Workday CEO's AI talk can't shake off weaker sales forecast

Workday CEO Aneel Bhusri has used the first quarterly earnings announcement since he returned to the big chair to reassure investors the company is building more capable agentic AI while keeping the fundamentals of the HR platform strong.

“I'm very optimistic about what we're doing on the agentic front,” Bhusri told investors during the company’s fourth quarter earnings call on Tuesday evening. “But when I look at where our business is today the core is rock solid. We built these great HR financial applications, and they continue to grow. And we have this opportunity to build these agentic solutions on top. I'm very bullish on where we're headed.”

That sentiment wasn’t enough to stave off bears.

Workday forecast a sales slowdown, saying that subscription revenue would grow 12 to 13 percent in the company's upcoming fiscal year ending January 31, 2027, coming in ...