SE 32: The Work of Reinventing Work Is Just Getting Started, with Leaders from Workday and OneDigital

Send us Fan Mail At Workday Rising 2026 in Las Vegas, we joined the Workday executive team and customer community to discuss Workday's vision for AI and the future of work. We went beyond the headlines to understand how one of the world's leading HR tech companies is going through a "re-founding" moment, as co-founder Aneel Bhusri returns as CEO for a second stint at the helm. In this special compilation episode of AI and the Future of Work, we bring you three conversations recorded live at Workday Rising 2026. This is the first episode of our four-part Workday Rising series. John Bruce, VP of People Innovation and Technology at OneDigital, shares how his company is putting AI agents to work, from one that gives managers insights about their teams to ACE, a general "coworker" employees go to with their questions. Max Wessel, SVP of Product at Workday, shares how his team decides what to build and the origin story behind the event's big product announcements. Gerrit Kazmaier, President of Product and Technology at Workday, shares Workday's vision for using AI to restore humanness to work. All three leaders explain why the work of reinventing work is just getting started. Featured Guests John Bruce , VP of People Innovation and Technology at OneDigital . Max Wessel , SVP of Product at Workday . Gerrit Kazmaier , President of Product and Technology at Workday . In the coming weeks we will release each of these conversations in full. As each episode goes live, we will add the link here. What You'll Learn Why OneDigital calls its AI agents coworkers, how each one grows from intern to apprentice to coworker, and which moments, like onboarding, may still belong in Workday itself Why John's team has to teach its agents to push back, and the human skill he hopes AI can't replace: the curiosity to find the real problem What it means to run Workday like "the world's largest startup," and why taste and judgment matter when it's easy to generate code What generative UI means, and why agents still need forms and charts that feel familiar to the people using them Why nobody comes home proud of answering 50 emails, and how companies can decide what AI should do, what it can augment, and what should stay innately human The future Gerrit hopes for five years from now, and the "bandwidth tax" that keeps so many people from focusing on the work that inspires them Inspired by something you heard in this episode? Share your favorite insight about how work is being reinvented, and tag us on social. And don't forget to subscribe to AI and the Future of Work for more conversations with the leaders shaping the future of work. Other special episodes: SE 28: They Might Be Agentic, But We Have Agency: Leaders from Upwork, Axonis, and John Hancock on Where the Human Belongs (Live from Ai4 2026) SE 26: Designing AI for Accountability and Harmony with Leaders from Honeycomb, FieldAI, Archetype AI, and Zoom (Live from HumanX 2026 Special Episode) SE 27: AI and the Next Generation: What We Can Learn from Them (International Youth Day Special Episode) SE 19: AI and Education: How Artificial Intelligence Is Transformin

SE 32: The Work of Reinventing Work Is Just Getting Started, with Leaders from Workday and OneDigital | Live from Workday Rising 2026