How Workday's live AI demos convert 5x better than recordings

The challenge:

Workday's website offered the classic gated demo: to see the product, a prospect filled out a form and then watched a static, pre-recorded demo video.

A recording shows every buyer the same tour, whatever their role or question, and the form asks for commitment before they have seen anything. Prospects who were curious but not ready to book a meeting had nowhere to go deeper, and a video told the team nothing about what each of them cared about.

Before vs After:

Before Karumi, the demo was a recording behind a form:

• A gated form stood between prospects and the product.

• Every prospect watched the same static, pre-recorded demo.

• Buyers who weren't ready to book a meeting had no way to go deeper.

• The team learned little about what each prospect was looking for.

After Karumi, the demo is the live product:

• A prospect enters their email and, within seconds, is walking through the live Workday platform.

• An AI agent guides each buyer through exactly what they care about.

• Demand from prospects who aren't ready for a meeting is captured instead of lost.

• Every session reveals the prospect's pain points and where they are in the buying process.

The solution

Workday put a Karumi AI demo agent behind the interactive demo on its website. Instead of a recording, prospects now get a live demo of the real product:

• Start in seconds, with just an email.

• Walk through the live Workday platform, not a recording.

• Ask about what matters to them and see exactly that, guided by the agent.

In Laura White's words, it has completely transformed how people experience Workday's products.

On the backend, every session captures data a video never could: the prospect's specific pain points and exactly where they are in the buying process.

Live in two weeks, ready for global markets

Karumi works as an extension of Workday's own team. The two teams collaborate daily on Slack, and together they launched Workday's first agent in just two weeks.

Karumi's localization capabilities then let Workday quickly expand the experience into global markets, without going through a painful translation process.

Why it worked

• The product came first, not the form: buyers see the real Workday platform within seconds.

• Every buyer gets their own demo: the agent follows what each prospect cares about instead of a fixed script.

• Every session produces insight: pain points and buying stage, captured as the prospect explores.

The impact

Since launching Karumi, Workday has seen roughly five times the conversion rate of its old pre-recorded demos.

The real value, as Laura puts it, is capturing demand from prospects who aren't quite ready to book a meeting: the buyers a demo request form would miss.

Customer perspective

“Working with Karumi has been an exceptional experience. They truly feel like an extension of our own team.”

Laura White · Principal Digital Marketing Manager, Global Growth @ Workday

Closing

Karumi turned Workday's demo from a gated recording into a live, guided experience of the real product, one that converts roughly five times better and shows the team what every buyer needs. In Laura's words: “If you're looking for a true partner to elevate your buying experience, they're fantastic.”

Call to action

Want your buyers to explore your real product in seconds, instead of watching a recording? Talk to us.