Workday is expanding its Global Capability Centre in Chennai as the enterprise software company increases its focus on agentic AI development and strengthens its engineering presence in India.
The US-based provider of cloud applications for human resources and finance now has around 1,600 employees in India, including approximately 600 at its Chennai capability centre. The Chennai teams work alongside Workday's global engineering operations on product development, including AI-driven systems.
A key area of responsibility for the Chennai centre is Workday's agentic technology. Max Wessel, Senior Vice President of Product at Workday, said engineering teams in Chennai are handling the company's agentic development, Model Context Protocol surfaces and agent skills. Teams at the centre are also responsible for areas of Workday's financial systems, including global spend and tax capabilities.
The expansion reflects the changing role of GCCs in India, with multinational companies increasingly assigning product engineering, artificial intelligence and other technology functions to their local centres rather than limiting them to support operations.
Workday is developing AI agents that can automate and coordinate business processes across functions such as human resources, finance and IT. Its wider AI strategy includes systems designed to work with enterprise data and execute tasks within organisational controls.
The company has also expanded its commercial operations in India and currently serves around 1,800 customers in the country. Its focus includes GCCs operated by US-headquartered companies, other multinational corporations and Indian enterprises across professional services, technology, telecommunications and financial services.
Wessel described India as one of Workday's strategic markets and said the company expects its revenue growth in the country to outpace its overall global growth for several years. Workday did not disclose specific revenue projections.
The company is also focusing on data sovereignty and local infrastructure hosting as it looks to address requirements from regulated industries, including financial services.
Workday's commercial approach for its AI capabilities combines its existing seat-based platform subscriptions with consumption-based pricing for agentic usage, including a flex credits model. This allows customers to consume certain AI capabilities based on usage alongside their broader Workday subscriptions.
Workday's expansion in Chennai comes as enterprise software companies increasingly build agentic AI capabilities that move beyond generating responses to performing tasks and coordinating workflows. For India, this is also expanding the role of GCCs in global AI product development, engineering and enterprise technology operations.
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