When it comes to billable hours, professional services firms know every minute counts—literally. Laurel, the AI-powered “time intelligence” platform, has landed a strategic investment from Workday Ventures, a move that plugs it into Workday’s Innovation Partner network and positions it squarely in the crosshairs of enterprise productivity disruption.
The deal is more than just fresh funding—it’s a validation. Laurel’s pitch is deceptively simple: use AI to automatically capture, categorize, and analyze how professionals spend their time, then tie that data directly to business outcomes. Think of it as Fitbit for your firm’s billable hours, except it also tells you how to squeeze more profit out of them.
Time Is Money—And Laurel Wants to Save Both
Used by industry heavyweights like Ernst & Young, Freshfields, and Grant Thornton, Laurel claims customers have slashed manual time entry by up to 80% and clawed back an average of 28 billable minutes per day per employee. In a sector where those minutes are literal revenue, that translates to 4–11% profitability gains. The numbers aren’t just marketing fluff—the ROI claims have been independently audited by a Big Four firm.
At scale, Laurel processes over $5 billion in gross market value annually for its customers, with $360 million of that being net-new value directly attributed to its platform. That’s the sort of figure that makes CFOs lean forward.
Workday’s Bigger Bet on AI Productivity
Workday Ventures isn’t shy about its AI ambitions, and Laurel fits neatly into that strategy. “AI has the potential to revolutionize how organizations manage time so that their people are focused on the most strategic work,” said Barbry McGann, SVP at Workday Ventures. Translation: less admin drudgery, more high-value output.
The Workday Innovation Partner network isn’t just a club—it’s a launchpad. For Laurel, it means deeper integration opportunities, more enterprise doors opened, and a shot at shaping how AI handles one of the most universal pain points in professional services: time tracking that doesn’t feel like pulling teeth.
Why This Matters in the Bigger Picture
AI-powered workforce tools are in a land grab phase. Rivals like Clockify and Harvest might dominate SMB mindshare, but in the enterprise space, the combination of Workday’s ecosystem and Laurel’s deep industry adoption could be potent. As firms scramble to maximize productivity without burning out talent, automation in time capture is morphing from “nice-to-have” to “table stakes.”
If Laurel can deliver on its promise of freeing up strategic bandwidth—and if Workday can help scale that across industries—time intelligence may become the next big enterprise AI battleground. And for once, it might be a fight where everyone gets some of their time back.
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