Workday is the AI platform for managing people, money, and agents. The Workday platform is built with AI at its core to help customers elevate people, supercharge work, and move their business forever forward. It’s used by more than 11,000 organizations around the world and across industries, from medium-sized businesses to more than 60% of the Fortune 500.
Als wereldwijde marktleider produceert Workday een omvangrijke en snel groeiende bibliotheek met multimediale content, waarvan een groot deel moet worden gelokaliseerd voor diverse internationale doelgroepen. Met ondersteuning voor meer dan 50 talen en verzoeken van stakeholders die per project vaak 10 tot 15 talen beslaan, namen de schaal en complexiteit van de lokalisatie steeds verder toe.
"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, Program Manager on the Globalization Production Team at Workday. "But the old way of doing it just didn’t scale."
The challenge wasn’t just scale. "When you're working with dozens of languages, keeping everything aligned with your brand voice is incredibly difficult. It’s not just about translating words, it’s about preserving tone, intent, and clarity." The introduction of HeyGen transformed Workday’s approach to video.
Reimagining the localization workflow
Before HeyGen, Workday relied exclusively on manual processes, which slowed down production and restricted the projects the team could support. "It wasn’t just expensive, it was limiting our ability to say yes to the business," Meisinger said. "We were constantly balancing capacity against demand."
The traditional localization 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 hebben een enorm portfolio aan content, en als er iets verandert, is er meestal maar een klein tijdsbestek waarin we een aantal video’s moeten aanpassen en ze op tijd moeten publiceren,” zei Johanna Stussy, Product Strategist bij Workday.
This resource-intensive model also came with a hefty price tag. "We were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on localization," Meisinger said. "And sometimes we had to turn projects down, especially long-form videos like webinars, because it just wasn’t feasible with the resources we had."
Creating that magic moment with AI video
The introduction of HeyGen offered a breakthrough. Workday first explored HeyGen as a way to accelerate the initial translation step, but quickly discovered 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 to maintain our brand voice."
“Het magische moment was absoluut de custom avatars en de mogelijkheid om de content binnen enkele minuten aan te passen,” zei Johanna. “Ik kan een video hebben, zij kunnen mij een video sturen, en ik kan die dezelfde dag nog in drie talen voor hen renderen zodat ze hem kunnen proeflezen.”
A key reason for choosing HeyGen was its term-based functionality, which integrates with Workday’s pre-defined set of approved translations for key terms. "This lets us upload our term base, so when the AI translates content, it's already using the right language," he said. "That’s something we haven’t seen anywhere else."
Another major draw was HeyGen’s advanced audio capabilities. Even when original audio stems weren’t available, HeyGen could isolate a speaker’s voice from background music and re-synthesize it in another language, which would otherwise require an entire production team.
"The magic moment for me was when I uploaded a video of myself, and a few minutes later, HeyGen spit out a video of me speaking German. I took that video and showed it to my German coworkers, and they asked me, 'Do you speak German?' So, I think that made it just seem like truly magic,” Meisinger said.
Ultimately, HeyGen stood out as a partner that shared Workday’s values around innovation and integrity. "We’re an AI company too, so we care deeply about ethical AI use," Meisinger emphasized. "HeyGen gave us the control and flexibility we needed, without compromising our principles."
Enabling the Workday team to say “I made this”
HeyGen has completely reshaped how Workday handles localization. "What I love about HeyGen is that I no longer have to say no to projects," said Meisinger. "It’s like we’ve augmented our team. We can do way more with the resources we have."
“Om een cursus te vertalen, kostte het gemiddeld 4 tot 6 weken,” zei Johanna. “Vandaag de dag kan ik het beeld- en geluidsmateriaal voor een van onze cursussen in weken vertalen, en soms zelfs in dagen, afhankelijk van het project. Dat was vroeger echt ondenkbaar.”
By integrating HeyGen into its localization pipeline, Workday has redefined its global video strategy, making it faster, smarter, and more ethical. The result is a scalable, high-quality process that’s ready to meet the demands of a growing international audience.
- Snelheid en schaal: De doorlooptijd voor lokalisatie is teruggebracht van weken naar minuten, met 10–15 talen per video, inclusief webinars van twee uur.
- Cost efficiency: Significant savings via flat-rate pricing; 100% increase in capacity without adding headcount.
- Brand integrity and ethics: Fully aligned with Workday’s terminology standards and ethical AI use, avoiding deceptive practices like lip-syncing.
Terugkijkend op de ervaring benadrukte Meisinger de professionele trots die gepaard gaat met het leveren van hoogwaardig en efficiënt werk. "Het is voor mij vanuit professioneel oogpunt belangrijk om dit te kunnen doen. Niet alleen omdat het mij er goed uit laat zien, maar ook omdat ik aan het eind van de dag naar huis kan gaan met het gevoel dat ik een kwaliteitsproduct heb geleverd en mezelf efficiënter heb gemaakt," deelde hij.
For other teams considering AI for localization, Workday has a simple message: "Just try it. It’s free to test. You might be surprised by how much it improves your workflow."
“Duik erin, test het en wees nieuwsgierig. Ik heb zeker een paar onverwachte pareltjes gevonden die tijd bespaarden en waarde toevoegden aan onze workflow,” zei Johanna.
