Exclusive: Workday CTO Shan Moorthy on AI, Agents and APAC innovation

Workday is turning a major corner, and this time the agent is in.

That's how Shan Moorthy, Chief Technology Officer for Workday in Asia Pacific, sees the future of enterprise technology: moving from clunky integrations and one-size-fits-all software to modular, intelligent platforms led by agentic AI.

Speaking exclusively to TechDay, Moorthy detailed how Workday's latest product announcements, acquisitions and developer initiatives are laying the foundation for a more pragmatic, productive and people-centred tech future in the APAC region.

Moorthy, who is based in Melbourne, has deep roots in enterprise IT.

"I was over at Telstra as their CTO implementing Workday," he said. "So I've had four implementations of Workday under my belt. Glutton for punishment, I guess."

Now on the vendor side, Moorthy is focused on helping Workday customers understand "how we engineer, how we build, how we architect our products and how all the announcements fit into the bigger picture."

From monoliths to modularity

According to Moorthy, enterprise technology has undergone two significant shifts in the last decade.

"We went from this one-size-fits-all, monolithic model, to what I call 'most-of-breed' - buying lots of best-in-class applications that do one thing well," he explained. But that came with unintended consequences. "At Telstra, for example, I owned 3,000 applications. The CIO ends up owning the integration nightmare."

Now, he said, the market is returning to a more "pragmatic middle ground." That means domain-specific platforms - one for managing money, another for people, another for customers, that work well within themselves and, increasingly, with each other.

That's where agentic AI comes in.

The new integration layer

"Traditionally, we would have done point-to-point integrations with APIs," Moorthy said. "But now we're seeing the rise of AI agents as the integration point."

These agents are domain-aware, governed by strict privacy and security controls, and are capable of negotiating tasks across systems. For example, a sales manager might request job requisitions from a CRM agent, which then coordinates with a Workday agent to execute the request - without breaching any security protocols.

"It's the new API, but with intelligence layered on top," Moorthy said.

But are we ready for the long-term implications?

"We already see the trends," he explained. "The total amount of work in an organisation isn't changing. What's changing is who does it and how it's done."

For now, most organisations are using AI for "productivity uplift", making tasks easier, not replacing jobs. "Agentic AI is the next layer. It's about unplugging a person from a task and plugging in an agent," he said, noting that humans still retain accountability.

The goal is not layoffs, Moorthy added. "The better organisations see this as an enabler for speed and scale. Downsizing? That's a red herring. It's short-sighted."

Giving customers control and creativity

Moorthy highlighted new offerings like Workday Build and Workday Flex Credits as major shifts in how customers can consume and even create AI.

"Traditionally, we built agents to be deployed across all 11,000 of our customers," he said. "But Workday Build lets customers build their own agents - tailored to their own unique processes and IP."

Flex Credits allow APAC customers, who are typically cost-conscious, to "pay for AI based on the value it generates," Moorthy explained. "You're not paying for a seat licence assuming this agent runs 24/7. You're paying for the subtasks it actually completes."

He compared it to early cloud adoption, where organisations learned to optimise costs by turning off servers after hours. "It's the same idea with AI," he said.

And if customers run out of credits?

"We don't turn the tap off," Moorthy said firmly. "That would be grossly irresponsible. These are business-critical workflows. Customers can go into negative credits, and we true it up later."

APAC-built, globally scaled

Moorthy is also passionate about APAC's emerging developer talent, and Workday's growing commitment to openness.

"The biggest open-source technology we have now, Flowise, was developed by a couple of Malaysian kids," he said. "We're bringing them back to APAC for a tour to show that APAC can make a dent in the market."

Flowise, alongside Workday's recent acquisition of Swedish agent builder Sana, opens the door for low-code/no-code agent development. "Now, even business units can start building agents," Moorthy said, adding that it's all governed under Workday's Responsible AI framework and international standards like ISO 42001.

He was especially clear that the final decision-making always stays human: "The machine never makes the choice - it just presents the options."

Developer ecosystem and data privacy

Workday's open ecosystem now welcomes developers coding in Python, Java, Haskell, Go and beyond. "It's becoming more approachable, the barrier to entry is coming down," Moorthy said.

And with data security top of mind, partnerships with Snowflake, Databricks and Salesforce are shifting from risky data copies to zero-copy architectures.

"The data doesn't leave Workday," Moorthy said. "Other systems query it in real-time, which solves huge headaches for Chief Data Officers."

Productivity and wellbeing

What does all this mean for APAC customers? Moorthy shared one example from retail.

"They were getting 400 resumes a day during Christmas," he said. "Instead of ramping up recruitment staff, they used a hiring agent. The team stayed the same size but handled the spike, with a 60% productivity gain."

Another customer using Workday's contract intelligence agent saw a 20–30% reduction in legal hours spent reviewing contracts.

But for Moorthy, the most meaningful impact is personal.

"No one goes home thinking, 'I got everything done today,'" he said. "We want to change that. We want people to clock off at five and actually go live their lives."