At its 2026 DevCon platform event in Singapore Workday unveiled a new set of agentic capabilities within Workday Build, aimed at helping developers create, connect and verify AI agents that can operate on HR and finance data.
The announcement positions Workday’s approach as closing the gap between fast agent development and the governance required when agents affect payroll, benefits and the company ledger.
At the centre of the update is Developer Agent, a capability designed to let developers build AI apps and agents using natural language inside the agent-development tools they already use, including Claude Code, Cline, Codex, Cursor and Google Antigravity.
Workday says Developer Agent can select the appropriate Workday building blocks, connect data and services and pull in relevant documentation and examples—turning setup work that might take days into minutes.
Workday is also introducing Agent-Ready Tools, described as controlled guardrails for agents seeking to access HR and finance data through Model Context Protocol (MCP). The company frames these tools as purpose-built for autonomous agents, providing structured business logic and context to reduce hallucination and latency, while inheriting Workday’s existing security, delegation and audit-trail model.
The third pillar, Agent Passport, focuses on verification and ongoing monitoring. Workday says the system provides “digital stamps” backed by trusted security and compliance vendors, allowing teams to test and continuously govern both internal and third-party agents against public standards, including OWASP LLM Top 10, NIST AI RMF and MITRE ATLAS.
"AI agents are now doing the most sensitive work in the enterprise, from onboarding employees to processing payments, and one insecure agent can leak employee data, break compliance, and put the company on the front page for the wrong reasons," said Dean Arnold, vice president, AI Platform, Workday.
"Agent Passport gives companies confidence that every agent has been independently tested and verified, and the power to shut any of them down across the business the moment something changes." Dean Arnold
Workday also names Cisco as the first attestation partner powering the stamps shown in Agent Passport, with the aim of providing independent verification that an agent meets open and industry-recognised security and compliance standards.
Workday CTO Gabe Monroy said: “Platforms win when they make the hard thing disappear for the developer… and that's the part that Workday Build makes disappear.”
Availability is split between early access and general release targets. Workday states that Developer Agent and Agent-Ready Tools are available to early access customers through Workday Extend Professional, with general availability projected for the second half of 2026. Agent Passport is expected to follow with early access in the second half of 2026, and general availability projected before the end of 2026.
