VENDORiQ: Workday’s Sana Acquisition – A Unified AI Strategy or Incremental Advancement?

Why it Matters

Workday’s acquisition of Sana addresses perceived gaps in its platform by integrating AI capabilities, particularly in knowledge management and learning, into Workday. Historically, ERP systems, including Workday, have functioned as robust systems of record but have demonstrated limitations in providing proactive, personalised employee experiences and intuitive access to disparate enterprise knowledge bases. Sana’s AI-powered search offers semantic understanding and contextual relevance across various data sources; effectively, it adds semantic search and summarisation capabilities to Workday and related enterprise information sources. 

In addition, Sana’s AI agents provide task automation and intelligent recommendations. Its agents can pre-populate forms, suggest relevant learning modules based on a user’s project involvement, or flag compliance-related information relevant to a user’s role. This functionality presents a shift towards an active, rather than reactive, user experience within the Workday environment.

With this acquisition, Workday also aims to leverage Sana Learn, Sana’s AI-native platform that provides content generation for learning, personalised tutoring, and advanced analytics, to enhance its own learning management capabilities.

How Does the Combined Workday/Sana Combo Compare in the AI-Enabled ERP Market?

Workday’s acquisition of Sana reflects a broader industry trend towards embedding AI for enhanced user experience and operational efficiency. Salesforce has made strides in AI-driven CRM with Einstein, and SAP continues to integrate AI across its S/4HANA suite. Microsoft Dynamics leverages its AI capabilities from the broader Azure ecosystem and Copilot. TechnologyOne recently launched deeply embedded AI within its ERP, as well as a conversational AI agentic service. Even Zoho has launched (in beta) an agentic platform for its CRM.

Workday’s strategy with the acquisition of Sana focuses specifically on unifying the employee experience by making Workday the central point for knowledge and action. In the short term, this could differentiate Workday by offering a more seamless, integrated ‘front door’ experience compared to some competitors, where AI enhancements are applied more discreetly to specific modules or functions, or as a ‘bolt-on’.  While Salesforce leads with its deep integration strategy, and the Workday/Sana combo follows closely, the reality is that all ERP solutions will embed AI deeply over the next few years. Any ‘AI advantage’ any vendors had at this time will be short-lived.  AI will be a commodity capability across all core business platforms within the next 2 to 3 years. 

Who’s Impacted (for Workday Customers)?

• Chief Information Officers (CIOs): They will need to evaluate the technical integration roadmap, data security implications of unifying disparate systems, and the overall return on investment for this enhanced AI capability. 
• Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs): The acquisition directly impacts employee experience, learning and development strategies, and talent management, requiring oversight of adoption and impact on workforce productivity. 
• Chief Financial Officers (CFOs): They will monitor the financial implications of the acquisition and the efficiency gains expected from the unified platform, which will impact resource allocation and operational costs. 
• Learning and Development Leads: The new AI-native learning tools will necessitate a review of existing training programmes and strategies to leverage personalised learning paths and content generation.
• Enterprise Architects: They must assess the architectural implications of integrating Sana’s AI capabilities into the broader enterprise technology landscape and ensure scalability and interoperability.

Next Steps

Organisations with Workday, or considering it, should:

• Review Workday’s roadmap for the integration of Sana into their platform.
• Conduct a thorough internal audit of their existing knowledge management systems and employee experience challenges to identify specific areas where Sana’s capabilities could provide tangible benefits. 
• Develop a strategy for change management and user adoption, as the success of a ‘new front door’ experience hinges on effective employee engagement.