Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach: AI Is a Tailwind for Software in 2026

Is AI really destroying the software industry? Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach doesn't think so. Speaking on CNBC's "Squawk Box," he dismissed the narrative of AI-driven destruction as "overblown," asserting that the technology is actually a tailwind for the sector.

Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach AI Software Outlook 2026: Fear vs. Reality

The market's anxiety is palpable in the stock charts. Workday shares dropped 17% in 2025 and have tumbled another 15% since the start of 2026. The carnage isn't isolated; HubSpot plummeted more than 40% last year, while giants like Adobe and Salesforce each lost 21%. Investors fear that AI models capable of writing cheap code will displace the recurring revenue models that have defined the SaaS era.

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Leveraging First-Party Data for AI Dominance

Eschenbach argues that incumbency is a massive advantage. Businesses are leaning on Workday for its first-party data, which provides a moat against third-party AI tools. To stay ahead, Workday cut 1,750 jobs last year to pivot resources toward AI. Meanwhile, ServiceNow just inked a three-year deal with OpenAI to bolster its own enterprise offerings. "We are uniquely positioned to be one of the AI winners," Eschenbach noted from the World Economic Forum in Davos.