Name: Operationalizing Your Total Workforce Strategy: Leveraging AI for Impact
Uploaded: 2025-08-07T18:31:22.137Z
Duration: 59 min 3 s
Description: Operationalizing Your Total Workforce Strategy: Leveraging AI for Impact

Transcript for "Operationalizing Your Total Workforce Strategy: Leveraging AI for Impact": to start, we will be recording this session. So if you need to step away for any reason or want to watch this back, you will be able to do that. I'd also like to draw your attention to the q and a tab on the right of your screen. We welcome your questions. So as we get into the discussion today and as questions pop up, do feel free to drop those, in there. And if we don't get your question live, we will aim to follow-up with you directly. And finally, we're always looking at how we can improve these sessions to make, you know, to make sure we're delivering value for you all. So If you do have feedback or suggestions on topics that you'd like to see covered, please do complete the survey at the end. And then I'm sure you have seen this before but to flag, as we mentioned any road map items today, please note that our product statement does apply. And so now it's time to bring our speakers on our for a virtual stage, I suppose. I'd like to welcome Mariana and Krishna today. Thank you both for joining us. And Krishna, as our guest from Everest Group, we'll start with you. Could you give us a quick introduction and tell everyone a little bit, everyone a little bit about your role? Sure. Sure. Thanks. Thanks, Catherine. Nice to be here. So I'm Krishna Sherry. I'm a vice president at Everest Group. I lead our talent acquisition research practice. So I lead both permanent talent acquisition and contingent workforce acquisition management research areas within, Everest Group. And we have a three sixty degree focus on the, contingent workforce management space in particular. So we pretty much cover all the services and technology markets here, and I've been with Everest Group for about eight years now. And glad to be here on the call on the webinar today, and, this is a topic that that is really interesting, and it is something that's close to my heart as well. Total workforce strategy and AI, how do you intertwine both of these things? So I think that's going to be a great discussion and looking forward to the conversation. Great. Thank you. And, Mariana, could you do the same and tell us about your role here at Workday? Sure. Hi, everyone. Good morning, afternoon, or evening depending on on where you are. I'm Mariana Santiago. I am the general manager for Workday VNDLY, and Catherine just mentioned Workday VNDLY in her own intro. That's Workday's solution for managing the contingent workforce. I have been with Workday for nearly a decade, helping shape out our total workforce product strategy. And I am, same as Krishna, thrilled to be part of today's webinar, especially because of my passion for total workforce strategy and the transformative role of AI in the space. So thank you for having me here today, Catherine. Great. Thanks so much both. And so what can you all expect today? Well, we're gonna kick off with a high level overview of what is total workforce management. We'll look at what's actually going on in the market more broadly and and then into the value of total workforce management, but equally discussing the blockers that you may be facing. And and then we'll look at the evolution of AI with a particular emphasis on what we're seeing around agentic AI. So a lot to cover that kick us off. I mentioned we're combining two top of mind topics that are really intertwined and connected and that is achieving total workforce management and bringing AI in as part of that strategy. So in thinking about this, you know, in the past year, the evolution we've seen in AI has further redefined what we even mean by the workforce while equally adding, you know, a a huge amount of value. So I think it will be useful to start there and cover what we actually mean by total workforce management. So, Mariana, could you talk to that, you know, how AI has changed the definition and cover what the ideal end state is? Sure. So I wanna start with the definition of total workforce. In in simple terms, total workforce refers to the entire ecosystem of talent that contributes to an organization's success, and that includes both employees, and that can be full time employees, full time employees, salaried hourly, as well as non employees. And that is contractors, freelancers, consultants, and and much more. But the reality is, as Catherine, you were mentioning, as technology evolves, the definition is expanding to also include digital agents or digital workers that perform some of the tasks previously done by by humans. So from a Workday perspective, when we talk about total workforce strategy, we talk about that integrated approach to managing all types of workers, both employees and contingent talent. And companies with a total workforce strategy, for example, can answer questions like, how many workers by worker type do I have in every location or by or unit or cost center? How much we are spending? What is the work that they are doing? What skills or experiences they bring? And many more questions. And now with AI, we we are getting more into the space of getting into workforce predictions and more complex modeling. So we always talk about plan, execute, and analyze. So you can think of a total workforce strategy as an enabler for organizations to plan, execute, and analyze across the entire talent ecosystem. And as I mentioned earlier, the definition is now evolving to include AI and digital agents as essential contributors to getting work done. Yeah. So then, you know, if we turn our attention to what's actually happening in the market right now, that's calling for that total workforce management approach that Mariana just, described and, you know, that need to embed AI within that. Krishna, could you talk us through the challenges and trends you're seeing around that? Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, so we at Everest Group here, we run these surveys periodically to understand what are some of the workforce and workforce strategy related challenges that organizations face. And if you look at the survey findings, I think something is really obvious. Right? So if you look at, the current scenario, it's obvious that the traditional models of workforce workforce management are clearly breaking under the pressure of the current market, right, given the volatile situation that we all find ourselves in. So so 55% of our respondents, that we surveyed clearly said rapidly fluctuating business and talent demands as one of their biggest challenges. And I think it's also understandable. If you look at how the market has been evolving in the past few years, especially post COVID, I think the business situation as well as the talent situation is going up and down quite a bit. Right? Both from a especially on the talent side, both from a supply and demand perspective, there has been a lot of fluctuation, which is causing a lot of concerns for organizations to be able to effectively manage their workforce. Then, of course, there are also other challenges like there is difficulty in attracting skilled talent, and, of course, there is also an inability to adapt to technology advances. And I think this I'm sure a lot of us on the on on this call would agree. The pace at which technology has been evolving in the past couple of years, especially with the advent of AI, generative AI, and now agentic AI as well, And adding to the complexity to that within talent acquisition, organizations already use a plethora of tools and technologies. So really adapting your strategies, and really making the best out of the tools and technologies that you have within your talent acquisition functions becomes really critical. So there are a lot of other challenges as well. So the traditional historical challenges of inefficient recruit recruitment processes still continue to be there. Then the talent demand drivers, it, themselves are also changing. So all in all, a lot of challenges for organizations when it comes to building a future proof workforce strategy. And if you think about it, why is this happening? Right? Why are organizations really struggling with a lot of these challenges? I think it has to do with how workforce and how work is getting done is also evolving in the current environment. Right? So for example, if you think about workforce, we just can't look at it in terms of permanent workers and contingent workers alone. Right? So, of course, permanent and contingent both are important. Increasingly, within the definition of workforce, we should also now bring in AI. Right? And similarly, the other challenges, like, say, skill shortages, for example, skills that we have considered to be niche skills in the past are now becoming mission critical. For example, especially some of these skills related to AI. And then lastly, if you look at the aspirations of workers, that itself is also evolving. There is more preference for freelance or gig work models, and there's also a lot of there's a lot of importance that, you know, someone like contingent workers or temporary workers are placing on career progression, benefits, learning and development, so on and so forth. So I think it's an it's an interesting, scenario at the end of the day. So as organizations think about their current workforce situation, it's not just about workforce management. They need to be thinking about workforce orchestration. They're they're bringing different kind of workers including AI into the mix and managing all of them effectively. Yeah. And then Mariana, I'd love your take on that third statistic there where we're saying 46 or we're seeing that 46% of companies are struggling to adapt to technology advances. Is AI playing a part in that? And what's your take on why that's up there amongst the the top three challenges? Well, I I think AI is is playing a part in that, but I I don't think it's just about AI. I think that adopting and adapting to new technology is rarely just a technical challenge. In my opinion, it's also an organizational challenge. And what we are seeing, you were mentioning the fast pace of, evolution in AI, and and I see a gap between organizational readiness and and and AI per se. But in the context of total workforce, Catherine, the top three barriers that I I have consistently seen are, first, probably the siloed operations and the lack of a strategic vision. In in many organizations, HR, procurement, and IT still operate in silos, And that makes it very difficult to integrate, kind of solutions like those required for a total workforce strategy. And and without a strong business sponsorship and a clear roadmap, technology becomes a tactical fix rather than a strategic enabler. The second challenge that I I see quite often is unclear ROI or business case, and this comes up a lot, especially when it comes to AI. Leaders are under pressure, and I assume many people on the call today, are under pressure to prove value quickly and without a clear link between technology and measurable business outcomes, it's it's hard. It's hard to get the necessary buy in. And the third challenge in in my mind is security and compliance concerns, Especially in regulated industries, new technologies can introduce new risks, and that I have had many conversations with many different customers. And in the context of AI, there are many considerations with regards to security and and compliance that need to be taken into account. And, yes, that it can slow down adoption, due to those necessary reviews in and around data privacy, governance, and compliance frameworks. And although there are other factors, I would say those three are the the big biggest ones that I see. Yeah. And then if we kind of dig, I suppose, a level deeper into AI trends and AI adoption, And Krishna, could you could you share what you're seeing in the market and where are companies with that? Yeah. I think I completely agree with Mariana. So when when we talk about AI, of course, there are a lot of challenges and lot of areas to address for organizations as they think about implementing AI. But if you look at how the adoption of AI has panned out in the last, let's say, twelve to eighteen months, I think now right now, it's more a question of it's not a question of if, but it's a question it's a question of how quickly can you do it and how well can you do it. Right? So I think that is the place where, I wanted to bring some more statistics from a recent survey that we have done. So we do this key issue survey every year, and this time around, we had more than 650 respondents here. And the findings from the the survey are pretty interesting. So if we look at AI adoption, especially something like a generative AI, So clearly, organizations have moved past just exploring use cases into actually implementing generative AI. Right? So you can clearly see from the chart on the left hand side here that 60% of organizations have, are either conducting pilots or they're implementing generative AI across process selective across certain processes selectively, or in some in some cases, they're also actually pretty extensively implementing it across various processes and functions as well. So a similar survey that we've done last year, had a different view altogether where a lot of companies companies are still evaluating what are some of the use cases, what are some of the benefits, whether they need to actually adopt AI or not. But that has clearly changed with almost 60% of the respondent this time around saying that they're in some form of implementation or experimentation with generative AI. Naturally, as organizations think about implementing AI, it also becomes important for them to get all the necessary support they can from their strategic partners, which is a very important thing, to consider. So a lot of the organizations that we surveyed, almost one in four said, you know, they are looking for some sort of a thought leadership support from their partners. Again, when I say partners, I'm talking about both technology partners and service provider partners as well as it relates to talent equation, let's say, where they clearly want to, understand what are the use cases, for generative AI that they can use, that they can implement potentially in their organizations. And very interestingly, a very big proportion of the respondents, I think it's more than 50 that you can see here, who are actually looking for hands on support from their partners as well when it comes to AI adoption. So more than 50% of the respondents said they need some sort of assistance to create a business case for generative AI adoption. They're looking for technical expertise. They're looking for training and upskilling of their existing workforce to be able to leverage AI effectively, I think this this speaks volumes to the pace at which generative AI is getting implemented, across organizations. So I think lastly, if you combine, both these charts here, I think it very clearly shows that organizations need to be thinking. So they need to be experimenting in an agile fashion, and, of course, they also need the right support from their partners. And, of course, they need to also not hesitate in going to their partners and asking them, hey. Help us help us get on get on this AI journey. Yeah. Yeah. It it it it is a lot to take in, I suppose, for people. And and Mariana, from working closely with, you know, Workday customers, what are you seeing in terms of AI adoption or plans around that and how how are our our own customers thinking about it? Well, there is no doubt that the that AI is generating tremendous interest. And perhaps this webinar itself reflects that enthusiasm. I would say, I can't I cannot think after if any customer meeting where AI is not on the agenda. And so Krishna's point, at least our world tech customers are are looking for that partner in in that journey. They are working with us to really kind of measure the the value, the outcomes, because at the end of the day, they need to create that that business case. I think it's it's important to highlight that that Workday has been leveraging AI for years. Although I know that right now after 2022 when ChatGPT launched, there has been that surge on on AI because now it was it has been put in the hands of everybody. And I think that that really what also has changed the dialogue. But our skills cloud product, for example, was built on AI, and that was almost a decade a decade ago. Schedule our scheduling solution uses AI to optimize shift assignments. Our planning product employs AI for forecasting. So we we keep expanding on on AI. Obviously, we have generative AI to help refine, creation or refinement of of content, like in job descriptions and and more. And the this next journey is AI agents and and AI power agents. So regardless of the AI use case, I would say customers consistently want to understand three key things in my mind. First is the that value, the value it delivers and how it helps them achieve their goals. And I always think technology is always a means to an end, and AI is not different. What is the goal? And and then they also focus on whether AI can explain its results. And explainability is crucial and for for work day is is is one of our themes with regards to responsible AI. Customers don't want a black box. They need to understand that outcome from AI. And then that as I said, AI is applied responsibly. And in use cases where decisions affect people, we took the position at Workday that we provide the data to support those decisions, but we keep humans in the loop. And critical decisions should rest with people, not machines. And that's part of our key principles. So those are the main conversations that I have with customers and what I I see coming up almost in every single meeting. So it's clear, you know, there's a lot happening in the market that's calling for a total workforce management approach. And AI can definitely help on that journey, but it's just knowing where to where to bring that in. And so we'd love to hear from you all now and where are you on your on your organization on your total workforce management journey. So let's open up the the poll here and hopefully that's yeah, you can see it there, I think. And so where are you on your total workforce management management journey? So when you think about this, you know, do you have a robust workforce management strategy in place and you're you now want to elevate that further with the use of AI? Have you started to take steps and have, you know, achieved some initial success? Maybe you're making those initial plans on what that first step is going to be, or perhaps you haven't started yet as you don't have the right technology in place, or maybe another blocker, and maybe that, you know, you're still working on getting stakeholders aligned internally. So we'll give, folks a few moments on on that one there. Let's see. I think we can see the results on our side as well. Yes. We can. I want to see like I know. Yeah. I like watching how things are moving. I'm not really sure if you want to see what happens. Reflect. It looks like a lot of, a lot of people out there are they're making plans but they're still, you know, haven't taken that full that first step yet by the looks of this. Is that generally what you're seeing in in conversations or or or what way, you know, what way have those conversations gone? That that's what I am I am seeing in conversations in general. And I I think that it it needs a clear view from the top of the organization what they they want what the organization wants to achieve. And and in my opinion now, it's not a nice to have. It's a must have that for for companies to get workforce agility and and mobility, you need a a total workforce approach. So but, yeah, many companies planning and trying to decide how to proceed. Yeah. So it looks like a lot of things are gone. Go on. Sorry. Yeah. I was just saying, I think, a similar observation from my side as well. I think what is really interesting for me as an analyst tracking the space is clearly the interest is there. Right? So the interest is pretty high. So more than 58% of those respondents here, they're saying that they're making some initial plans. So that is definitely a consideration, which is a positive. And this is something that we have seen in our conversations as well. A lot of organizations that we are speaking with are actively exploring ways to combine their permanent and contingent approaches to sort of get on the total workforce journey. Yeah. Yeah. And so, yeah, it's great to see that people have it in their mind and they're starting to make plans. And then the second, the second most, you know, voted one there is folks that have actually started and have seen some initial success. So that's that's also good to see. We have a couple of people who are I feel like they have, you know, a robust strategy in place. So they're really looking at how they can embed AI next which is that's amazing to see as well. And so I think if we go back to the the content then let me pull up the the slides. So is that showing there? I can't Yep. Yep. It is. Perfect. Yes. Yes. So, you know, I think we realized that actually achieving to, to workforce management, it doesn't happen with the flick of a switch. And and we can see how the workforce composition has evolved. AI agents are increasing in adoption and are the newest, you know, contributor to the workforce ecosystem. So that all has to be taken into account now. And people are clearly, as we've seen, they're facing challenges on getting this off the ground. And so I suppose understanding and being able to really articulate the value of this approach to others is hugely important. So, Krishna, could you share why companies should be moving in this direction and the value of creating an integrated strategy? Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I think like I said, again, one of the survey findings that you can see here, at least 50% of the organizations that we surveyed, I think we had around a 150 respondents in this particular survey. So they said they're exploring ways to combine their contingent perm and permanent approaches. So what this essentially means is they are sort of trying to understand what are those people, process, technology related aspects that they can potentially bring together to start getting on that total workforce transformation journey. Right? And a lot of them also consider it a real possibility. I think but, yeah, Catherine, to your question, why is this important? I think historically, we have seen that organizations have innovate operated in silos when you think about permanent talent acquisition and contingent workforce management. In some cases, it's you know, one of them is purely HR issue. In other cases, it's in in some cases, it's purely a procurement issue. But I think in the current environment that we we all find ourselves in, I think it's important to really dig those silos between permanent and contingent HR procurement or various functions within the organizations to start bringing them together. Right? So if you truly want to build a future proof workforce strategy, which is taking into account the various kinds of workforce workforces that you have within the organization, also incorporating AI into it, and how do you get the best out of all of it. It really is important for organizations to start thinking about, hey. Where do we start? How do we start bringing these two important components of workforce and including AI, all of them together. Right? So I think it's all about breaking those silos. And if you think about the benefits from such an approach, so I think they're obvious. Right? So there are a lot of benefits in terms of, the synergies that you can leverage across contingent permanent permanent site. You can also start impacting metrics like time to fill, the quality of hires that you have, or in general the outcomes from the workforce that you have within the organization. Then, of course, you can also do better planning and forecasting. I think this is very, very important. So we are now talking about this phenomena of skills based hiring. Right? So organizations want to focus on skills. So you need to really understand what are the skills that are available within your organization across your full time employees and contingent workforce populations, and, also, what are the skills available externally. Right? So as you think about hiring, what is the best way for you to hire? What is what what is the best kind of resource for you to be thinking about? Should it be a full time hire? Should it be a independent contractor? Should it should it be a freelancer, a temp worker? So the answer to all of that questions is having better workforce planning, and that's the place where you need to have that total workforce visibility as a first step. And beyond that, how do you sort of impact different aspects of talent acquisition management by bringing in all of these approaches together? Mhmm. Yeah. And you mentioned, you know, breaking down silos there, and I suppose sometimes you need to break down those silos internally. So, Mariana, I know the top challenge here and lack of collaboration between HR and procurement is something you've had many conversations with customers about. So why is that collaboration so important? And yeah. I have had many, many conversations with customers about this. And the way I see it is when it comes to the contingent workforce, there is both a procurement aspect and a human aspect, and both are critical. And I cannot underscore enough also the aspect of compliance, and making sure that you are compliant. But on the procurement side, if we start with the procurement side, organizations need to manage vendor relationships. They need to oversee contracts, statement of work. They need to ensure timely payments. All of that among many other things, that's no doubt under procurement. But when you look at the human side, which can obviously, there there are again, thinking about legislation, things can vary by country. But in general, we will say the human side includes responsibilities like you have to onboard some of the contractors that in can include issuing budgets if they have access to a building or granting them access to certain systems depending on the work that they have to do. But you also have to integrate those extended workers into hybrid teams. And that is where managers start playing also a role in assuming that is, let's say, in a staff augmentation type of model. So managers often see these workers as part of their teams. Kind of, again, still different type of worker. There are things that you cannot kind of merge, right, with regards to employ what employees can do versus what this extended workforce can do. But for managers, this is still a hybrid team that they need to manage, and they need to also monitor compliance, especially around things like tenure. So in some cases, contingent workers can be customer facing. So that means that they are also representing the company brand even even if they are not full time employees. So interestingly, about 50% of companies, or at least that's what I see in our customer base, in our Workday VNDLY customer base. 50% of companies place their contingent workforce programs under HR, and 50% place them under procurement. And that's how these programs sit right at the intersection of the two functions. So independently of where they are, the most successful programs are the ones where you see HR and procurement working together. And I know sometimes it's easy to say and not so easy to accomplish, But the organization that have been in successful is where they have clear clear roles and aligned objectives. And it really takes a strong cross functional leadership to recognize that shared responsibility and and build a strategy that reflects both operational efficiency and and workforce experience. Yeah. That one is it's definitely critical based on what we've been hearing at at Workday. So not surprised to see that in the top spot there. And, Krishna, could you take us through some of the other top blockers faced by by companies and your take on those? Yeah. Sure. And I think I completely agree with Maria and again on the importance of collaboration between HR and procurement. And in our experience, what we are also seeing is beyond HR procurement, I think there are a lot more or there are a lot of other stakeholders within organizations that now increasingly have a stake within talent acquisition. Let's say, for example, on the, IT hiring side, we are starting to see business or the CIO organization also start getting involved because I think this is a this is, an area where having the right talent, especially in a world that's being impacted by AI, becomes mission critical, and that's the place where even business CIO organizations are getting involved. So I think, yeah, I think it's a collaboration between a lot of departments that need to materialize, for organizations to be able to successfully operationalize, total workforce strategy. So looking at some of the other challenges, so, of course, technology continues to be a challenge and quite rightly so. How do you how can technology operationalize integration between permanent and contingent recruitment? That's a top of mind concern for organizations. And, honestly, some organizations are also skeptical about placing all of their eggs in one basket. Right? let's say from a services perspective, they would outsource it. Hey. Do we do we outsource it to just one provider? What is the what sort of risk we are going to have if we place all of our eggs in one basket? I think that's one consideration. And lastly, I think this is something that Marianne already talked about initially. So I think a lack of leadership buy in is also one of the critical factors that's stalling total workforce adoption. So I think this is something that needs to be driven from the top. So as organizations understand, building a future proof workforce strategy needs to be, I would say, the topmost priority for them. Right? So that's the place where it needs to be initiated from the top, and having that right leadership buy in to get on the journey also becomes important. So I think some of the other concerns, I don't want to spend a lot of time on it. I think change management related concerns. Of course, there's a lot of lack of clarity in terms of where to start the journey, what exactly it is to achieve, desirable end state with total workforce maturity. So those sort of questions also still continue to persist in organizations' minds. Yeah. I think but in but I think to conclude, I would say, of course, there are challenges, but recently, we have seen emergence of a lot of practical solutions. Right? Or there are a lot of approaches that organizations can start exploring and implementing, which will gradually put them on the path of total workforce journey. Right? And, of course, I'm sure we're going to discuss that in the subsequent slides. So right now, what opportunity, persists for organizations? It is an exciting time, and I think this is definitely the right time for organizations to think about, hey. What are the ways or what are the approaches we need to take to really overcome these challenges and start bringing our contingent and permanent workforce practices together? And I suppose, you know, technology is critical on that journey. So if we hone in on the the technology side of things now, you know, we would see that integration between the HCM which is, of course, the core system of record for employees and vendor management system system or VMS, which is the core system of record for contingent workers as really the foundational, layer for companies as they move towards total workforce management. So, Krishna, could you touch on why that's so vital? Yeah. Absolutely. I think I think it's a given that, you know, for a successful total workforce, implementation, technology is a critical enabler. And when you think about technology and being the the thing that you see here on the slide, right, where a perfectly integrated ecosystem of talent acquisition and talent management, let's say, tools and technologies is the ideal end state, that organizations want want to move towards. But I think, of course, an organization can start small. Right? So they can think about, hey. Where do we really start? When you think about it, it I think the first question to address is, do we have, let's say, total workforce visibility? Are we taking into account both our permanent and contingent workforce populations when we are thinking about our workforce planning? Right? So how do we get a grasp of the entire workforce that we have across the organization, across business units, across geographies? And, of course, technology is, again, a critical enabler there. Right? So to be able to seamlessly integrate different talent acquisition, talent management technologies so that you have visibility into your total workforce is definitely the first step. And so creation of an integrated ecosystem is also important because, ultimately, for a seamless, total workforce management program, you need to have systems that can seamlessly communicate with each other. And also from the perspective of the users or the stakeholders who would be interacting with these systems, they need to also have a seamless experience. Right? So seamless flow of data enables, let's say, better analytics, which has downstream implications like better workforce planning as we discussed. But at the same time, the experience of people, right, who are using these systems also needs to be top of mind for organizations. So I think both of these things need to come together and technology becomes a very, very important enabler there. So, ultimately, I think from the conversations that we have, how can you integrate your contingent system of record, which is your VMS, and your permanent system of record, your HCM, is is a problem statement that a lot of organizations are trying to tackle. So they are starting small, of course. They are starting with, let's say, integration of data first to really understand total workforce, but with the eventual objective of having a deeper integration between the two systems so that all of these talent acquisition management functions can be operated and operationalized seamlessly. Yeah. And I suppose what you're saying there actually links to what we've done at Workday in terms of that seamless connectivity and unified experience. So, Mariana, I'd love you to share a bit more on that and when we think about what Workday has actually done in this area. How are we delivering that connected HCM and VMS experience that is different to what's out there, and how is that translating into our products? Yeah. And I think Krishna almost kind of described it for me. So to to keep it simple, I would say, VNDLY integrates with HCM. So what they will integrate with what they HCM on two key levels. And I always talk about one being the data layer and the other one being the experience layer. So if we look at the data layer, basically, what we provide is what we call a configurable connector, that enables real time bidirectional data flow between what the HCM and what they've done. And this really ensures that contractor information, positions, job information, that it remains consistent and up to date at those both systems. But still, the system of record for extended workforces Workday VNDLY, and the system of record for, full time employees is Workday HCM. But that connector, sets our, solution apart because it's configurable directly within the application. That means no custom development is needed, Catherine, and it makes it very flexible and powerful, much more than any other traditional integration. So Krishna already mentioned that, but the fact that then you you have all the data together, again, systems of record separate and how you process information because of compliance aspect, it can be separate. But there are many processes that now can align the analytics are, easier to to do. And now that we have gone into AI, there is much more than you can do once you have access to all this rich data. Now if we go to the experience layer, and and I think Workday is unique, honestly, in in that area with regards to total workforce, we have developed an embedded integration that allows managers to view and manage their hybrid teams in one place directly within Workday HCM. That that's where they are typically. And that's what we call the manager insight hub. So they can access Workday VNDLY data without switching switching systems, and they can take action from within their familiar what they environment. And as we continue expanding functionality, there is more that will come in that area since we are continuing to build on task and and approval inbox consolidation and and much more that would make the experience even much easier for managers. So those two layers are critical. It's not just about data. It's also about experience. Yeah. And then if we take that and kinda hone in on AI is the the next thing. And and it it's, you know, it's adding another layer of value when we think about operationalizing total workforce management. So, Krishna, how do you see the value of AI manifesting itself in an organizational setting? Yeah. So I think as we discussed earlier, I would say I think when we're talking about total workforce, we can't ignore AI, so they have to go hand in hand. I think some of the challenges that we discussed around the silos in operations of organizations. So AI can act as an enabler to break down some of these silos to bring, the various facets of talent acquisition, talent managements together. So AI can also assist in decision making. So, essentially, you know, when you think about, hey, what is the right kind of hire that you need. Right? So without really boxing it into, let's say, a permanent or full time hire or contingent hire, a can help organizations take those decisions on what is the best route to take. Right? I think Mariana would probably talk about decision trees and decision support that technology can can offer. And if you are able to elevate it with the integration of AI, it can definitely provide better results for organizations. So in terms of creating that integrated workforce management ecosystem, if you're looking at different settings in organization, organizations, so enabling a seamless scheduling, demand forecasting, performance analytics. So all of this cannot exist without AI. Right? Even, for example, if you think about something like a skills based hiring, where you're looking at skills across both permanent and contingent roles, to really build a scalable and a dynamic skills infrastructure or skills architecture, you need to have AI. Right? So all in all, I think from an AI perspective, the business impact that it can generate if you are able to embed AI within the right technology, within the right processes. So this is, of course, going to accelerate decision making, help make better decisions. It can impact a lot of metrics in terms of quality via predictive analytics, arguing the human effort that goes into talent acquisition management, and, of course, also reducing, the cycle time and time to market with some of your talent acquisition related initiatives. And then, like, we know there's been a lot of, progression in AI and advancements and and I suppose it might be helpful for people just before we get into, you know, more of the agentic AI conversation to focus on that evolution and some of the practical applications of AI. if we could take two minutes here to, quickly touch on, you know, the evolution of AI and and where it started and where it's going. And then a couple of quick examples on how, you know, that has translated into the context of business. Yeah. Absolutely. So I think AI within talent acquisition, talent management, I would say, is not new. Right? So we have had rule based AI and machine learning and natural language process processing based AI applications, AI models having been extensively used across talent acquisition management. But I think the change the big change that we are seeing is, of course, generative AI and agentic AI now coming into the mix. So as you can clearly see, the level of current adoption with these two technologies is slightly on the lower side right now. But if you look at the promise that these technologies have, or if you look at some of the theoretical applications of especially something like an agentic AI, I think we, as analysts, we when we look at the market, we see a lot of upside to it, and we are pretty confident that this can evolve, pretty rapidly. And to your question, Catherine, on some of the use cases that we are seeing, if you quickly move on to the next page. So we wanted to highlight certain use cases of AI that we are seeing. And interestingly, a lot of these, use cases are getting embedded into the broader technology ecosystems. For example, let's say, on the contingent side within VMS itself, we see a lot of these use cases. And I'm sure we we will hear hear more about some of these use cases from your side as well as you're doing it at Workday and VNDLY. So in terms of practical applications, it has applications across candidate attraction engagement, sourcing and screening, vendor sourcing and management, and, of course, the broader core recruitment or talent acquisition administration processes as well. So in terms of the more the use cases that we see are gaining traction, let's say something like a job description creation or let's say candidate profile creation, these are now almost table stakes. Right? So a lot of the technologies, a lot of the platforms that we see out there in the market have successfully integrated it, and we're also seeing extensive, usage of some of these features and functionalities by organizations as well. And one of the biggest use cases that a lot of organizations are trying to explore is AI for candidate matching, candidate engagement, and candidate scoring. Right? So how do you identify the best best fit candidates from, let's say, database of available candidates from various sources? How to identify the best fit candidates, as per your job requirements, I think that's also a place where AI can help. So from a agent decay standpoint, like I said, it is still early days. A lot of tools are under development, and we have interestingly heard a lot of tools that are either in development or already in production from Workday's end as well, and we would love to hear more about it as we go through the presentation. But I think it's important to target these various use cases and understand what are some of the table stakes or the low hanging fruit and gradually scale up to sort of bring in AI across all of these processes as well. Great. And then I like, we know the hot topic is Agentic AI, of course. And I'm conscious of time here. So maybe just, you know, a couple of minutes each. So, Krishna, from your point of view, where where do you see Agentic AI going? Yep. So right now, if you look at the current situation, agentic AI, it's more of task bots and AI assistance. I think it's important to demystify agentic AI as well. So when you look at the true potential of agentic AI, it's when agents start becoming those true agents, which is level four as they're calling it here, or those self governing agents, where rather than relying on deterministic or task based approaches, AI is able to execute on its own. Right? So AI is able to assist humans real time, and, of course, AI also starts operating autonomously. So we are we are fairly confident that the evolution from task force and AI assistance, which is the case with a lot of products right now in the market, for them to truly evolve to some of these true agents and self governing agents, that should be a pretty rapid change because I think anything to do with AI in this current day is going to be rapid. And so this is something that organizations need to look out for, which also means they need to think about, hey. What are the AI agents that would work the best in my context, and how do I effectively manage and track them? Yeah. And then, Mariana, from your perspective, in terms of how Workday is thinking about agentic AI, maybe you could share a little bit about that. Yeah. We we think about AI agents as what we call role role based agents. And and I know that different vendors, have approached in some cases that boundary or that definition of agent perhaps slightly in a different way. But for us, we we focus on role based agents, and they are designed to perform work with within the context of a specific business role. And you can think of a recruiter or a planner or a expense analyst. So we define the skills. We assign security access to those role based agents the same way we we do it with other, roles. So perhaps the key characteristics, Catherine, is that they are context aware, they are skills driven, they are goal oriented, and they are embedded in the world experience and and build with what they responsible AI principles. Having said that, we we have taken a very, strict position with regards to how these agents, need to work and particularly in use cases where there could be impact to people kind of making some strategic decisions. We for those use cases that affect people, we provide the data to support those decisions, but we keep humans in the loop. And the decision makers are people, not a digital agent. And that applies for hiring, for example. The decision is to be to be made by a a person because there is impact to people, and and we understand, how sensitive that is. And and we have draw the line there because it's very important that we automate what we can with AI, but those decisions are made by people who now with AI, they have access to all the data and the insights that they need. So very, very quickly, I I know we are running out of time. We we have delivered at one day several agents. We have delivered recruiter agents. We have delivered talent mobility agent, contract intelligence, contract negotiation, and much more. And there will be we have Rising coming up in September. So, hopefully, many of our customers will attend Rising, and they would see many, many other agents that will be delivered, this year. Yeah. So do you wanna quickly touch on, the recruiting agent and maybe the contingent sourcing agent? Maybe just for a minute. Yeah. So the the recruiting recruiting agent that is already available for customers, it was built on our Illuminate AI platform. And, basically, that's as an embedded coach for recruiters and and hiring managers. The agent focuses on processing data and and presenting information to recruiters and hiring managers so they can make the right decisions. And I will grow the key capabilities into two areas. One is kind of the sourcing of qualified candidates. And and I tell you that is is not only about the matching process, it's also about discovering talent that companies can have in in in their talent pools that they are not tapping into. So both perhaps past applicants or internal databases and sometimes also external networks. And we have a partnership, for example, with Randstad that that can be a good example. And then the the other area is automating recruit recruitment workflows, and that includes, and Krishna was mentioning that, kind of the job description creation, interview scheduling, sending reminders automatically to candidates, and and much more. So there have been talking about value and measuring value. You can see on this slide some of those metrics, where we have seen around 54% increase in recruiter capacity, 57% decrease in screening time, and around a 35% reduction in hiring manage manager review time. So now talking about the contingent sourcing agent on in Workday they'll be, we are working on delivering contingent sourcing agents, very soon. And we are planning on we we are leveraging the capabilities from the recruiter agent, but adapting those capabilities to the contingent workforce domain. And our initial focus area is gonna be on worker redeployment as as this is a critical and frequently encountered use case in this space, but we will follow the same paradigm. Critical decisions will be made by by people, but, the the agent will automate as much as possible some of the workflows and processes so we can present the information to the contingent workforce program, the the fastest way possible so they can make those strategic decisions. Perfect. And I look, I wanna I wanna make sure we leave some people with, you know, next steps that they can actually, you know, take in order to achieve dual workforce management and leverage AI on that journey. So, Krishna, I know you've got some guidance here on what those next steps should be. So could you touch on those for a moment? Yeah. Absolutely. So I think we already discussed it as, during the course of this, conversation already. But very quickly, I think the most important thing is what we're calling this phase zero, securing the leadership by right? So getting your stakeholders onboard to position your organization for total workforce transformation should be the top priority. And then as you think about how you can get on this journey, I think the first step is to really understand, where what are the current state, of workforce management, workforce talent acquisition within organizations. So essentially understanding the current state and then equally important is the next, important is the next step where you identify your key transformation objectives. Where is it that you want to be? Where is it you that you want to go with your total talent or total workforce acquisition journey? And lastly, also outlining a road map to achieve the desired state. Right? So how do you go ahead and do it? Should you do it in house? Who are the partners that you should be relying on? Should you outsource certain aspects of it or should be a hybrid of different approaches? So, ultimately, I think all of these things become important for someone who wants to get on the total workforce transformation journey. And I think the critical thing here to note is this is, of course, a journey. Right? So it's not something that no organizations can decide overnight and start implementing it or start or reach the end state maybe within a couple of months. So this is a journey. So that's the place where starting small, exploring, learning, and gradually, gradually going ahead on the journey should be a consideration. Yeah. Exactly. And I suppose we we're we're we're almost up to the air. It it flew. It went so fast, but I do wanna leave a couple of minutes here for q and a. And and thank you both for sharing so much amazing information. I we we could probably talk for another error on this topic. So let me have a look here. If you can just take one maybe. So the biggest headache for ops is safety and compliance management of contract workers. How does Workday VMS make this easier for managers? Do you have data supporting increased engagement from supervisors in ensuring compliant contingent workers versus shifting that burden to operations. So maybe Mariana given it's more of a a Workday product question. Yeah. And and that's that's part of the core value proposition of of VNDLY is how we can automate and and help organizations monitor compliance the right way. Now I would say, VNDLY provides very robust functionality on both areas. First is how you are onboarding those workers with the connection to HCM. Customers can also leverage some of the journeys, that they they can, they could have set up in what the HCM. So from, a compliance perspective in that area. The the product is very robust, and there are many success stories and value, stories that have been published in community, for example, for our customers, what what they can see, what other customers have have been able to achieve with with VNDLY. So in the area of monitoring compliance, obviously, there is always a difference, I would say, or some caveats between if a customer has a managed service provider versus if a customer is running the program internally. One way or the the other, Vemly has many of the monitoring that is kind of requiring required. It can be depend again, depending on the country, those requirements can vary. But it's it's more about providing proactive alerts, showing tenure limitations, what what could be exceeding some of the thresholds, and also having proactive alerts and reports to alert the program team when actions need to be taken. So there is a lot that is being done in VNDLY. And and again, that's a conversation that will go for an hour by itself. And we can definitely follow-up on those as well. And there is a there is a lot of other questions in there and unfortunately, the time is up against us. So, you know, before we close out today, I just wanted to highlight that there are a number of other great sessions planned as part of our looking forward with Workday webinar series. And so later this month, we do have great mix of other AI focused sessions along with opportunities to hear direct from our customers. And then next month, we're hosting what is the biggest event of the year for us with, Workday Rising happening in San Francisco this September. So registration is still ongoing for that, so be sure to check that out and secure your ticket. There will be, of course, a lot about agentic AI and the agents coming out of Workday, so it's definitely a great place to learn more about that. And and again, just a thank you to Mariana and Krishna for joining us today. Thank you both for taking the time to share, you know, your insights and expertise. And of course, thank you to everyone who tuned in and listened. We really, appreciate you spending the time with us. So as a final reminder, do fill in the survey and the webinar survey if you have a moment just to give us any feedback and we will look to get back to as many questions as we can. So, thank you everyone and have a a great rest of the day. Thank you.