The Force Multiplier
At Workday DevCon 2026, Workday unveiled a new generation of agentic development capabilities, including Developer Agent, Agent Ready Tools and Agent Passport. Together, these innovations point towards a significant shift in how organisations design, build, connect and govern AI-powered solutions.
While these announcements represent distinct capabilities, they all point towards the same future: a faster, more accessible approach to creating intelligent applications and agents within the Workday ecosystem. The question for customers, partners and technology leaders is no longer whether to prepare, but how.
I've spent much of the last year exploring how agentic development is evolving, both within the Workday ecosystem and across the wider AI landscape. My conclusion is simple: organisations that begin building the right skills today will be significantly better positioned when these capabilities become mainstream.
Building the skills for what's next
You do not need to wait for every new capability to reach general availability before taking action. Many of the core principles behind agentic development can be explored today.
Developer Agent is designed to turn natural language requirements into working applications and agents. Agent Ready Tools help connect those solutions to Workday and enterprise systems, while Agent Passport provides the controls needed to test, monitor, and govern AI agents at scale.
This is where I believe many organisations underestimate the opportunity. The biggest change ahead is not technical. It is human.
The rise of the specification writer
As AI agents take on more of the implementation work, success will increasingly depend on the quality of the instructions they receive. The ability to define requirements, document processes, challenge assumptions, and create clear specifications will become a critical skill across development, consulting, HR, finance, and business teams alike.
When people ask me whether AI will replace developers, consultants or analysts, my answer is always the same: these tools are amplifiers.
The value doesn't come from the agent alone. It comes from the experience, judgement, and context you bring to it. The better the input, the better the outcome.
That is why I often describe AI as a force multiplier.
AI is a force multiplier. The question is: what expertise are you multiplying?
The organisations that learn to communicate intent clearly, challenge assumptions and create robust specifications will gain the greatest advantage.
Why this matters for Workday customers
At Kainos, we are already seeing organisations adopt AI powered ways of working through tools such as Microsoft CoPilot and CoWork. The same principles now extend to application development and automation.
For Workday customers, this creates an opportunity to:
- Accelerate innovation and application delivery.
- Extend Workday processes more efficiently.
- Build smarter automations and AI experiences.
- Strengthen governance and oversight of AI agents.
- Develop the internal skills needed for long term success.
The real opportunity isn't simply building more technology. It's building the capability to work effectively with it.
Start building the muscle memory
The organisations that gain the most value from agentic development will be those that start learning now. Experiment with specifications. Explore AI-assisted development tools. Understand how agents collaborate, connect to enterprise systems and operate within governance frameworks.
From my own experience, one lesson has become increasingly clear: successful agentic development isn't about finding the perfect tool. It's about developing repeatable ways of working. The fundamentals matter. A strong understanding of how agents are instructed, governed and integrated will help organisations cut through the noise and focus on what creates real business value.
Throughout this series, I'll explore those fundamentals in more detail, from specifications and orchestration through to governance, MCP, skills and agent collaboration. My aim is to provide a practical guide that helps Workday customers prepare for what's coming next.
The technology is here. The opportunity is here. Now is the time to learn how to use it.
Want to understand what agentic development could mean for your organisation? Book an AI Navigator session with our team and explore the possibilities together.