How Workday and Microsoft are redefining the agentic workplace

The modern employee is currently paying a "fragmentation tax." Across a typical workday, the average professional navigates over 200 disparate apps and systems. Every time they switch from a collaborative space like Microsoft Teams to a domain-specific tool to check a PTO balance or a tax form, they lose focus. We call this the "toggle tax," and it is the enemy of the flow of work. At Microsoft, our vision for Microsoft 365 Copilot has always been to eliminate that friction by bringing the tools you need directly to the conversation. Today, I am thrilled to highlight how Workday—a leader in enterprise HR and finance—is making this vision a reality. With the general availability of the Workday agent for Microsoft 365 Copilot , we aren’t just adding a new feature; we are fundamentally reimagining how employees interact with HR self-service. Moving from "systems of record" to "systems of action" Workday’s internal research reveals a staggering reality: when HR self-service is integrated directly into the flow of work, organizations see 60–70% of HR cases resolved without ever opening a support ticket. The Workday agent brings a high-functioning HR and Finance partner directly into Microsoft 365 Copilot. Imagine a manager preparing for a 1:1. Instead of digging through tabs, they simply @-mention the Workday agent within their Copilot chat to pull up recent feedback and goals. In that same thread, they can upload a meeting agenda from Word, and Copilot will synthesize the two into a personalized briefing. From optimizing PTO plans to querying complex leave policies, the agent moves work forward where it’s already happening. The architecture of trust: why precision matters For ISVs and developers, the Workday journey offers a masterclass in architectural intentionality. When dealing with "people and money," there is zero margin for error. You don’t want an AI to paraphrase your parental leave policy or hallucinate a carryover balance. To solve for this, Workday chose the Custom Engine Agent framework via the Microsoft 365 Agents SDK . While Declarative Agents offer incredible speed to market for generative use cases, Workday required the surgical precision of their own proprietary logic. By building a Custom Engine Agent, they ensured: Data integrity: Responses are grounded directly in Workday’s source data, not just a summarized interpretation. Consistent experience: The agent maintains the same rigorous guardrails and response quality found within the Workday core application. Control: Workday manages the orchestration, ensuring that high-stakes HR and finance interactions meet their exacting enterprise standards. "When you are dealing with people and money, there is no room for guesswork," said Michael Doonan, Senior Director, Workday Everywhere, Workday. "With Workday’s AI agents extended into everyday work experiences, employees can move faster while still knowing the decisions they make are grounded in a single, trusted source." Frictionless for IT, seamless for users One of the most significant hurdles for any new enterprise tool is the "security and procurement gauntlet." Workday and Microsoft solved this through a unified app strategy . Rather than forcing IT admins to vet and deploy a separate integration, Workday bundled the Copilot agent into their existing Microsoft Teams app. If an organization has already cleared the Workday for Teams app, the agent simply becomes an extension of that trusted relationship. No new security reviews, no additional configuration—just immediate value. The next frontier: multi-system orchestration We are entering the era of the "Institutional Memory" agent—a digital colleague that knows your policies, your processes, and your history. As we look ahead, the conversation is shifting toward multi-agent orchestration . Our mutual customers are already asking how the Workday agent can interact with other specialized agents to automate workflows that span across multiple platforms. We are committed to partnering with Workday to lead this charge, ensuring that the agentic workplace is not just a collection of tools, but a cohesive, intelligent ecosystem. The Workday agent is a blueprint for the future of enterprise software: invisible, intelligent, and indispensable. Experience the future of HR self-service Deploy: Explore the Workday agent on the Microsoft Marketplace Discover: See what’s new in the Microsoft 365 Copilot Agent Store Build: Get started with the Microsoft 365 Agents SDK