Workday switches CEOs to meet AI challenges

There’s a change at the top at Workday as the company works to cope with the disruptions in the software market.

Aneel Bhusri has returned to lead the company that he helped to set up. He had stepped down as CEO in January 2024 to become executive chair, and was replaced by Carl Eschenbach.

The move is in response to the shifting market, as SaaS companies look to meet the challenge posed by AI, said Workday vice chair Mark Hawkins in the announcement of the change. “As we enter a defining moment shaped by AI, there is no one better than Aneel to lead this next chapter,” he said. “His vision, conviction, and deep connection to Workday’s culture will position the company to continue to lead in a changing landscape.” 

The change is effective immediately. Eschenbach will become a strategic advisor to the new CEO.

“We’re now entering one of the most pivotal moments in our history,” said Bhusri. “AI is a bigger transformation than SaaS — and it will define the next generation of market leaders.”

SaaS market threatened

Last week, Workday’s stock price, and that of many other SaaS vendors, fell after the release of Anthropic’s  Claude Cowork tool (a reworking of Claude Code aimed at non technical staff), followed closely by Claude Opus 4.6, prompted a mass sell-off of software company stock, dubbed the SaaSpocalypse, that wiped out nearly a trillion dollars in stock values.

So Workday was not alone, noted Nick Mayes, principal analyst with PAC Analysts,  “A lot of organizations have seen a fall in stock price. A lot of traditional software providers are realizing how much of their traditional models are going to be cannibalized. For example, agentic AI attacking the legal market is having a big impact.”

He said that bringing back Bhusri may be the shot in the arm that the company needed. “Eschenbach was a deal maker,” he said, pointing out that the company had completed several acquisitions over the past couple of years. “Markets could be reassured by having a technologist back at the helm. It’s something we’ve seen at other software companies; for example, Larry Ellison has got more hands-on at Oracle”

Claims that the SaaS market is dying were over-stated, he said. “In some cases, it’s true that Claude Cowork is going to be a medium or long term threat. But Workday has a headstart here; it has a considerable central repository of data, and the LLMs are going to have play catch-up.”

However, Mayes said that organizations should be wary of the current hype for agentic AI and the vagaries of the stock market  “If you’re an existing Workday customer, ignore the noise about stock price. It’s software with a high retention rate – no-one’s chucking it. Tread cautiously with AI strategy.”

He said that even companies who aren’t Workday customers could look at what the company has to offer, especially those operating in a highly regulated environment, noting, “LLM providers can’t meet those challenges yet, at least not at scale.”

Enterprises shouldn’t close the door to the current ERP vendors, he added. “Workday is one of the traditional providers that [still] has plenty to offer.”