Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of the Board, Workday, Inc.
Is AI Changing How Humans Connect?: A Conversation with Workday CEO
While AI tools are helping teams get work done faster, many leaders are noticing a new challenge emerge: as productivity goes ...
About Aneel Bhusri
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.
Transcript (30 segments)
✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Aneel Bhusri0:00
If you look at AI in the right ways where it's this leveler that gets everybody to the same level of knowledge whether you have it or you can access it, then we apply our human judgment and creativity to really create something special. That's the best outcome for AI is it makes us all better.
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Carrie0:26
Hi boss. It's great to have you here. I thought you were the boss. I'm so excited to have you in this room full of energetic people ready to connect. This is a really special day for us because the Workday Foundation is launching the Human Connection Workplace Index. This first report is our baseline and we plan to track changes in worker sentiment every six months as AI becomes more integrated into our lives. In the first survey, we looked at data from 2100 workers within Fortune 500 companies globally. We found a paradox: AI is delivering incredible results. Employee productivity and confidence are soaring — 86% say AI has made them more productive. Nearly two-thirds say AI has increased their confidence to succeed in future roles, and AI is easing employee burnout. The majority of employees say stress or burnout risk has decreased since using AI. But there are warning signs: 37% prefer brainstorming with AI rather than a human colleague for fear of judgment. One-third rarely have conversations beyond transactional tasks. And 21% of Gen Z report feeling more lonely since AI tools were introduced. So Aneel, you built Workday from the beginning with employees as our number one core value. What did that mean to you and Dave when you founded the company? And why does that philosophy matter even more as AI changes work?
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Aneel Bhusri2:52
When I think about all the great companies, past, present, future, they're all based on having a great employee culture. Many years ago, the best places to work survey tracked stock price performance of companies with great cultures versus those that didn't — stark difference. So it's not just the right thing to do, it's good business. We've always believed you're in business to serve your customers. But how many companies have unhappy employees and happy customers? The two don't go together. To have happy customers, you start with happy employees. Happy employees innovate with integrity and have fun. If you do it right, it leads to profitability, but profitability has never been a core value — it's the outcome. So employees have always been front and center. So much of what's great at a company is serendipity, relationships, getting to know your colleagues, mentorship.
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Carrie4:04
I love that you just mentioned serendipity because so much goodness comes from those moments where we bump into someone in the hallway and a new idea emerges. Our research suggests workers are drawn to AI not only for its power but because it feels socially frictionless — it doesn't judge, interrupt, or disagree like a person might. We found that in workplace conflict, 29% of employees prefer to use AI to draft a response rather than speaking directly. So how should leaders think about the difference between removing unnecessary friction and preserving the human friction that makes teams stronger?
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Aneel Bhusri4:54
Getting advice from AI on how to respond is a good tool, but it doesn't replace human-to-human interaction. Nothing replaces that. I was CEO for 15 years, retired and came back. I watch a lot of Steve Jobs videos — he was a product genius and a management genius. He has a video where he talks about how great ideas are the result of friction, like rough rocks polished in a machine. People come together, each with a rough part, and the idea gets polished by human interaction. I've seen it over and over. The best ideas do not come from talking to a prompt line. They come from pushing each other to make better decisions. That's how all the great products were built.
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Carrie6:13
Yeah, I love that analogy of the rocks together. Maintaining or imparting on younger workers this idea of social courage and having face-to-face conversations even when difficult is such an important part of a thriving business. I think you do a great job of encouraging that in our culture.
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Aneel Bhusri6:33
In a constructive way. Right. We want to be constructive and respectful, but the best ideas don't come from talking to AI. They come from interacting with other humans and pushing each other to be our best. The best idea wins, and that only happens in human interaction. I'm a technologist. I think AI is a very powerful tool, but it's a tool, not a replacement for human interaction.
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Carrie7:07
Here, here. Thank you for that. I think everyone in this audience agrees. AI provides quick, seemingly neutral feedback, but human feedback brings context, accountability, experience, and empathy. As a leader, as AI becomes a more common source of input, how should managers help employees understand where AI is helpful and where human judgment still matters most?
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Aneel Bhusri7:40
All the world's knowledge is now at our fingertips. With search we still had to figure out if the answer was right. But now when we ask AI, we get a very descriptive answer. It unleashes all this knowledge. So when teams have conversations, everyone is more knowledgeable than before, and you can debate and discuss at a much higher level. That's where AI is incredible. But if we look at AI as a leveler that gets everyone to the same knowledge level, then apply human judgment and creativity to create something special — that's the best outcome for AI, making us all better.
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Carrie8:52
Our research uncovered that younger workers are experiencing the intersection of AI, digital communication, and workplace loneliness in acute ways. Nearly 20% of Gen Z feel lonely at work often or very often. 39% find it difficult to make friends at work. 20% have taken time off due to loneliness or social isolation in the past year. This isn't just a Gen Z issue. What should leaders learn from these signals about how connection, mentorship, and belonging need to evolve for the entire workforce?
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Aneel Bhusri9:36
I first say it's easy to blame AI. I think it started with social media. I never worried about FOMO because I didn't know what else was going on. That started disengagement from in-person relationships. I don't think AI is a problem if used the right way. If you're a young employee, find a mentor, have work colleagues you go out with. Don't be isolated. The combination of work from home, social media, texting, and AI created a new generation that grew up differently. I use AI for hydroponic gardening — I couldn't find anyone who knows as much as AI about that topic. That's a learning use case. But when I want to talk about raising my 16-year-old daughter, I don't use AI because that's a person-to-person connection. Use AI for what it's good at.
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Carrie11:09
I like that a lot. I want to be clear our research doesn't prove causality or correlation — it's our baseline. But on that, we've got to get young folks to want to be in the office and build relationships. It'll be better for them their entire lives.
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Aneel Bhusri11:31
Yeah. You bring up something. We're social creatures.
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Carrie11:34
Oh, for sure. Yes. Even once young people come into the office, research shows they still prefer to send six or seven emails rather than have a face-to-face conversation. How do you as a leader, or as a dad of a 16-year-old, encourage social courage so they have the wherewithal to start an in-person conversation that might seem challenging?
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Aneel Bhusri12:03
That's a tough one. I'm an introvert, so if these technologies were available when I was young, I might have defaulted to that too. You've got to fight that introverted nature and just say I'm going to be better by getting to know the people I work with. Those interactions don't have to be in the office. Play sports, go for a walk, get a coffee. Get to know the people you work with.
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Carrie12:22
Yeah.
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Aneel Bhusri12:23
Very important to me that when we have someone at Workday, I want to know the whole person, not just what they do at work. That's a way to encourage connection — get to know who they are and you'll find ways to connect you never thought about.
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Carrie12:52
So clearly you see connection as a business advantage, but many CEOs don't yet. As a CEO who juggles multiple priorities, how do you justify investments in creating a workplace culture of trust, fun, and connection?
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Aneel Bhusri13:13
Yesterday I walked around the halls and the lunchroom. I hadn't been back for a couple years. The lunchroom creates a sense of community. If you're a CEO, you want good people to stay. Without community, it's transactional — they'll leave for the next job. When they're part of a community and feel engaged, they stay longer. I've seen it. Companies that are all remote: when they hit a bump, top people leave because they're not connected. They don't say 'these are my best buddies, I want to stay.' They just find another job. That transactional nature can only be overcome by creating a community and having fun. Fun is a core value at Workday for a reason.
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Carrie14:14
Yeah.
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Aneel Bhusri14:14
Right. Fun is a core value for a reason at Workday.
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Carrie14:16
Yes. Trust me, I was there in the early days when Halloween was no joke. You've done a great job continuing that sense of fun as the company grew to 20,000 workmates. We have more than a hundred work clubs. Have you joined the hydroponic gardening club yet?
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Aneel Bhusri14:42
Is there that club? I don't know. Maybe I'll create one.
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Carrie14:45
I think you've done a great job as we've grown of keeping that.
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Aneel Bhusri14:49
I try well.
Going back to the founding principles: people who are having fun and liking the people they work with is why employees are number one. Dave and I interviewed the first 500 people to make sure they were cultural fits — not just great at sales or development, but were they a 'we' person or an 'I' person, committed for many years, do they laugh at our bad jokes? People who have fun and are engaged do their best work. People who are tired, lonely, isolated, and not having fun don't bring their best selves to work. It's that simple.
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Carrie15:40
Okay. To close, as someone who has spent your entire career building amazing technology companies, how should we think about designing AI in ways that strengthen our connection to one another rather than replace it?
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Aneel Bhusri15:55
I don't know the answer other than AI is a tool, not a replacement. If we let it, it will replace a lot of us, and that's a terrible solution. If it helps us do our work better, it frees up time for more human interaction and helps solve problems, but not solve communication and relationships. It's a problem-solving engine like we've never seen. You have Einstein at your fingertips — but Einstein might not have been great at relationships. We have to be great at relationships and connections. How it plays out, I'm nervous about job displacement. We have to bring everybody along. It will replace rote work, which is okay — it happened with cloud and every generation. This one is different. The people who succeed will be curious, constant learners, empathetic, connectors. If you're just a programmer, it's going to be tough because Claude Code is really good at programming. You have to figure out your skill set beyond just being a coder.
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Carrie17:37
I agree. I use AI every day with joy and amazement. It's an incredible tool, but it can't replace the conversation we just had. Thank you for your time today, Aneel.
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Aneel Bhusri17:48
You're awesome, Carrie. Thank you.