Workday is the AI platform for managing people, money, and agents. The Workday platform is built with AI at its core to help customers empower people, enhance work, and move their business forward for the long term. It is used by more than 11,000 organisations around the world and across industries, from medium-sized businesses to over 60% of the Fortune 500.
As a global leader, Workday produces a vast and growing library of multimedia content, much of which must be localised for diverse international audiences. With support for more than 50 languages and stakeholder requests commonly spanning 10 to 15 languages per project, the scale and complexity of localisation posed increasing challenges.
"We were producing so much content—marketing videos, internal communications, long-form webinars—and we needed to get it into all these different languages," said Justin Meisinger, Programme Manager on the Globalisation Production Team at Workday. "But the old way of doing it just didn’t scale."
The challenge was not only about scale. "When you are working with dozens of languages, keeping everything aligned with your brand voice is incredibly difficult. It is not just about translating words; it is about preserving tone, intent, and clarity." The introduction of HeyGen transformed Workday’s approach to video.
Rethinking the localisation workflow
Before HeyGen, Workday relied entirely on manual processes, which slowed down production and limited the projects the team could support. “It wasn’t just expensive; it was restricting our ability to say yes to the business,” Meisinger said. “We were constantly trying to balance capacity with demand.”
The traditional localisation workflow was built around human translators, voice actors, and post-production specialists, and took weeks or even months. The process included translators working on scripts, reviewers checking for accuracy, voice talent recording in sound studios, and an entire team stitching it all together.
“We have a very large portfolio of content, and when something changes, we usually have only a small window to update a few videos and release them on time,” said Johanna Stussy, Product Strategist at Workday.
This resource-intensive model also came with a hefty price tag. "We were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on localisation," Meisinger said. "And sometimes we had to turn projects down, especially long-form videos like webinars, because it simply was not feasible with the resources we had."
Creating that magical moment with AI video
The introduction of HeyGen was a real breakthrough. Workday first explored HeyGen as a way to speed up the initial translation step, but quickly realised it could do much more. "HeyGen has been magical for us," Meisinger shared. "It can translate a video in minutes, and we can bring our linguists directly into HeyGen to proofread and make small tweaks so that we maintain our brand voice."
“The magic moment was definitely the custom avatars and the ability to change the content within minutes,” Johanna said. “I can have a video, they can send me a video, and I can render it in three languages for them to review on the same day.”
One of the main reasons for choosing HeyGen was its term-based functionality, which integrates with Workday’s pre-defined set of approved translations for key terms. "This allows us to upload our term base, so when the AI translates content, it is already using the correct terminology," he said. "That is something we have not seen anywhere else."
Another major advantage was HeyGen’s advanced audio capabilities. Even when the original audio stems were not available, HeyGen could isolate a speaker’s voice from the background music and re-synthesise it in another language, which would otherwise require an entire production team.
"The magical moment for me was when I uploaded a video of myself, and a few minutes later, HeyGen produced a video of me speaking German. I took that video and showed it to my German colleagues, and they asked me, 'Do you speak German?' So, I think that just made it feel truly magical," Meisinger said.
In the end, HeyGen stood out as a partner that shared Workday’s values of innovation and integrity. “We’re an AI company as well, so we care deeply about the ethical use of AI,” Meisinger emphasised. “HeyGen gave us the control and flexibility we needed, without compromising our principles.”
Empowering the Workday team to say “I made this”
HeyGen has completely reshaped how Workday handles localisation. “What I love about HeyGen is that I no longer have to say no to projects,” said Meisinger. “It’s as if we’ve augmented our team. We can do far more with the resources we have.”
“To translate a course, it used to take around 4 to 6 weeks on average,” Johanna said. “Today I can translate the media for one of our courses in a matter of weeks, and sometimes even days depending on the project. That was simply unheard of earlier.”
By integrating HeyGen into its localisation pipeline, Workday has redefined its global video strategy, making it faster, smarter, and more ethical. The result is a scalable, high-quality process that is ready to meet the demands of a rapidly growing international audience.
- Speed and scale: Localisation turnaround reduced from weeks to minutes, with 10–15 languages per video, including two-hour webinars.
- Cost efficiency: Substantial savings with flat-rate pricing; 100% increase in capacity without increasing headcount.
- Brand integrity and ethics: Fully aligned with Workday’s terminology standards and ethical AI usage, avoiding misleading practices such as lip-syncing.
Reflecting on the experience, Meisinger emphasised the professional pride that comes with delivering high-quality, efficient work. "It’s important to me from a professional standpoint to be able to do this. Not just because it makes me look good, but because I can go home at the end of the day and feel that I have delivered a quality product and made myself more efficient," he shared.
For other teams considering AI for localisation, Workday has a simple message: "Just try it. It’s free to test. You might be surprised by how much it improves your workflow."
“Embrace it, experiment with it, and stay curious. I definitely discovered some unexpected goodies that saved time and added value to our workflow,” said Johanna.
