I spent this week at Workday DevCon 2026, and I’m still processing what I heard.
DevCon is not just a smaller version of Workday Rising. Rising covers a much broader functional audience. DevCon is where many of the deeper technical conversations happen, integrations, Extend, Orchestrate, Data Cloud, agents, and now the future of Workday development.
This year, the biggest announcement for me was Developer Agent.
Developer Agent gives users the ability to describe the type of Extend app or agent they want to build, and it can begin creating pieces of that solution. It can create pages, model components, business objects, business processes, agent skills, and even register an agent in the Agent System of Record.
That is a big deal.
But I do not think it means developers are going away.
I had a chance to test it in the lab, and I also talked with others who pushed it harder than I did. One friend intentionally asked it to do something using a SOAP call he knew would not work. The agent processed the request, recognized the SOAP call was not possible, found a RAAS approach that could work instead, and built that into the app.
That is impressive.
At the same time, when things went wrong in my own testing, it was still clear that having a developer mindset matters. The tool may do a lot of the repetitive work, but someone still needs to understand how Workday development works, how to troubleshoot issues, and how to make good design decisions.
Another theme I’m still processing is the future of how people will access Workday.
Ten years ago, the Workday UI felt modern compared to many other enterprise systems. Today, user expectations have changed. People are getting used to ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, and conversational interfaces. That raises a real question:
Will the Workday UI continue to be the front door?
Or will more users access Workday through agents, copilots, Sana, Microsoft, ServiceNow, OpenAI, or other enterprise platforms?
That question matters because Workday is not the only company building agent infrastructure. Workday has the Agent System of Record and Agent Hub, but other major platforms are also trying to become the place where enterprise agents live. For customers, the question may become: which agents belong inside Workday, and which belong in a broader enterprise platform?
Agent governance also stood out.
The Agent Passport announcement is interesting because it acknowledges a real concern. As companies begin creating more agents, they will need to know whether those agents can be trusted. Can they resist prompt injection? Are they safe at runtime? Do they preserve audit integrity? Do they respect delegated authority and human control?
Building agents may not be the hardest part.
Governing them may be.
Workday Data Cloud was another important topic. The value is not just that it gives you another reporting tool. The bigger issue is enterprise data fragmentation. Many organizations have hundreds of SaaS applications, with only a portion of them connected. That slows analytics, AI, and reporting. Data Cloud, Live Data Query, Prism, and related tools are part of Workday’s answer to that problem.
But there is also a practical divide emerging.
Many of the most exciting tools require additional licensing, such as Extend Pro, Data Cloud, or consumption through flex credits. That means not every Workday customer will have access to the same innovation at the same pace.
Some customers will invest, experiment, and move quickly.
Others may continue using Workday much the way they do today.
And that is not necessarily right or wrong. It is a choice.
For Workday professionals, that choice has career implications. Do you want to work for a company that is aggressively adopting new tools? Or are you happier in an organization that values stability and is slower to change?
I do not think AI will transform all Workday customers equally.
The difference may not be the technology.
It may be budget, licensing, priorities, leadership, and willingness to change.
On this week’s episode of Workday Gold, I share more of what I’m still processing from DevCon 2026, including Developer Agent, flex credits, Agent Passport, Workday Data Cloud, deployment agent, and what all of this may mean for customers, consultants, and Workday careers.
Listen to the full episode for the complete conversation.
Listen here!
Keith Bitikofer is a Workday coach and consultant who helps professionals navigate their careers in the Workday ecosystem. Listen to the Workday Gold podcast for more insights on career transitions and leadership development here
Want to learn more from the Workday ecosystem? Connect with Keith Bitikofer on LinkedIn for ongoing insights about Workday support and team management.