranTech’s Workday corporate training can be tailored around HCM, Financials, integrations, reporting and responsible AI adoption rather than a generic curriculum.
Frequently asked questions
When and where is Workday Rising 2026?
Workday Rising US is scheduled for October 12–15, 2026, in Las Vegas, with online participation also promoted by Workday. Workday Rising EMEA is scheduled for November 17–19, 2026, in Barcelona.
What is agentic HR?
Agentic HR uses AI agents to coordinate or complete multi-step HR work—such as employee support, recruiting or talent activities—within defined permissions, policies and human-review rules.
What is agentic finance?
Agentic finance applies AI agents to finance workflows such as exception handling, planning, close support, expenses or supplier operations. Strong controls, auditability and human accountability remain essential.
Will Workday AI reduce the need for Workday professionals?
Routine navigation, research and preparation may decrease, while demand grows for professionals who can redesign processes, configure security, connect systems, govern agents, validate outcomes and lead adoption. Read our detailed analysis of Workday and AI jobs and skills in 2026 .
How should a company prepare for Workday Rising?
Write down three business problems, their current metrics and the stakeholders who own them. Attend sessions that help validate those problems, then use the same workflow, control and value questions with every presenter.
Sources and further reading
Event details can change. Confirm the current agenda and attendance information on Workday’s official event pages.