Workday unveils new AI tools and agents for developers – here's how to access

Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly central to the app-building process. At the same time, developers are awash in a rising wave of new AI tools, including agents. Now, Workday wants to help keep their heads above water.

The company unveiled a suite of new AI features at its annual developer conference, Workday DevCon 2025, which kicked off on Monday. The announcements centered on a new developer toolset designed to help customers manage their ever-growing roster of AI tools within Workday.

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The developer toolset

The toolset includes “Agent Gateway,” a feature that allows developers to integrate third-party AI agents into Workday’s new Agent System of Record (ASOR). Think of it as a platform for assigning tasks to and overseeing the collaboration between a team of virtual employees. 

Customers can also now list and sell their custom agents on Workday Marketplace, the company’s online app store.

Workday has also announced that developers can now add AI-powered widgets to their apps, making it easier for their users to access automated assistance. (A chatbot widget, for example, might be added to field customer service queries.)

The third and final feature included in the developer toolset is an expansion of Workday’s APIs. Customers are now able to integrate new Workday AI features directly into their apps. As a result, their users can ask finance- or HR-related questions through the apps, in natural language, and receive AI-generated responses.

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The new toolset is intended to make Workday a kind of one-stop shop for the oversight of developers’ agents and other AI tools.

“Today, developers are under immense pressure to rapidly deliver sophisticated AI apps while navigating a complex and fragmented AI landscape,” Matthew Grippo, Workday’s SVP of core software, said in a statement. “Workday’s new AI developer toolset removes these barriers by empowering developers to seamlessly integrate powerful AI capabilities into the apps and agents that will define the future of work.”

New AI assistant for developers

Workday also introduced its Developer Copilot, an AI assistant designed to simplify and streamline the app-building process. The tool can increase developer productivity by as much as 50%, according to the company. 

Developers can, for example, ask the chatbot in natural language to generate bits of code that can then be inserted into apps. They can also ask for recommendations for particular APIs. 

Workday’s new focus

According to the press release, Workday’s announcements today mark the company’s latest effort to reposition itself from a financial and HR management software company to “the AI platform for managing people, money, and agents. “

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The new AI features are built on top of Workday Illuminate, the company’s AI platform introduced in September. According to the company, Illuminate is fed more than one trillion HR and financial transactions each year, providing it with a “deep contextual understanding of how work gets done.”

All of the new features will be generally available by the end of this year, according to the company, with the exception of Agent Gateway, which will initially only be available for a cohort of select customers.

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