Cloud Wars
  • Home
  • Top 10
  • CW Minute
  • CW Podcast
  • Categories
    • AI and Copilots
    • Innovation & Leadership
    • Cybersecurity
    • Data
  • Member Resources
    • Cloud Wars AI Agent
    • Digital Summits
    • Guidebooks
    • Reports
  • About Us
    • Our Story
    • Tech Analysts
    • Marketing Services
  • Summit NA
  • Dynamics Communities
  • Ask Copilot
Twitter Instagram
  • Summit NA
  • Dynamics Communities
  • AI Copilot Summit NA
  • Ask Cloud Wars
Twitter LinkedIn
Cloud Wars
  • Home
  • Top 10
  • CW Minute
  • CW Podcast
  • Categories
    • AI and CopilotsWelcome to the Acceleration Economy AI Index, a weekly segment where we cover the most important recent news in AI innovation, funding, and solutions in under 10 minutes. Our goal is to get you up to speed – the same speed AI innovation is taking place nowadays – and prepare you for that upcoming customer call, board meeting, or conversation with your colleague.
    • Innovation & Leadership
    • CybersecurityThe practice of defending computers, servers, mobile devices, electronic systems, networks, and data from malicious attacks.
    • Data
  • Member Resources
    • Cloud Wars AI Agent
    • Digital Summits
    • Guidebooks
    • Reports
  • About Us
    • Our Story
    • Tech Analysts
    • Marketing Services
    • Login / Register
Cloud Wars
    • Login / Register
Home » Why High-Flying Workday Is Pushing ML over M&A
Cloud

Why High-Flying Workday Is Pushing ML over M&A

Bob EvansBy Bob EvansMay 30, 2019Updated:April 13, 20234 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email

After posting excellent quarterly results buttressed by last year’s acquisition of Adaptive Insights, Workday CEO Aneel Bhusri said the high-flying company is focusing much more intensely on machine learning than on additional M&A.

Before getting to that, here are a few quick details on Workday’s fiscal Q1 results for the 3 months ended April 30:

  • total revenue of $825 million, up 33%;
  • subscription revenue of $701 million, up 34%;
  • revenue outside the U.S. up 42% to $197 million, representing 24% of total revenue;
  • subscription-revenue backlog of $6.8 billion, up 30%;
  • guidance for full-year subscription revenue was increased to about $3.05 billion; and
  • Prism Analytics revenue grew 70% in the quarter.

As impressive as those numbers are, I found Bhusri’s commentary on the earnings call regarding machine learning to be even more compelling. That’s because it points to how Workday plans to continue competing and winning against companies 10 times its size in the hyper-aggressive enterprise-technology market.

Asked by an analyst to describe Workday’s approach to infusing its software with machine-learning capabilities, Bhusri said Workday’s taking a long-term approach that will, in his words, put it “ahead of our competition” and even enable it to “extend that gap.”

“For the last three years, we’ve basically been sewing-in the machine learning capabilities into the platform rather than making it an app-by-app feature. You could add machine learning to one specific app, but then it’s not leveraged by the rest of the applications—so instead, we’re taking a longer-term approach by building it into the fabric. And today, we’ve already got several examples of where it’s in place,” Bhusri said as he offered two examples:

  • for career-planning, ML helps Workday software recommend career moves a person should take, or courses that will help advance that person’s career; and
  • in finance, automating many auditing processes.

Bhusri also promised Workday will “unveil a whole wave of more capabilities at our next user conference” later this year.

And Bhusri deflected a suggestion that the infusion of machine-learning capabilities will allow Workday to charge more for its applications.

“I don’t see it as a pricing issue—we’re not going to charge extra for it,” he said.

CEO Aneel Bhusri made some interesting comments about Machine Learning on Workday Q1 Earnings call
Aneel Bhusri

“It’s hard to see charging one price for the products with machine learning and then charging less for those that don’t have machine learning. Rather, it’s going to be a core capability required just to stay competitive.

“Now, maybe that will give us pricing leverage because we’ll be ahead of our competition. And I think it’s very likely that we’re already ahead and will just extend that gap.”

But while Bhusri was unmistakably bullish on the need for continuing to push aggressively into the modern world of machine learning, he expressed little or no enthusiasm for tackling another big acquisition, such as last year’s deal with Adaptive Insights that greatly accelerated Workday’s move into planning and budgeting.

Asked about the prospect of more M&A, Bhusri replied, “My personal view is that larger acquisitions are really, really difficult.

“And frankly, we had a lot of things fell in place with Adaptive: for one, we knew the team really well as [Adaptive Insights founder and CEO Tom Bogan] Tom and I are close friends going back 15 years.

“And, we had very similar corporate cultures, with a very similar focus on customers. Then the products and technology were very complementary. Plus, we knew the space—and we knew we were pretty far behind where Adaptive was,” Bhusri said.

“I just don’t think there’s a lot more targets out there like that,” he added, noting that any potential “big ones will have to pass through a very tight filter on cultural fit, on technology compatibility, on limited overlap in terms of both revenue and technology.”

Never say never and all that, but Bhusri made it very clear that Workday is devoting its time, attention and resources to machine learning, to completing the technical integration of the Adaptive Insights products, and to further refining its nascent PaaS offerings.

That commitment includes a huge new $94-million development center at Workday headquarters in Pleasanton, Calif., that will house more than 2,200 employees, CFO Robynne Sisco said on the earnings call.

 

Subscribe to the Cloud Wars Newsletter for in-depth analysis of the major cloud vendors from the perspective of business customers. It’s free, it’s exclusive, and it’s great!

Cloud Wars Cloud Wars Archive Earnings Call Latest Articles Machine Learning Workday
Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email
Founderuser

Bob Evans

Founder
Cloud Wars

Areas of Expertise
  • AI
  • Cloud
  • Digital Business
  • Innovation
  • Leadership
  • LinkedIn

Cloud Wars Founder Bob Evans actively analyzes the Cloud and AI categories through video reports, in-depth analyses, and interviews with the Cloud and AI market’s leaders and innovators. He’s also the creator of the Cloud Wars Top 10, a ranking and ongoing analysis of the world's most influential tech companies driving digital business and the digital economy. Bob is recognized as a world-class strategic communicator focused on emerging business strategy, disruptive innovation, and forward-looking leadership.

  Contact Bob Evans ...

Related Posts

SAP Q2 Results: The Good News, and the Not-As-Good News

July 24, 2025

SAP Still #1 in Apps Growth, but Big Backlog Slowdown

July 24, 2025

U.K. Government Partners with Google Cloud to Modernize Infrastructure and Upskill 100,000 Workers

July 23, 2025

Thailand Turns to Microsoft Azure AI for Legal System Overhaul

July 23, 2025
Add A Comment

Comments are closed.

Recent Posts
  • PwC Updates AI Agent Orchestrator With Support for AWS-Native Services
  • SAP Q2 Results: The Good News, and the Not-As-Good News
  • SAP Still #1 in Apps Growth, but Big Backlog Slowdown
  • U.K. Government Partners with Google Cloud to Modernize Infrastructure and Upskill 100,000 Workers
  • Thailand Turns to Microsoft Azure AI for Legal System Overhaul

  • Ask Cloud Wars AI Agent
  • Tech Guidebooks
  • Industry Reports
  • Newsletters

Join Today

Most Popular Guidebooks and Reports

SAP Business Network: A B2B Trading Partner Platform for Resilient Supply Chains

July 10, 2025

Using Agents and Copilots In M365 Modern Work

March 11, 2025

AI Data Readiness and Modernization: Tech and Organizational Strategies to Optimize Data For AI Use Cases

February 21, 2025

Special Report: Cloud Wars 2025 CEO Outlook

February 12, 2025

Advertisement
Cloud Wars
Twitter LinkedIn
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Get In Touch
  • Marketing Services
  • Do not sell my information
© 2025 Cloud Wars.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

  • Login
Forgot Password?
Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.
body::-webkit-scrollbar { width: 7px; } body::-webkit-scrollbar-track { border-radius: 10px; background: #f0f0f0; } body::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb { border-radius: 50px; background: #dfdbdb }