Topic
21 facts from 1 episode, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
2024
Carl Eschenbach became sole CEO of Workday in February 2024 after serving as co-CEO with co-founder Aneel Bhusri since late 2022.
“Carl was appointed CEO of Workday in February 2024 after having worked alongside co-founder Aneel Bhusri in the role of co-CEO since late 2022.”
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Carl Eschenbach says Workday disrupted the HR and finance market by moving it from on-premises software to the cloud.
“They completely disrupted the HR and finance market and became a thought leader by moving it to the cloud and off of on-premises solutions.”
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Carl Eschenbach says AI could raise annual productivity gains from about one to one and a half percent to two to three times that level if done correctly.
“AI can drive us from an annual productivity gain of one to one and a half to maybe two to three times that if done in the absolute right way.”
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Carl Eschenbach says productivity gains over the previous ten to twenty years have been relatively flat despite technology innovations.
“If you look at productivity gain over the last ten or 20 years, it's been relatively flat with all the technology innovations that have come into our worlds.”
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Carl Eschenbach says three systems of record power the enterprise: one for employees, one for financials and one for customers.
“there are three systems of record that power the enterprise. There's a system of record for your employees, there's a system of record for your financials, and there's a system of record for your customers.”
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Carl Eschenbach says Workday has the largest, most curated and cleanest HR and finance data set, running on a single architecture and code base.
“At Workday, we have the largest, most highly curated and cleanest set of data for HR and finance. And it's all running on the same architecture, the same code base”
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Carl Eschenbach says Workday trains its agents on its own curated data rather than the internet, which he says avoids hallucinations.
“We're not going to have these hallucinations. We're not training off of the internet. We're training off of that data.”
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Carl Eschenbach says customers want AI from Workday so they do not have to buy from the roughly 5,000 AI point solutions on the market.
“we don't have to go buy one of these 5,000 AI point solutions that are out there today.”
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Workday has a chief responsible AI officer, and Carl Eschenbach says anything built or done at the company goes through that office.
“At Workday, for example, we now have a chief responsible AI officer.”
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Carl Eschenbach says Workday requires all of its more than 20,000 employees to complete AI training.
“We're making every single one of our 20,000 plus employees go through AI training so that they get comfortable.”
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Carl Eschenbach says over-regulating AI risks slowing innovation, so regulation needs balance.
“You got to make sure you don't over-regulate AI because you'll thwar- or slow down innovation.”
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Carl Eschenbach joined Workday about two and a half years before the interview, working alongside co-founder Aneel Bhusri.
“I joined about two and a half years ago with my dear friend and the Workday co-founder and one of the most brilliant enterprise software minds I've ever met, Aneel Bhusri.”
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Carl Eschenbach says Workday is expanding operating margins while pursuing durable growth at scale.
“we are expanding operating margins uh at the company and being much more thoughtful and efficient in how we're running the business”
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Carl Eschenbach says Workday has six core values, written by its founders, that he says will never change.
“We have six core values that our founders wrote on a piece of paper, and that's the bedrock and the foundation of the company, and they will never change.”
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Carl Eschenbach says Workday's values stay fixed while its culture will change as the company scales.
“while the values won't change ever, our culture can and will change as we scale into the future.”
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Carl Eschenbach says he treats speed as a business strategy because a faster company is hard for competitors to defend against.
“If we're faster than someone else, it's hard to defend.”
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Carl Eschenbach notes that some people predict enterprises will have hundreds or thousands of digital agents, which raises onboarding and governance questions.
“Today, a lot of people talk about agents and these digital agents entering the enterprise. And some people say you're going to have hundreds or thousands of them.”
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Carl Eschenbach says most of what is called an agent today automates a single repetitive task, and he expects agents to become role-based and handle multiple tasks.
“Most of the things people talk about today when they call them agents, they're doing a task. They're just automating a repetitive task.”
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Carl Eschenbach says he shifted from pursuing personal success to pursuing significance and impact for others.
“I now focus on impact and significance to others, not focus on my own success.”
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Eric Kutcher says he knew Carl Eschenbach from when Eschenbach was president and COO of VMware, before becoming an investor and then Workday CEO.
“I got to know you many, many moons ago when you were at VMware and you were the president COO.”
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Carl Eschenbach says he measures his leadership impact first by people's career growth and success, with the numbers following.
“I look at the people in the organization, I look at their career growth, I look at the success they're having”
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