Workday Launches AI Feature to Help Finance Teams Move Beyond Excel Spreadsheets
Workday has introduced Adaptive Decision Intelligence, an AI-powered feature designed to replace Excel-based financial planning in enterprise environments. The tool integrates data from multiple sources including Workday's own systems, Salesforce, Snowflake, and cloud storage, while maintaining governance and auditability. The move addresses a widespread industry challenge where finance teams spend significant time on data wrangling rather than strategic planning.
Workday, ranked No. 430 on the Fortune 500, is launching Adaptive Decision Intelligence within its Adaptive Planning platform to address the persistent use of Excel spreadsheets in financial planning and analysis (FP&A). According to Ben Pierce, general manager of Workday Adaptive Planning, finance teams typically follow a problematic cycle of extracting data from planning systems into spreadsheets, sharing copies, and losing track of the authoritative version. The new AI feature allows users to input natural language prompts to pull actuals, combine data from multiple sources, detect discrepancies, and build financial models while displaying its reasoning. Importantly, all operations occur within the platform's governance framework rather than relying on public large language models. The feature is currently in early adopter testing with a broader rollout planned for fall. Workday acquired Adaptive Planning in 2018 for approximately $1.5 billion, and the product now serves over 7,000 customers, with roughly 4,000 running it on non-Workday systems.
What different sources said
- FortuneCenter
Finance teams can’t quit Excel. Workday wants to change that with AI
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