{"id":181261,"date":"2025-09-25T17:38:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T17:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/181261\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T17:38:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T17:38:08","slug":"workday-got-nearly-80-of-its-employees-to-use-ai-and-it-took-more-than-just-one-general-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/181261\/","title":{"rendered":"Workday got nearly 80% of its employees to use AI\u2014and it took more than just one general training"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite spending a\u00a0pretty penny<\/a>\u00a0on AI technology, many companies aren\u2019t having much luck getting their workforce to\u00a0use it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After discovering that its own employees were timid about using AI in the workplace, enterprise software giant Workday spearheaded a program to encourage adoption. Ashley Goldsmith, Workday\u2019s chief people officer, recently spoke with HR Brew about that initiative, and how her own team is using AI.<\/p>\n

Adoption boost.\u00a0Internal research revealed that Workday employees weren\u2019t\u00a0using AI tools<\/a>\u00a0because they weren\u2019t clear on the appropriate use cases. So Workday launched a program called \u201cEveryday AI,\u201d through which it encouraged employees to use and experiment with AI, and learn how it\u2019s already being used within the organization.<\/p>\n

To start, Workday held a company-wide meeting in April that CEO Carl Eschenbach opened by discussing his own AI use. Then, Goldsmith said he gave the floor to employees, who shared how they use different AI tools. Workday intentionally focused the event on employee experiences, as they thought these would do more to engage and inspire than a more general training.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith that, we saw this huge adoption and real enthusiasm,\u201d Goldsmith told HR Brew. The company has also encouraged adoption in other ways, including leveraging a peer recognition tool for AI use, and providing managers with resources (such as prompt cards) to help them gamify AI use within their teams.<\/p>\n

As of June, 79% of Workday employees were using the technology,\u00a0exceeding the goal the company set for itself<\/a>\u00a0earlier this year. It aims to further increase adoption rates and mandated that every employee set a goal for AI use, whether that be doubling their usage or leveraging it to reduce hours spent on mundane tasks. Goldsmith hopes Workday\u2019s recently announced AI tools and acquisitions will encourage more use as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to take full advantage of and maximize all the efficiency and productivity and assistance that we can gain from within those tools,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

AI in HR.\u00a0Goldsmith\u2019s team has adopted AI more quickly than the rest of the company, and has seen several successful use cases.<\/p>\n

Workday\u2019s recruiting agent, for example, has helped streamline the process of sourcing and selecting candidates. Recruiters saw a 12% decrease in their workloads after the agent was introduced, allowing them more time for critical tasks that were otherwise neglected, including post-interview debriefs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat 12% was really quickly redeployed into making sure we had these thoughtful, well-facilitated conversations,\u201d Goldsmith said. \u201cWe\u2019re hiring faster, we\u2019re getting really good quality candidates. Everybody feels like it was a great use of their time to interview, because they were really heard and their thoughts were heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team has also used AI to analyze employee feedback gathered through Workday\u2019s employee sentiment tool, Peakon. The technology analyzes thousands of comments and provides insights and trends, giving Goldsmith\u2019s team actionable insights without having to read every individual piece of feedback. The result: initiatives like Workday\u2019s\u00a0\u201cwork from almost anywhere\u201d<\/a>\u00a0program.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s truly game-changing in terms of how you constantly listen to employees,\u201d Goldsmith said. \u201cI think, in the world today, where we know trust is critical and changes at breakneck speed, it\u2019s harder to continue to stay in touch with your employees. To build [and] keep trust at that speed, listening is so incredibly important.\u201d<\/p>\n

When spearheading workforce-wide initiatives related to L&D or AI transformation, HR leaders tend to neglect their own employees\u2019 needs, according to Goldsmith. To ensure her team engages with AI, Goldsmith incorporated the technology into a\u00a0Shark Tank-style competition, during which HR staff present how they\u2019re using AI for a chance to win $1,000. While the competition is unique to her team, it mirrors the broader push her team has spearheaded to encourage more AI use throughout the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if we follow the advice we give others, it really does work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

This report was originally published<\/a> by HR Brew<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26\u201327, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of business. Apply for an invitation.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite spending a\u00a0pretty penny\u00a0on AI technology, many companies aren\u2019t having much luck getting their workforce to\u00a0use it. After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,2054,107254,8378,74,2122,62726],"class_list":["post-181261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-human-resources","tag-leadership-training","tag-morning-brew","tag-technology","tag-training","tag-workday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}