00:00As organizations accelerate their adoption of artificial intelligence,
00:04many are navigating both the opportunities and the risks that come with it,
00:08from trust and governance to real-world implementation.
00:12And Jess joins us to share insights from across the region on how leaders are approaching AI today.
00:16So today we're speaking with Jess O'Reilly, the General Manager for ASEAN at Workday.
00:21Good morning, Jess.
00:22Good morning, Jess.
00:23Good morning, Nabla. Thanks for having me.
00:25Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today on Nia Gawani.
00:28So Jess, many organizations are eager to actually adopt artificial intelligence or AI for productivity gains,
00:35but there's still hesitation around trust.
00:38From your conversation with enterprises in Malaysia, what are the biggest concerns leaders have today?
00:46I think leaders are really seeing the opportunity more than the risk.
00:51It's really exciting to be in Malaysia and speak to leaders where a lot of their focus is on
00:56how do they help their organizations adopt, how do they move from pilots of AI to true enterprise adoption.
01:04A lot of leaders are seeing productivity gains and a load of strategic opportunity to grow with AI.
01:11So it's a really exciting time.
01:13That's really interesting, especially when it comes to AI becomes more embedded in day-to-day operations.
01:19But as we see that now, AI agents are increasingly being deployed as an integration or extension of,
01:27how we can say the extensions of accountability as well, where it comes to play.
01:33So in your opinion, what does effective governance of these agents actually look like in practice, in real-life basis?
01:41Yeah, I think the governance has two main areas to focus on.
01:45The first is using the right technology guardrails.
01:48At Workday, we provide organizations that enterprise, you know, trust where agents can be on guardrails of sorts.
01:56The technology helps to enforce all of the different types of permissions and access controls
02:00so that agents are actually operating in the safety of those guardrails.
02:05So technology is certainly one.
02:07And the second is around leadership governance.
02:10It starts from the top.
02:11It's a mandate from leadership as to what AI is in the organization and what it is not.
02:17And so when you couple technology and that leadership,
02:20I really feel like organizations are going to charge forward really positively in this era of AI.
02:26And that brings us to the human role in all of this,
02:28because human-in-the-loop models are often seen as the safest approach.
02:33But can too much human oversight actually undermine the efficiency gains AI promises, Jess?
02:42That's a great question.
02:43And I think a lot of us are battling with that at the moment.
02:46What is the right level of humans in the loop?
02:48I like to think of this less as human in the loop and human on the loop.
02:52As agents become smarter, they become more entrenched in organizations.
02:56And organizations' people get more used to using agents.
03:00We're finding there's less need for every single transaction to have a human element,
03:05whereas it's more of an oversight at the top.
03:08Now, of course, for incredibly important execution, we always want to have humans there.
03:14But for those things that are more automated in their approach and don't need that human oversight,
03:19there is definitely an opportunity to pull back on that
03:21and let more volume run through with the agents.
03:25Indeed, it's striking that balance seems critical, especially when organizations are trying to scale.
03:31But some leaders see governance as a compliance burden.
03:35But how can organizations make it into a competitive advantage against peers?
03:42Yeah, I think the competitive piece is huge.
03:45It's not a question of whether your competitors will or won't use AI.
03:48The question right now is who's going to move the fastest and the most efficiently with those right guardrails.
03:53So the organizations in Malaysia that I'm seeing adopt AI and move fast with it are certainly seeing a huge
04:00amount of competitive advantage,
04:01not just on how they provide services to customers, both on sales and service,
04:06but also how they support their internal employees, whether that be through HR agents or finance agents to make the
04:15internal operations move faster.
04:17So we're certainly seeing a huge divide now of those organizations that are willing to adopt.
04:22And like I said at the beginning, move from just pilots and testing to actually adopting this in the day
04:27-to-day operations.
04:29But Jess, if trust is the barrier, what specific actions have you seen organizations take that actually move the needle,
04:36not just in policy, but in behavior as a whole?
04:41Yeah, I think the two things we go back to is technology.
04:44I think leaders are now realizing that they need enterprise partners like Workday to come in and really work with
04:50them to ensure that what they're deploying in operation
04:52is actually got the guardrails to help support and build that trust.
04:56So an example might be if you have an agent that's sat in your guardrails and you're asking that agent
05:02to go out and build a report,
05:03the agent will go and build that report according to the access controls the person is asking for.
05:08If we don't have those guardrails, an agent might go all across the organization grabbing data that may not be
05:14relevant or permissioned for that particular manager.
05:17So technology is critical in being able to build that strong foundation and ensure that the trust and guardrails are
05:23there.
05:23The second piece is that leadership piece, like we said earlier, making sure that leaders lead from the top,
05:30showing that AI is important for how the organization operates and building the right support around that enablement and things
05:37like that,
05:37so that organizations actually know how to embrace it in the right way with safety and trust wrapped around it.
05:43I want to put a situation if an AI agent makes the wrong decision, who should ultimately be held accountable?
05:50And should that standard be clearly defined today?
05:55Absolutely. I think in all organizations, you know, we need to have accountability and things go wrong.
06:00That's part of human nature and part of operating businesses, right?
06:04So I always believe from a leadership perspective, humans are accountable and responsible,
06:08which is why we need to ensure that we've got the right guardrails from a technology perspective
06:13and the right policies and procedures, as you said, so that we understand when humans need to come into the
06:18loop,
06:18when humans need to take accountability and when the agents can be, you know, leading the charge as well.
06:24So it's definitely a combination of the right policies, the right enablement, the right leadership,
06:29and absolutely the right technology foundations to support that.
06:33All right, Jess, finally, wrapping up this discussion, looking ahead as AI adoption continues to accelerate,
06:38what will separate organizations that successfully scale AI from those that struggle?
06:45I think for the future, it's really around being very specific where your agents are.
06:51At Workday, we have incredible agents that help support finance professionals and HRs,
06:56think about recruiting agents and financial audit agents.
06:59So for me, the future is around moving from generalized AI to really specific areas where agents can provide that
07:06support.
07:07Agents don't need to be everywhere, but they need to be where we specifically need them and where they can
07:12support.
07:12So we're really excited about the future where we get really specific on how agents can support enterprises to grow
07:19and be super competitive.
07:21All right, Jess, thank you so much for sharing your insights with us today and stay tuned for more conversations
07:26on how technology is shaping the future of work.
07:29We'll go for a short break.
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