Workday launches AI agents for IT support & travel
Sun, 24th May 2026 (Today)
Workday has introduced Sana for IT Service Management and a new Sana Travel Agent, extending its AI tools into employee support and business travel.
Sana for IT Service Management is designed to handle common service tasks across HR, finance and IT. It can automate workflows tied to employee onboarding and offboarding, access changes and routine IT requests such as password resets, software installation and account access issues.
Workday is positioning the product around processes triggered by employee changes already recorded in its software. A new joiner may need equipment and system access, a manager changing roles may require different permissions, and a departing employee may trigger device returns and account deactivation.
The tool runs inside Workday's Sana AI platform and draws on the same organisational data, reporting lines, approval chains and policy information already held in Workday. Employees can request help through a conversational interface while HR and IT teams work from the same underlying records and business processes.
The software can also route more complex requests to the relevant teams, with employee information and system permissions attached. It is also intended to reduce manual helpdesk work by identifying repetitive requests that could be automated over time.
Travel focus
Alongside the IT service product, Workday has launched a Travel Agent that brings trip planning, booking, approvals and expenses into one interface. The tool is intended to reduce the split between travel booking and expense reporting systems, which often forces employees to enter the same information more than once.
Workday processes more than 5 million expense reports each month, and a large share of that spend is linked to business travel. The new Travel Agent is designed to let employees coordinate schedules, check budgets, and book flights and hotels in line with company policy and personal preferences.
Because transactions happen within Workday, expenses can be created automatically once travel is approved. Managers and finance teams are also meant to gain a current view of spending and future booked travel.
The Travel Agent can support team travel by checking availability, highlighting schedule conflicts, confirming budgets and sending travel invitations after approval. It also pushes receipts into Workday Expenses and automatically generates and codes expense items, reducing the need for staff to compile reports manually.
Customer pitch
Workday is presenting both products as an effort to pull adjacent work tasks into systems where companies already manage people, payroll and finance data. That approach relies on existing internal policies and governance settings rather than requiring customers to recreate controls in separate tools.
"Today, employees spend so much of their time navigating a maze of tools, switching context constantly, and re-entering data across multiple systems just to resolve an IT ticket or manage travel and expenses," said Gerrit Kazmaier, President, Product & Technology, Workday.
"AI lets us break free from the limitations of enterprise applications, removing that complexity and turning fragmented workflows into real outcomes and more productive work days for our customers," Kazmaier said.
One industry analyst said the strategy reflects broader demand for stronger returns from software customers already use.
"Customers want their AI investments to deliver more value from the systems they already rely on," said Bob Evans, Founder, Cloud Wars.
"Extending agents into adjacent workflows like onboarding, travel, and expenses, where Workday already has the people and finance data and policies, is not only practical but also a transformational way to help HR and finance leaders meet and exceed their objectives," Evans said.
Workday executives said the IT service product grew from the view that staff support should reflect the full arc of an employee's time at a company, from joining to departure.
"We wanted to build something that handled IT completely - from the moment an employee joins the company to the moment they leave, and everything in between," said Joel Hellermark, Chief AI Officer, Workday.
"Workday already holds the organizational truth that makes that possible. Sana for ITSM is what acts on it," Hellermark said.
For travel and expenses, Workday is trying to remove one of the more unpopular administrative tasks for staff.
"The best expense report is the one you never have to do," said Max Wessel, Senior Vice President of Product, Workday.
"Our new Travel Agent makes this dream a reality by automatically handling every booking, receipt, and policy check, freeing employees from the mundane and giving finance teams more visibility and control," Wessel said.
Workday expects Sana for IT Service Management to reach early adopters in the second half of 2026, with broader availability later in the year. The Travel Agent is already available to early adopter customers.