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Ashley Goldsmith

Chief People Officer, Workday

Search every verified Ashley Goldsmith interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Ashley Goldsmith, Workday's Chief People Officer, hosted a September 2026 episode of the Future of Work podcast featuring Avani Prabhakar, Chief People and AI Enablement Officer at Atlassian. During the conversation, Goldsmith discussed the importance of involving HR early in AI transformation strategies, stating that many organizations bring in HR only after major decisions have been made. She described HR as being "right at the vortex" of AI-related changes and called the current moment a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" for the HR profession. Goldsmith also addressed the evolving role of managers in an AI-driven workplace, suggesting that while the manager role will become more critical, its focus will shift—for example, from traditional capacity planning to decisions about balancing human and AI resources. She emphasized that no one has fully figured out AI transformation and recommended that leaders build small communities to test their thinking and hypotheses.

Recent appearances

  • What Happens When HR Leads AI Transformation? - Future of Work

    September 15, 2026 · 📺 Workday

    Most companies leave HR out of AI strategy until the big decisions are made, and then wonder why their tech investments yield minimal enterprise returns. Atlassian’s Avani Prabhakar joins Workday’s Ashley Goldsmith to explain why traditional HR models are becoming obsolete, and how human-first leadership is the only way to unlock AI value. Please subscribe and follow us: YouTube:    / workdayvideo   Podbean: https://workdaypodcasts.podbean.com/ LinkedIn:   / workday   Instagram:   / workday  

    Watch on YouTube ↗

  • Workday Rising EMEA Innovation Keynote

    November 18, 2025 · 📺 Workday

    See the future of work with agentic AI with our President of Product and Technology, Gerrit Kazmaier and experts. Learn how the ...

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  • Workday CEO and Chief People Officer on Leading Through Disruption - Future of Work Podcast

    August 05, 2025 · 📺 Workday

    Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach and Chief People Officer Ashley Goldsmith discuss leading through the AI revolution. Learn how Workday is fostering a human-first approach, building trust, and elevating human potential in the workforce amidst rapid technological change.

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  • Workday chief people officer discusses her company's Work from Almost Anywhere program

    October 10, 2024 · 📺 HR Executive

    Ashley Goldsmith, chief people officer at Workday, discusses the company’s Work from Almost Anywhere program and its impacts. For more, see hrexecutive.com

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  • Ep 149: Embracing Skills in Hiring With Workday Chief People Officer Ashley Goldsmith

    December 11, 2022 · 📺 Lars Schmidt

    In this episode of Redefining HR, I’m joined by Workday’s chief people officer, Ashley Goldsmith. Ashley and I discuss how she’s helped scale Workday, the skills HR teams need to grow and much more. This episode is the season finale of Redefining HR. In January, for season nine, we’re evolving this podcast into Redefining Work. I’m excited for Ashley to help us close out season eight and be a part of this milestone for Redefining HR.

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  • JFF Horizons Influence Plenary: "Corporate Leadership Chat with Workday and Walmart"

    August 05, 2020 · 📺 Jobs for the Future

    This panel is from our plenary session titled, "Influence: How might leaders from many sectors step up and collaborate?", from Day 3 of Horizons 2020, which took place on June 10, 2020. Panel Title: "Corporate Leadership Chat with Workday and Walmart" Speakers: Drew Holler, Senior Vice President, Associate Experience, Walmart Ashley Goldsmith, Chief People Officer, Workday Cat Ward, Managing Director, JFF For more from Horizons 2020, visit our highlights page: https://www.jff.org/horizons/highlights/ #JFFHorizons

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  • Women in Technology at Workday (HCM, Financials, Analytics)

    February 09, 2018 · 📺 CXOTalk

    Workday is an important player in the enterprise SaaS market, with consistently high customer satisfaction scores and recognition for being a great place to work. Workday also holds the distinction of having four female C-level executives. On this episode we speak with all four these execs, discussing their roles and how they collaborate. It's an exciting and special show! This video is an excerpt from episode 241 of the CXOTalk series of conversations with innovators. You can read the entire transcript here: https://www.cxotalk.com/episode/workd... Christine Cefalo is Chief Marketing Offi…

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  • Workday: Women in Technology - HCM and Financials in Cloud Computing (#241)

    July 11, 2017 · 📺 CXOTalk

    Workday is an important player in the enterprise SaaS market (HCM human capital management and financials), with consistently high customer satisfaction scores and recognition for being a great place to work. Workday also holds the distinction of having four female C-level executives and is a major cloud computing enterprise software company. The interviewees are: -- Christine Cefalo, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Workday. -- Diana McKenzie, Chief information officer (CIO) at Workday. -- Robynne Sisco, Chief Financial Officer at Workday --Ashley Goldsmith is Chief People Officer at Work…

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