Workday & Anthropic link AI tools for HR & finance
Workday and Anthropic have agreed to work together to connect Workday Sana with Claude, Anthropic's AI assistant. The goal is to let people use AI tools for human resources (HR) and finance tasks.
Users will be able to start tasks in either Sana, Workday's system for coordinating work, or Claude, while keeping the same permissions and safety controls. Sana will also become the new Workday Home.
The partnership combines Claude's ability to reason through problems with Workday's business data and knowledge of how a company works. For example, Sana can manage tasks that involve several steps, such as reviewing employee pay or closing financial records. It can ask Claude to handle specific reasoning tasks when needed.
The two systems share tasks and information through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard that lets work move between different tools without having to start over. Workday's existing rules and controls will stay in place. Companies will not need a separate set of permissions or have administrators set up each user individually.
This means employees can make requests using everyday language. Sana can then bring together the tools they need, such as forms, calendars, approval cards and screens for specific tasks. Workday said these screen elements are created as needed by Jev, an AI model from TypeSafe AI.
HR and finance
The companies gave several examples of how the connected tools could work. In one example, a hiring manager could use Claude to compare open jobs with the company's current number of employees and its budget. The manager could then create a plan to fill roles by moving existing employees into new positions.
In another example, a finance leader could check invoices that do not match purchase orders. The leader could approve these invoices in Claude or send them to Sana for further handling. Every action would still follow the customer's existing permissions, approval steps and record-keeping controls. Claude would show users only the information they are allowed to see.
Customers that use both companies' products will also be able to build their own AI agents directly in Claude using Workday Agent-Ready Tools. These tools include rules for managing agents, security features and records of their actions.
The announcement is also part of Workday's wider effort to help customers and partners build AI agents on its platform without changing their existing compliance rules. Workday Agent-Ready Tools, Workday Data Cloud, Developer Agent, Custom Agents and Agent Harness are now generally available.
These products let organisations build and run AI agents using the development tools and AI models they prefer, while keeping Workday's permissions, approval steps and records of actions in place.
Existing ties
The new partnership builds on an existing business relationship between the two companies. Anthropic already uses Workday Financials and Workday Human Capital Management to manage its finance and employee operations.
Workday has started using Claude Enterprise within its own business and plans to begin using Cowork. The company said its engineering and go-to-market teams already use Claude, while its product and development teams use Claude Code to build Workday products.
Workday also said its Developer Agent connects to Claude to help software developers build on the Workday platform. The latest integration brings Sana and Workday Agent-Ready Tools to customers that use both companies' products, while keeping Workday's existing rules and controls in place.
"Customers want the best AI agents for their people and finances. These agents need to understand their business rules and use Claude's powerful ability to reason through problems," said Gerrit Kazmaier, President, Product and Technology, Workday. "Together, Workday Sana and Claude make it possible to use AI across the business in a way that follows the rules and gets real work done."
Anthropic said the partnership focuses on decisions that are central to managing employees and company finances.
"HR and finance decisions affect every employee's pay, role and career. Workday is where thousands of organisations carry out this work and set the rules that guide it. Claude can help people make these decisions faster and with more confidence. Together, they let Workday customers plan a pay review cycle or close their financial books, while applying their own controls at every step," said Ankur Sinha, Head of Engineering, Enterprise and Verticals, Anthropic.
The Sana plugin for Claude is currently available to customers in an early-access program. Workday said it serves more than 11,500 organisations worldwide, including more than 65% of the Fortune 500.