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Aneel Bhusri

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Workday

Search every verified Aneel Bhusri interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Aneel Bhusri, co-founder and executive chairman of Workday, returned as CEO in early 2026 and has described the current period as a "refounding moment" for the company, comparing it to a startup. On Workday's Q1 FY2027 earnings call, Bhusri reported that the quarter was the best first quarter for new annual contract value growth in five years, driven by core business strength and AI traction. He stated that more than a quarter of new ACV from customer base expansions came from AI, and that deals including AI were over 50% larger on average. Bhusri also noted that Workday's agentic AI products saw more than 200% year-over-year growth in new ACV and were approaching $500 million in ARR. In public conversations, Bhusri has discussed the impact of AI on workplace connection and productivity. He said that AI can act as a "leveler" that gives everyone the same baseline knowledge, allowing human judgment and creativity to create better outcomes. He expressed concern about job displacement but argued that AI is currently replacing labor, not software, and that Workday is a beneficiary of the shift to agentic work. Bhusri emphasized the importance of "lawful" AI agents that operate within security and governance frameworks, stating that no customer wants to do things in a "lawless way." He also described the combination of remote work, social media, and AI as creating a new generation of workers who may need to make a conscious effort to build in-person relationships and find mentors.

Recent appearances

Notable quotes

“I do think technologies that are more around orchestration across applications, I think they're at risk in the SaaSpocalypse. Deep domain-specific applications, maybe they are down the road with the models, but we're using the models and we're using the tools. We're getting massive productivity gains with Claude Code and Cursor. I think this is a chance for us to be a disruptor, not a disruptee. I think what you're d”

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