It’s one of the most common questions we hear when talking to HR and People Ops teams about AI.
They’ve already invested in Workday. It’s their system of record. Now that Workday offers AI add-ons, it seems like a no-brainer to try it first. That makes sense—on paper. If your core HR platform is offering artificial intelligence features, why wouldn’t you assume it can handle the same work as a dedicated AI agent?
But in reality, those AI-powered enhancements often fall short.
In this post, we’ll explore the limitations of Workday’s AI and show how Wayside’s AI Agent is a whole different category—one that’s purpose-built to integrate deeply, take action, and actually resolve HR issues at scale.
Many teams roll out Workday’s AI tools hoping they’ll finally reduce the constant ping-pong of repetitive HR questions. But what actually happens?
One of the biggest challenges is access. For employees to get help, they need to log in to Workday, navigate to the right section, and find the AI tool. Spoiler: they rarely do.
This extra friction causes adoption rates to plummet. And let’s be honest—if the AI isn’t being used, it isn’t solving any problems.
Even when employees do interact with Workday’s AI, the responses can be underwhelming.
Because the tool isn’t trained on your organization’s specific policies, past conversations, or full system context, it often gives canned answers that miss the mark—or worse, lead employees astray.
Workday’s AI is mostly a glorified FAQ bot. It can handle the simplest of questions—like “What’s the PTO policy?”—but quickly falls apart when asked anything that requires nuance, cross-referencing, or understanding of real-world processes.
Rather than solving problems, Workday’s AI often ends up escalating or redirecting. That means more work for your HR team, not less.
A truly effective AI Agent for HR Operations needs to do more than answer Tier-0 questions. It needs to integrate, act, learn, and collaborate. And that’s where Workday’s AI really falls short.
Workday’s AI doesn't plug into the rest of your tech stack. A modern HR organization relies on a complex ecosystem—ticketing systems like Zendesk, benefits platforms, payroll software, intranet knowledge bases, Slack or Teams, and more.
Workday’s AI doesn’t access those tools, which means it’s blind to a lot of the context and can’t complete tasks across systems.
Most of the time, Workday’s AI can only tell you something—it can’t do anything. There’s no ability to make updates, file tickets, route approvals, or assist in workflows. It’s reactive, not proactive.
Because it doesn’t ingest and learn from your actual HR policies or historical conversations, Workday’s AI can’t offer tailored, policy-specific help.
When AI can’t handle something, there’s no graceful fallback or handoff. Without human-in-the-loop capabilities, your team is left cleaning up the mess manually.
Wayside’s AI isn’t a Workday enhancement—it’s a standalone, enterprise-grade AI Agent for HR that’s designed to work in the real world.
It doesn’t replace your HR systems—it works with them to create a seamless, intelligent support experience.
Instead of living in a silo, Wayside’s AI integrates directly into your most-used platforms—Slack, Microsoft Teams, and your intranet—so employees can get help where they already work.
It also connects to your HRIS, ticketing platform, benefits systems, and more—giving it full visibility and the ability to take action across tools.
Wayside’s AI doesn’t just regurgitate policy pages. It can answer complex payroll, benefits, and compliance questions with precision.
Employees can ask about paycheck discrepancies, leaves of absence, eligibility windows, or how changing their hours will impact benefits—and get clear, specific answers.
Perhaps most importantly, Wayside’s AI is collaborative. It does 95% of the work—fetching data, routing tasks, filling out forms—and then passes the baton to a human for approval or review when needed.
Instead of going full-auto, we’ve built a hybrid AI model that keeps humans in control while letting them do 10x more.
Workday’s AI features can be a decent add-on if you’re looking for something basic and cost-effective. But for teams serious about transforming HR operations, it simply doesn’t cut it.
If you're tired of deflection, poor adoption, and shallow answers, it might be time to graduate to something better.
With Wayside, you get a true AI Agent for HR—one that integrates, acts, learns, and collaborates. And the results? 3-5x more employee questions automated, and HR teams finally free to focus on strategic work.
Want to see how Wayside’s AI can work inside your org? Schedule a demo here.
