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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2026-02-20
Steps: Set Up Workday Assistant

Steps: Set Up Workday Assistant

Review setup considerations for Workday Assistant.
You might need to take additional steps to enable this feature based on your organization's subscription service agreement. Your organization is either on the Main Service Agreement (MSA) or the Universal Main Service Agreement (UMSA). To determine your organization's subscription service agreement:
  1. Select your profile avatar on Workday Community.
  2. Select
    Profile
    .
  3. On your profile page, select your organization's name, which is beneath your name and next to your job title.
  4. View your
    Subscription Service Agreement
     value.
If the value is:
  • UMSA
    , the feature is automatically available. You can skip the
    Enable Innovation Services Feature and AI Data Contributions for MSA Customers
     step. For more information on Machine Learning data contributions, see Concept: Workday AI for Universal Main Subscription Agreement Customers.
  • MSA
    , you must enable this feature through Innovation Services using the
    Enable Innovation Services Feature and AI Data Contributions for MSA Customers
    step.
Note: UMSA customers don't have Innovation Services tasks and reports in their tenants as these are for MSA customers only. UMSA customers can ignore all information regarding Innovation Services.
Workday Assistant is a conversational search tool designed to help casual Workday users discover information, complete common tasks, and get support.
Examples: Workers can enter phrases like these into Workday Assistant:
  • Change my marital status.
  • How much vacation time do I have?
  • Request time off.
  • What is my hire date?
Workers can view all of the capabilities available to them in Workday Assistant by entering
What can you do?
 or
Show available capabilities
.
Workday Assistant responds to requests in one of 2 ways:
  • Quick Actions: Workers can complete some tasks directly in the Workday Assistant chat window. Example: When you use Workday Assistant to request time off, it prompts you to enter the request date(s) and type and submits the request without requiring you to access the
    Request Time Off
     report.
  • Navigation: Workday Assistant links workers to the task or report they're looking for in Workday. Example: When you use Workday Assistant to access your feedback, it provides a link to the
    View Feedback Received
     report.
  1. You might need to take additional steps to enable this feature depending on your organization's subscription service agreement. For more information, see this Community article.
    On the
    Innovation Services Opt-In
     task, select the
    Workday Assistant
     service on the
    Available Services
     tab in the
    People Experience
     category.
  2. Edit Domain Security Policies.
    To give workers access to Workday Assistant, create or edit security policies for these domains in the System functional area:
    • Assistant
    • Bots
    • Manage Bot and User Conversations
    • Set Up: Tenant Setup - Assistant
    • (Optional)
      Assistant Usage Reports
    Assign security groups
    Get
    ,
    Put
    ,
    View
    , and
    Modify
     permissions on both the
    Assistant
     and
    Bots
     domains.
    To protect user data, Workday recommends that you restrict
    Manage Bot and User Conversations
     domain access to a small subset of administrators. Admins assigned to this domain can access the:
    • Get Conversation Data
       report. This enables you to download data for all Assistant and Worksheets conversation messages in your tenant.
    • Purge Bot Conversation Data
       task. This enables you to permanently delete all conversation message data in your tenant.
    • Purge Conversation Message Data
       report. This enables you to permanently delete data associated with a specific message.
  3. Activate Pending Security Policy Changes.
  4. Access the
    Edit Tenant Setup - Assistant
     task.
    Configure the actions you want users to perform in Workday Assistant.
    Security:
    Set Up: Tenant Setup - Assistant
     domain in the System functional area.
From the
Delivered Discovery Boards
 report, access the
Assistant Usage Reports
 discovery board to view data visualizations of how your users interact with Workday Assistant.