Workday’s Gerrit Kazmaier on Simplifying ERP with AI‑First Design & Open Ecosystem | Cloud Wars Live

Cloud Wars Live with Bob Evans

In this episode, Bob Evans chats with Gerrit Kazmaier, President, Products and Technology, Workday. They explore how Workday is evolving into a platform company, the role of AI agents in reshaping enterprise workflows, and why trust, accuracy, and extensibility are key to future-ready business solutions. Kazmaier also discusses Workday’s approach to ecosystem innovation and composable ERP.

Workday’s AI Future

The Big Themes:

• AI at the Core: Workday is reshaping how enterprises operate by embedding AI into the core of their business processes. This isn’t about slapping AI onto legacy systems as a side panel or assistant. It’s about redefining how people work, with AI-led experiences, purpose-built agents, and intelligent orchestration. From onboarding to payroll, Workday is transforming each layer of the enterprise with tools that understand business context.
• Open Platform and Data Integration: Customers demand flexibility and interoperability. Workday is responding by making openness a foundational principle — not just a tagline. Through partnerships with Snowflake, Databricks, Microsoft, and Salesforce, Workday ensures that enterprise data is not locked away but is seamlessly integrated across platforms. Whether you're building a forecasting model in Snowflake or enriching financials in Workday, the data now flows freely.
• Workday’s Focus: Kazmaier referenced a quote: “Technology evolves from primitive to complex to simple.” Today’s ERP systems sit in the “complex” phase — bloated, hard to manage, and expensive. Workday’s goal is to move ERP into the “simple” era. That means intuitive, intelligent systems that just work — powered by AI, open by design, and personalized for each user. The aim is to empower CEOs to drive outcomes, and employees to thrive at work, without wading through process chaos or outdated tools.

The Big Quote: “I frankly think that today, the default is that vendors have a slew of generic agents, they hand them over to their customers, and wish them good luck in figuring out how it's supposed to work. When we say, open AI platform, I talk about purpose-built frameworks and tools like our new Agent Builder . . . so that you can seamlessly compose, you know, workflows in the definition and context of your business and expect them to work with high accuracy and reliability, without becoming an AI expert yourself."

Learn more:

Follow Gerrit on LinkedIn, and read more about Workday and agentic AI.

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