Workday's AI ARR Nears $600 Million, Up 200%, as 22,000 Internal Agents Built in 3 Weeks

Workday reported fiscal second-quarter 2027 results on August 27, 2026, for the quarter ended July 31. Total revenue was $2.649 billion, up 13% year-over-year, and subscription revenue was $2.471 billion, up 14%.

AI Revenue Momentum

• AI annual recurring revenue reached nearly $600 million, up more than 200% year-over-year
• AI products generated more than $100 million in new annual contract value in the quarter, now representing over 25% of all new ACV
• The company raised full fiscal 2027 subscription revenue guidance to $9.94-9.95 billion (13% growth) and non-GAAP operating margin guidance to 31%

The Internal Adoption Data Point

Workday deployed its Sana Enterprise AI workbench internally on August 4. Within three weeks, 12,000 employees had become active users, building 22,000 custom agents using the platform's natural-language Agent Builder — a concrete, quantified internal proof point for the product's usability, offered alongside 23 new Sana capabilities introduced during the quarter. Workday's Deployment Agent separately reached more than 4,600 customers and nearly 24,000 users, with query volume rising nearly 500% quarter-over-quarter.

Capital Allocation Signal

Workday completed its prior $5 billion share repurchase program six months ahead of schedule and approved a new $4 billion open-ended buyback — a signal of management confidence that came alongside the raised guidance, even as the company issued somewhat softer forward guidance for the following quarter and fiscal year.

What This Means for HCM and Enterprise Software Buyers

The specific, quantified internal-adoption numbers for Sana Enterprise — 12,000 employees and 22,000 custom agents in three weeks — are a more concrete signal of genuine product usability than adoption statistics reported by a vendor about its external customer base alone, since Workday has full visibility and no incentive to embellish its own internal rollout results. For organizations evaluating HCM and enterprise AI workbench platforms, this internal case study is worth weighing alongside Workday's broader AI ARR growth trajectory when assessing platform maturity.