Aneel Bhusri on CEO return
From Workday Inc ($WDAY) Q1 2027 Earnings Call · · Castify Earnings Call
“I now have a full quarter under my belt since returning as CEO, and I truly feel the energy building at workday every day, both around our path forward on AI and the company as a whole.”
On , Aneel Bhusri, Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of the Board at Workday, Inc., spoke about CEO return during Workday Inc ($WDAY) Q1 2027 Earnings Call on Castify Earnings Call.
About Aneel Bhusri
Aneel Bhusri, co-founder and executive chairman of Workday, has described the current period as a "re-founding moment" for the company, stating that with AI, Workday is "essentially a startup again." He said he returned to the CEO role because for Workday to be considered a great technology company, it "can't just be a winner in cloud" and must "do a great job in AI." Bhusri noted that he has met with dozens of customers since returning and said that "not one of them is looking to replace Workday" and that they are instead looking to the company "first for AI solutions." He characterized the shift to agentic AI as a "reinvention" of work, and said that if full-time employee counts decrease, it is because "AI is replacing labor, not software," adding that Workday is a "beneficiary of the shift to agentic work." On Workday's Q1 FY2027 earnings call, Bhusri reported that the quarter was "the best first quarter of new ACV growth in five years." He stated that new ACV from agentic AI products grew more than 200% year-over-year and that the company is approaching $500 million in ARR from those solutions. Bhusri described three paths for Workday's AI success: selling its own agents, allowing customers to use its Extend platform to build AI applications, and rolling out AI APIs on a consumption basis. He emphasized that customers want "lawful" agents that operate within security and business process frameworks. Bhusri also expressed an aspiration to keep headcount "as close to flat for the year as possible" due to productivity gains from AI tools, and said that AI "resets competitive boundaries," allowing Workday to make bets in new markets where "if we make three or four bets and two of them work, that's a huge success."