Workday to keep hiring in India as AI work expands

Workday, a US human resources and finance software company, said on May 19 it will keep hiring in India at its recent pace as it expands AI work and plans new offices in Bengaluru and Delhi.

Workday’s India headcount has more than doubled in the past 12 to 14 months to about 1,300, and the company serves more than 1,800 customers in India, said Sunil Jose the president.

Workday will increase AI investment for internal operations and products, while India, which hosts more than half of global capability centers, continues to attract multinational employers with skilled talent and lower operating costs, said Jose.

🔗 Source: Reuters

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Workday hires in India to support a local data center and AI agents

Hiring supports an India-region data center on Amazon Web Services, Amazon’s cloud computing platform. It is set to open for net new customer provisioning in December 2025, helping companies meet India data residency and sovereignty rules 1.
Workday is building “Illuminate” AI agents, software tools that can handle some tasks on their own. They are meant to automate work such as financial close and performance reviews 2.
These AI products are sold through Workday Flex Credits, a usage-based pricing model 2.
Its longer-term plan also covers Workday Agent System of Record, a platform for managing AI agents alongside employee and financial data in one place 3.

AI agents open new choices and new work for customers

Workday wants enterprise software to move from storing records to taking approved actions, with guardrails and human oversight built in 2.
That leaves customers weighing Workday’s built-in agents against third-party tools with wider links to platforms such as Slack, a workplace messaging app, and Microsoft Teams, Microsoft’s workplace collaboration software 4.
Partners still matter. Moveworks, an enterprise AI assistant company, already offers more than 100 pre-built Workday AI agents. That gives customers an extra automation layer beyond Workday’s own set 4.
Workday says these agents are meant to support human workers. Businesses still need to ready workflows and staff for effective human-AI collaboration 3.