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

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through process chaos or outdated tools.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.


Visit Cloud Wars for more.