News Summary

  • Google Cloud and Workday announced on Thursday an expanded strategic partnership, integrating Workday's Sana self-service agent into Gemini Enterprise, enabling agents from both companies and third parties to find information and complete HR and finance tasks on a unified platform.
  • After integration, employees can check leave balances, view pay slips, verify tax information, consult expense and travel policies, or learn about corporate spending guidelines; managers can use agent tools to review team goals, approve timesheets, and initiate performance reviews.
  • Karthik Narain, Chief Product and Business Officer at Google Cloud, said in a statement that the collaboration at the model and platform layers will help teams automate the most common workflows in HR and finance departments, "Employees can get faster, more accurate answers, simplify repetitive tasks, and ultimately focus on the most important work."

Deep Insight

This expanded partnership comes as AI vendors strive to integrate more tools into enterprise workflows, break down data silos, and save time on repetitive tasks.

ERP companies and the broader software market are facing the so-called "SaaSpocalypse," as customers shift to AI and SaaS companies see fewer license sales. Workday has already been impacted, with its market value evaporating over 40% in a year, and it replaced its CEO in February while cutting 2% of its workforce.

"We are entering one of the most critical moments in the company's history. AI's transformation is more profound than SaaS—it will define the next generation of market leaders," said Aneel Bhusri, Workday co-founder and current CEO, in a February 9 announcement.

Under the expanded partnership, Workday and Google Cloud aim to make agent work seamlessly integrated into their respective platforms to retain customers.

The companies said platform users can now ask questions in Gemini Enterprise and get answers directly from Workday. Meanwhile, Gemini has become the default AI model within Sana for Workday, providing customers with a more consistent cross-platform experience. The partnership allows enterprises to perform HR and finance operations within Workday's data security environment.

"Our customers want HR and finance at their fingertips, not scattered across a dozen applications," said Gerrit Kazmaier, President of Product and Technology at Workday, in a statement.

Workday's Sana agent is now available on the Google Cloud Marketplace, and Workday plans to release more agents later this year.

The two companies also recently launched the Ignite financial month-end close assistant for KPMG, an AI assistant designed to transform the month-end closing process for legal entity finance staff and accounting analysts. Additionally, as the partnership deepens, they are working with global system integrators Accenture and Deloitte to handle governance, technology, and business processes.