Workday has introduced new tools in Workday Build for developers creating AI agents and applications on its platform, targeting HR, finance, and IT.
The launch includes three products: Developer Agent, Agent-Ready Tools, and Agent Passport. The package is designed to help developers build agents in existing coding environments, connect them to business data, and test them against security and compliance standards.
Developer Agent is aimed at software teams using natural-language prompts in coding tools such as Claude Code, Cline, Codex, Cursor, and Google Antigravity. Developers can use it to create custom agents that run on Workday and use the open AgentSkills standard.
The tool is intended to fit into current developer workflows rather than require a separate interface. For example, a developer could ask for an agent that alerts finance when a department is likely to exceed its quarterly budget, with the system selecting the relevant Workday tools, data connections, and documentation.
"Platforms win when they make the hard thing disappear for the developer," said Gabe Monroy, Chief Technology Officer, Workday.
"Anyone can give an agent speed, the hard part is letting it act on the org chart or ledger and trusting every step - and that's the part that Workday Build makes disappear," Monroy said.
Developer focus
Workday is positioning the launch around a problem facing software teams as companies expand their use of AI in sensitive business processes. Agent-building tools can help developers produce code more quickly, but errors in payroll, benefits administration, or finance records can create operational and regulatory risks.
Developer Agent is meant to reduce the setup work needed to build applications on top of Workday systems. Workday said this could shorten development time from days to minutes for some tasks by automating the selection of services and documentation.
"Agentic AI has permanently rewritten the developer playbook, shifting the focus from writing code to scaling impact," said Jay Wieczorkowski, General Manager, Developer Platform, Workday. "Developer Agent brings the power and trust of Workday Build to the agentic tools developers love, fast-tracking development so they can focus on something bigger: transforming the way the world works."
Workday also included endorsements from customers and partners already using or evaluating the product. Jules Mayberry, Workday Developer, Waste Connections, said the tool would provide a starting point for building agents on top of existing applications and free up more time to work with business stakeholders.
"As the only developer at Waste Connections, the Developer Agent will give me a real starting point to build agents on top of my existing Extend apps, handling the technical work so I can build cool, creative apps and agents while still learning," said Jules Mayberry, Workday Developer, Waste Connections. "That means more time with stakeholders to actually understand what the business needs."
Bharath Srinivas, Chief Technology Officer, Workday Business Group, Accenture, said the launch could help consultants and clients build reusable agent skills tied to business expertise.
"Developer Agent is an important advancement that enables us to co-create knowledge-encoded agents and reusable agent skills with our clients, turning expertise into action and business value," said Bharath Srinivas, Chief Technology Officer, Workday Business Group, Accenture. "It allows us to embed real-world process intelligence directly into agent skills, governed by people who understand the business. Beyond productivity gains, it represents a structural shift in how value is delivered."
Data access
Agent-Ready Tools form the second part of the launch. Workday described them as connectors for autonomous agents that need to perform actions such as retrieving records, updating benefits, or triggering approvals.
Unlike conventional APIs, these tools are structured to present business logic and context in ways AI agents can use more directly. They connect through open standards including Model Context Protocol, or MCP, and inherit the platform's existing security model, delegation controls, and audit trail.
For work outside Workday, developers can also create custom agent actions using Pipedream connectors and expose them through the same framework. This suggests Workday is trying to broaden its relevance beyond tasks that sit entirely within its own software stack.
Industry analysts have increasingly focused on whether large software vendors can make AI agents useful in business settings without creating new governance problems. Workday's approach is to tie agent development more closely to existing process controls in HR and finance systems.
"Every developer I talk to feels the pressure to build agentic automation faster," said Holger Mueller, Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research. "Workday's new Developer Agent provides the choice - bring your own tooling, build in the Developer Agent, or even use Sana Agents for an even broader scope of agentic AI. Workday is the only enterprise platform vendor giving developers these three choices to achieve developer velocity in the agentic AI era."
Verification layer
The third product, Agent Passport, is designed to test and monitor AI agents before and after deployment. Workday said it applies standards-based stamps showing which security and compliance tests an agent has passed, who verified them, and which standards were used.
Agent Passport checks agents against public frameworks including OWASP LLM Top 10, NIST AI RMF, and MITRE ATLAS. Cisco is the first attestation partner providing the verification that appears within the service.
That verification element addresses a growing concern for corporate technology buyers as they evaluate not only internally built agents but also third-party tools that may interact with employee records, financial data, and workflow systems. By adding a monitoring layer, Workday is seeking to make governance part of the development process rather than an afterthought.
Developer Agent and Agent-Ready Tools are available to early-access customers through Workday Extend Professional. Agent Passport is due to follow in early access later, with Cisco acting as the first external verifier for the service.