Workday Self-Service Agent

Workday’s Self-Service Agent answers employee questions and finishes tasks such as time off, expenses and profile updates. Employees can use it in Workday, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 Copilot or Gemini. Every Workday customer can use it with Workday’s Flex Credits. An answer costs 1 Flex Credit and a finished task costs 5. Workday sets the dollar price of a Flex Credit, so ask for it before you compare.

By Ashish Manchanda Published 5 Oct 2026 Last updated 5 Oct 2026

Workday’s assistant finishes HR tasks, and the order cannot be cancelled

In one line

Workday’s Self-Service Agent gives employees instant answers and completes their requests inside Workday. Every order is non-cancellable.

Buy it if

You already run HR in Workday. You want employees to ask for time off, expenses or profile changes in Slack, Microsoft Teams or Workday, and get them done. Your lawyer is happy with a contract you cannot cancel.

Do not buy it if

Most of your HR data sits outside Workday and you need the assistant to act on it. You need to cancel or get a refund if it does not work. You need a fixed dollar price before you sign.

Price

There is no extra licence and no separate paywall. You pay in Flex Credits. Workday also gives each customer a yearly free allowance based on company size.

It answers questions and completes requests inside Workday

An employee asks a question in plain language. The assistant answers from live Workday data. If the employee asks for something to be done, it checks their permissions in Workday. It then does the approved action and sends back a confirmation. It handles time-off requests, expenses and profile updates from start to finish.

For big moments such as a promotion or a job change, it guides the employee step by step. Workers and managers can also use it to see compensation, payments and tax forms. Workday announced the Sana Self-Service Agent on 17 March 2026 with more than 300 skills. A skill is one thing the assistant knows how to do.

Employees can chat with it in Slack, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Gemini or Workday. Workday Everywhere, the part that runs in Slack and Teams, comes in ten languages. English is the default. In Workday Everywhere, workers and managers get the actions and information they already have in Workday. On 13 May 2026 the Microsoft 365 Copilot version became available to all eligible Workday and Microsoft customers.

The product comes from Sana, a company Workday agreed to buy on 16 September 2025 for about $1.1 billion. Workday announced the purchase was complete on 4 November 2025. You will see both names, Sana and Workday, on Workday’s pages.

Our guide to AI HR assistants shows how the rest of this market compares.

It completes the task and leaves a record in your audit trail

It finishes the task, not just the answer

Employees ask for time off, an expense or a profile change. The Self-Service Agent checks their permissions, does the approved action and sends back a confirmation. It handles these three jobs from start to finish. It also answers in plain language using live Workday data.

Employees use it in the apps they already chat in

Employees can talk to it in Slack, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Gemini or Workday itself. Workday Everywhere, the part that works inside Slack and Teams, comes in ten languages. English is the default.

Every finished action leaves a permanent record

When the assistant completes an action, the log goes into your standard Workday audit trail. Workday says it never shares customer data to train third-party public models.

Managers get help too

Workers and managers can see pay, payments and tax forms through it, among other tasks. In Workday Everywhere they can use the actions and information they already have in Workday. For promotions and job changes it gives step-by-step guidance.

It suits companies that already run HR in Workday

You already run HR in Workday

The assistant works on your Workday data and follows your Workday roles. Sana for Workday and the Sana Self-Service Agent come to every Workday customer through Flex Credits, with no extra licence and no separate paywall.

You are a mid-sized company

Workday markets its HR software for companies under 3,500 employees. Workday also gives every customer a yearly allowance of free Flex Credits that depends on company size. Ask what yours is.

Your HR team answers the same questions all day

At one large company, the assistant cut questions to the HR team by 29%, from 35,000 a year to 25,000.

Orders cannot be cancelled and the price is in Workday’s own units

You cannot cancel an order and you cannot get the money back

Under Workday’s Universal Main Subscription Agreement, every Order Form is non-cancellable and every payment is non-refundable. The agreement states some exceptions. Either side can end the contract after a serious breach by the other. The breach must still be unfixed 30 days after written notice. Ask your lawyer to read the exceptions before you sign.

The price comes in Workday’s own units, not in money

Workday charges in “Flex Credits”. A Flex Credit is a unit you spend each time the assistant does something. An answer costs 1 and a finished task costs 5. Ask Workday for the dollar price of one unit in your contract.

It works on Workday data and Workday roles

Its answers come from live Workday data and its permission checks follow Workday roles. If part of your HR information sits in another system, ask Workday what the assistant can do with that part.

Chats are deleted after 30 days

Workday deletes Self-Service Agent chats after 30 days. The log of a completed action stays in your audit trail. If your policy needs a record of what an employee asked, ask Workday how you can keep it.

Workday Assistant is on its way out

Workday plans to retire Workday Assistant in a 2027 release. Workday recommends the Self-Service Agent for Workday Everywhere. If you use Workday Assistant today, plan the move.

Tasks cost more than answers, and leaving takes up to three months

The Self-Service Agent is open to every Workday customer through Flex Credits, with no extra licence. An answer that looks up information uses 1 Flex Credit. A task the assistant completes uses 5. For every 100 answers and 100 finished tasks, that is 600 Flex Credits.

Workday gives each customer a yearly allowance of free Flex Credits. The size of the allowance depends on company size. Ask for your number in writing. Also ask for the dollar price of each credit you buy beyond it.

Read the contract before the demo. Every Order Form is non-cancellable and every payment is non-refundable, with the exceptions the agreement states.

When the contract ends, Workday keeps the service running for up to three months. It also gives you limited access for up to 60 days, at no extra cost, to take your content out. The content comes out in a format a computer can read. After that Workday has no duty to keep your content. It deletes your content by deleting your Workday instance, which is your company’s own Workday set-up. It removes backup copies on its own schedule.

You could also build the same steps on your own systems. We have mapped what that looks like. The HR Agent Map

Seven questions for the sales call

What is the dollar price of one Flex Credit in our contract? Good answer: A written price per unit, and a price list for any extra units.
How many free Flex Credits do we get each year at our size? Good answer: A number in the order form, and what happens when we use it up.
Which exceptions to “non-cancellable” and “non-refundable” apply to us? Good answer: A short list of exceptions, written into the order form.
What can the assistant do with HR information that lives outside Workday? Good answer: A named list of systems and actions.
Who can read employee chats during the 30 days before they are deleted? Good answer: A named group of roles at Workday and at our company.
How can we keep a record of what employees asked, if our policy needs one? Good answer: A stated way to export it, before the 30 days run out.
We use Workday Assistant today. When do we switch, and what does it cost? Good answer: A dated plan with no extra fee.

Alternatives to Workday Self-Service Agent

Here are six other products that offer an AI assistant for HR questions. Leena AI, Moveworks and Workativ connect to Workday and to other HR systems. SAP Joule, Oracle Employee Concierge and UKG Bryte AI come from the makers of other HR systems.

Leena AI has a connector for Workday, as well as SAP SuccessFactors, UKG Pro, BambooHR and Dayforce. Moveworks has an installable Workday plugin. With it, managers can review and act on pending time-off requests in plain language. Workativ connects to Workday through ready-made connectors that need no code. Look at these three if your HR data sits in more than one system.

SAP Joule works inside SAP SuccessFactors and handles tasks such as time-off requests. Oracle’s assistants work inside Oracle HCM and cover leave and pay questions. UKG’s Bryte can request or cancel time off for an employee. Look at these three if your HR system is not Workday. Buying nothing is also an option.

More in this guide

The AI HR Agents guide
All eighteen assistants side by side on what each completes in the chat, which HR systems it reaches, how it is charged and who reads the chats.
Mid-market companies which assistants come with an HR system, help desk or intranet, and the one standalone assistant that shows a price, Workativ at $349 a month.
Enterprise companies when to turn on an HR suite’s own assistant, and which three to demo when one assistant must reach several HR systems.
Staff without a company laptop or email which six assistants name a way in for these staff, and the question to put to eleven others.