Future of Work - A Workday Podcast

Paradigm CEO Joelle Emerson joins Workday SVP of Product Max Wessel to explain why treating AI as a budget-cutting tool is a mistake, and how governing AI intent turns adoption into real growth instead of headcount reduction.

Are you deploying new enterprise technology, only to realize the teams you intended to help are left drowning in bureaucracy? Join Adam Godson, General Manager of Talent Acquisition at Workday, to dismantle the friction of legacy workflows. While standard tools focus purely on volume efficiency, true enterprise value requires building from real user behavior, not boardroom assumptions.

In this episode, Workday Chief Learning Officer Chris Ernst and Censia Executive Intelligence President Monica Bua discuss how AI has democratized information, shifting the corporate premium from data management to human judgment. They argue that organizations must pivot from legacy workforce planning to capability planning to effectively redesign work for an AI-native future.

AI regulation is moving at breakneck speed, and for many organizations, the default response has been to wait, watch, and react. But in an era where trust is the ultimate currency, standing on the sidelines isn’t just passive—it’s a competitive disadvantage.
In this episode, Workday’s Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Chandler Morse, and Aine Lyons, SVP & Deputy General Counsel cut through the regulatory noise. They move beyond the anxiety surrounding AI to explore how industry leaders can transform compliance from a burden into a strategic advantage.

Evisort Co-Founder Jerry Ting and Constellation Research Chairman Ray Wang unpack the hidden chaos of the "copy and paste economy" stealing time from modern teams. Learn why adding more tools isn't the answer and how to map processes, fix data silos, and achieve AI ROI.

Workday’s Chief Responsible AI Officer Kelly Trindel and Data Nutrition Project founder Kasia Chmielinski explore how to design and deploy AI in ways that protect human dignity rather than erode it. They dig into practical questions leaders face right now: how to keep humans truly “in the loop,” avoid blindly trusting AI, set meaningful guardrails, and use data responsibly while we shift from managing teams of people to teams of people and AI.

Workday’s Josh Secrest and Chad Moutray, Head of Research at the National Restaurant Association, dive into a new report uncovering the real financial impact of understaffing, and how technology empowers frontline managers. Together, they explore game-changing frontline metrics and explain how empowering managers with automated technology drives true operational growth.

Workday's Aine Lyons sits down with legal ops pioneer Mary O'Carroll to dive into the balance of innovation and risk in the legal profession. Together, they tackle what's really holding legal teams back, why bad data is the biggest barrier to ROI, and how the most forward-thinking legal leaders are building their competitive edge right now.

Michelle Dawkins sat down with Joel Hellermark to explore why simply putting an AI assistant on every desk won't deliver true transformation, and how organizations can escape the "copy-paste economy" that currently drains over seven hours of employee productivity every week.

Are you deploying powerful new AI agents, only to realize your employees are spending all their time trying to make them work together? In this episode, Laila Almounaier, Vice President of Connected Experiences at Workday, unpacks the hidden friction of the AI era. While specialized agents are excellent at individual tasks, true enterprise value requires an open architecture where technology naturally collaborates.