Workday Inc. today announced that Carl Eschenbach has stepped down from his role as chief executive officer and executive chair.

Shares of the company declined more than 5% on the news. The drop came amid a broader selloff in enterprise stocks, which began last week after Anthropic PBC introduced an artificial intelligence tool for automating legal tasks. The launch sparked investor concerns about AI’s impact on incumbent work applications.

Workday develops a cloud-based platform that companies use to perform day-to-day accounting tasks. Finance teams can review expenses, create budgets and forecast revenue. They can also use a built-in scenario modeling tool to simulate the impact of potential business changes.

Workday’s other core focus is workforce management. Human resources teams use its software to perform payroll administration tasks and plan recruiting initiatives. Additionally, the platform provides features for various other use cases such as onboarding suppliers. 

Eschenbach, a former Sequoia partner and VMware Inc. executive, joined the Workday board in 2018. He became co-CEO four years later alongside company co-founder Aneel Bhusri. After Bhusri left the role in February 2024, Eschenbach led Workday as its sole CEO.

Over the past two years, the executive oversaw a major restructuring initiative and a series of artificial intelligence acquisitions. The largest of those deals, Workday’s $1.1 billion purchase of Swedish software startup Sana Labs AB, was announced in September. The transaction bought the company an AI platform that automates business tasks such as creating data visualizations. 

Workday announced the acquisition at an analyst event where it also detailed a new financial roadmap. As part of the initiative, the company will buy back $5 billion worth of shares and take steps to boost profitability. The day after executives revealed the plan, activist investor Elliot Management disclosed a $2 billion stake in the company.

Eschenbach will be succeeded by Workday co-founder Aneel Bhusri, with whom he served as co-CEO between 2022 and 2024. Bhusri has led the company as either co-CEO or sole chief executive for most of the past 20 years. 

“I’m deeply grateful to Carl for leading Workday through an important chapter — scaling the company, building on our foundation, and positioning us well for what’s ahead,” said Bhusri. “We’re now entering one of the most pivotal moments in our history. AI is a bigger transformation than SaaS.”

The leadership change comes about two weeks before the company’s fourth quarter earnings report. Workday today reiterated its forecast of a 15.5% adjusted operating margin and $2.355 billion in subscription revenue. For the full fiscal year, the software maker is guiding a 29.1% adjusted margin and subscription revenues of $8.828 billion, which would represent a 14.4% increase from 12 months earlier. 

Photo: Workday