Workday, one of the leaders in enterprise cloud applications, has made some big waves with their planned leadership transition. On 9 February 2026, the company revealed that co-founder Aneel Bhusri will be returning as CEO. He’ll be joint CEO with Carl Eschenbach, networking leader and sole CEO since February 2024. This adjustment comes at an opportune time for Workday. To better position itself to respond to the rapidly changing world AI is creating, the company announced the layoff of approximately 1,750 employees—8.5% of its workforce.
Aneel Bhusri co-founded Workday in 2005 and assumed the CEO role in 2009. In 2024, he stepped down and made way to become executive chairman. He has long been intent on reclaiming the corner office. He told us that Workday is going through one of the most transformational periods in the company’s history.
Eschenbach’s arrival at Workday in December of 2022, with his initial role of co-CEO jointly with Bhusri, was meant to change that. Yet after a year as the single CEO, he determined the company needed a different course of action. We were glad to see that he acknowledged the threats that new AI developments and the current economic climate represent.
While the recent layoffs were shocking and sad, they did signal the time for some decisive strategy shifts within the organization. Eschenbach noted that “Workday needed a new approach to labor in the age of AI” following the workforce reduction.
With Bhusri back at the helm, he will collaborate closely with Workday presidents Gerrit Kazmaier and Rob Enslin to guide the company’s future direction. His return to Salesforce is a reflection of Salesforce’s renewed desire to continue leveraging AI’s remarkable potential, particularly within the enterprise software landscape.
“AI is a bigger transformation than SaaS — and it will define the next generation of market leaders.” – Aneel Bhusri
Under Bhusri’s leadership, Workday aims to innovate and adapt to the rapidly changing technological landscape. His last term as co-CEO and brief tenure as sole CEO give him unparalleled perspective on the company’s inner workings.
As Workday starts this new phase, all stakeholders will be watching closely. They’re eager to watch Bhusri’s vision take shape, against the backdrop of recent org chart moves and the rapidly expanding influence of AI on how companies do business. The beneficial juxtaposition of his long experience and new view might create the perfect conditions for a transformative period for Workday.
