AI and Education With Workday

Who is Workday?

Workday will be a familiar name for anyone in the ERP world. Founded by Dave Duffield and Aneel Bhusri in 2005, Workday is a cloud-based software company that provides ERP (enterprise resource planning) solutions for HR, finance, planning, and analytics. Their main products are HCM (Human Capital Management) and financial management software.

Although Workday has been implementing AI solutions in general for the past ten years, they have recently embedded more AI into their HCM solutions. According to Workday, they understand that AI will fundamentally change how people work and they want to jump on the bandwagon and be a part of driving the future of work. The emphasis they place on their AI offerings is one with human machine teaming at the forefront.

AI policy

Although it is widely understood that AI will change the future of work, there is a lack of trust in AI, especially on the part of employees. In the figures Chandler Morse—Vice President of Public Policy for Workday—presented, only 40 percent of employees believe their management knows how to best implement AI within the enterprise. Additionally, only 21 percent believed leaders would put workers first in AI deployment. Additionally, many employees also feel that they are not being informed about any ethical framework a company has in place—or is working towards having in place—regarding AI.

Workday does the exact opposite by being transparent about their AI use and making a fact sheet available to their customers regarding how their data is being used. There are certain principles the company ensure they incorporate regarding AI. First, any AI implemented must augment human potential. Secondly, it must have a positive impact on society. The third principle is that the implementation must champion fairness and transparency. Finally, implementation must be focused on preserving data privacy.

Regulation is also a topic that concerns Workday. The company’s advisory board hosts monthly discussions on where Workday is regarding AI responsibility; said meeting also includes data and social scientists as Workday is interested in being ethical from various viewpoints. The company advocates for regulation and transparency in order to reach a certain goal: trust in AI. Without trust, there can be no going forward. No one can trust products with AI incorporated in them if they do not trust AI itself. That trust can only be born from transparency, from regulation.

The 2018 EU AI Act was a first of its kind in the globe, and Workday is a strong proponent for it and where it’s headed. In the US, Workday is implementing a voluntary framework based on the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), hoping it will harmonize with the EU’s AI act. However, as AI frameworks will inevitably crop up in other countries as well—as AI continues to be implemented more and more and the need for regulation grows even stronger—the need for a global framework will become more pressing and crucial.

Some believe the GDPR has staunched innovation because many mid-sized companies were left floundering in its wake, leaving little time to dedicate to research and innovation. Regulating technology is complicated; however, transparency is key, and in order to avoid the problems smaller companies have faced with the GDPR, EU governments plan to assist companies with compliance once the AI Act comes into effect.

To learn more about Workday's AI policy, click here.

Workday collaborates with TU Dublin

Workday has several educational programs in place to help promote interest in computer science. The programs aim to dispel common myths about what programming entails and also helps to promote the inclusion of more women and diversity in the field.

To that end, Workday collaborates with TU Dublin to help foster the next generation of computer scientists and engineers. As it is essential to promote interest in the field from a young age, the collaboration includes workshops and other educational outreach opportunity beginning from primary school. 

TU Dublin also participates in the TrailblazHER program, which seeks to advance female empowerment. TrailblazHER is a community that provides support and education for women and girls, helping them develop their careers and reach their full potential.

To find out more about Workday's collaboration with TU Dublin, click here.

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