Blog: The Future of Workday Consulting: Smaller Teams, Smarter Systems, Faster Outcomes

Workday customers want the same thing every software buyer wants today — faster results, lower costs, and less manual effort. But the consulting model many of us grew up with was built for long timelines, large teams, and highly manual configuration work. That reality is changing, and it is changing quickly.

In this week’s episode, I spoke with Harish Vashisht, founder of PeopleFlow, about how AI agents are reshaping Workday work. His team is building automation around release testing, regression cycles, and integration monitoring — the tasks that historically consume SME bandwidth and delay projects. The outcome is not theoretical; customers are already reducing effort, improving accuracy, and speeding up deployments.

Harish believes consulting teams will shrink, not because talent becomes less valuable, but because talent becomes amplified. Future projects may be led by smaller teams of strong consultants who understand processes and business logic, supported by agent-driven tools that execute tasks, monitor systems, and preserve knowledge.

Another compelling theme was knowledge retention. When SMEs leave, companies lose critical context — why decisions were made, what changed, and when. Intelligent systems that learn history and patterns may eliminate that gap, making transitions smoother and onboarding faster.

Finally, we talked about careers. Harish’s advice was simple: build foundational knowledge before specializing, learn end-to-end flows, and start experimenting with AI. You don’t have to master it — but ignoring it is not an option.

If you’re curious how automation and AI will reshape Workday consulting, and what it means for your career, this is a conversation worth listening to.
Check out the full episode to dive deeper into the future of Workday work.