Build Voice Agents in ElevenLabs with access to Live Workday Data

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Use the CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server to enable ElevenLabs agents to securely access live Workday data.

ElevenLabs is a leading AI audio platform that enables developers to build conversational voice agents capable of natural, human-like interactions. The ElevenLabs Conversational AI platform allows you to create voice-powered assistants that can reason through tasks, respond dynamically, and interact with external systems in real time.

By integrating ElevenLabs with CData Connect AI through the MCP (Model Context Protocol), your voice agents gain the ability to query, analyze, and act on live Workday data during conversations. This integration bridges ElevenLabs' conversational AI framework with the governed enterprise connectivity of CData Connect AI, ensuring all data access runs securely against authorized sources without manual data movement.

This article outlines the steps to configure Workday connectivity in Connect AI, generate the required authentication credentials, register the Connect AI MCP Server in ElevenLabs, and verify that your voice agent can successfully interact with live Workday data during conversations.

About Workday Data Integration

CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from Workday. Customers use CData connectivity to:

  • Access the tables and datasets you create in Prism Analytics Data Catalog, working with the native Workday data hub without compromising the fidelity of your Workday system.
  • Access Workday Reports-as-a-Service to surface data from departmental datasets not available from Prism and datasets larger than Prism allows.
  • Access base data objects with WQL, REST, or SOAP, getting more granular, detailed access but with the potential need for Workday admins or IT to help craft queries.

Users frequently integrate Workday with analytics tools such as Tableau, Power BI, and Excel, and leverage our tools to replicate Workday data to databases or data warehouses. Access is secured at the user level, based on the authenticated user's identity and role.

For more information on configuring Workday to work with CData, refer to our Knowledge Base articles: Comprehensive Workday Connectivity through Workday WQL and Reports-as-a-Service & Workday + CData: Connection & Integration Best Practices.


Getting Started


Step 1: Configure Workday connectivity for ElevenLabs

Connectivity to Workday from ElevenLabs is made possible through CData Connect AI's Remote MCP Server. To interact with Workday data from your voice agents, start by creating and configuring a Workday connection in CData Connect AI.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
  2. Select Workday from the Add Connection panel
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Workday.

    To connect to Workday, users need to find the Tenant and BaseURL and then select their API type.

    Obtaining the BaseURL and Tenant

    To obtain the BaseURL and Tenant properties, log into Workday and search for "View API Clients." On this screen, you'll find the Workday REST API Endpoint, a URL that includes both the BaseURL and Tenant.

    The format of the REST API Endpoint is: https://domain.com/subdirectories/mycompany, where:

    • https://domain.com/subdirectories/ is the BaseURL.
    • mycompany (the portion of the url after the very last slash) is the Tenant.
    For example, in the REST API endpoint https://wd3-impl-services1.workday.com/ccx/api/v1/mycompany, the BaseURL is https://wd3-impl-services1.workday.com and the Tenant is mycompany.

    Using ConnectionType to Select the API

    The value you use for the ConnectionType property determines which Workday API you use. See our Community Article for more information on Workday connectivity options and best practices.

    APIConnectionType Value
    WQLWQL
    Reports as a ServiceReports
    RESTREST
    SOAPSOAP

    Authentication

    Your method of authentication depends on which API you are using.

    • WQL, Reports as a Service, REST: Use OAuth authentication.
    • SOAP: Use Basic or OAuth authentication.

    See the Help documentation for more information on configuring OAuth with Workday.

  4. Click Save & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab and update user-based permissions

Add a Personal Access Token

A Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI from ElevenLabs. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each integration to maintain granular access control.

  1. Click the gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open Settings
  2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT
  3. Give the PAT a descriptive name (e.g., "ElevenLabs Voice Agent") and click Create
  4. Copy the token when displayed and store it securely. It will not be shown again

With the Workday connection configured and a PAT generated, ElevenLabs can now connect to Workday data through Connect AI.

Step 2: Add the Connect AI MCP Server in ElevenLabs

ElevenLabs supports connecting to external MCP servers that use SSE (Server-Sent Events) or HTTP streamable transport. The CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server is compatible with this integration.

  1. Log into the ElevenLabs platform and navigate to your agent dashboard
  2. Go to Integrations and click + Add Integration to access the MCP server integrations section
  3. Click on Custom MCP Server to add a new integration
  4. Enter the following configuration:
    • Name: CData Connect AI
    • Description: Access live enterprise data from 350+ sources
    • Server URL: https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/sse
    • Secret Token: Leave empty (authentication is handled via headers)
    • HTTP Headers: Add a header with key Authorization and value Basic your_email:your_PAT
  5. Replace your_email:your_PAT with your Connect AI login email and the Personal Access Token you created earlier. For example: Basic [email protected]:ABC123...XYZ789
  6. Click Save to test the connection and retrieve available tools from Connect AI
  7. The CData Connect AI MCP server is now available to assign to your voice agents

Step 3: Configure your Voice Agent to use Connect AI

With the MCP server registered, you can now add it to your ElevenLabs voice agents to enable real-time data access during conversations.

  1. Create a new agent or edit an existing agent in the ElevenLabs dashboard
  2. In the agent configuration, navigate to the Tools section
  3. Add the CData Connect AI MCP server you configured in Step 2
  4. Configure the tool approval mode based on your requirements:
    • Always Ask: The agent will request permission before each data query (recommended for sensitive data)
    • Fine-Grained: Set approval requirements per tool/action
    • No Approval: The agent can query data autonomously
  5. Save your agent configuration

Step 4: Interact with live data through your Voice Agent

Your ElevenLabs voice agent can now access and query live Workday data through the CData Connect AI MCP Server during conversations.

  1. Start a conversation with your voice agent
  2. Ask your agent data-related questions such as:
    • "What connections are available?"
    • "Show me the schemas for Workday"
    • "Query recent records from Workday data"
    • "Summarize our latest Data"
  3. The agent will use the Connect AI MCP tools to retrieve live data and respond conversationally

Your ElevenLabs voice agent is now fully configured to access and query live Workday data through the CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server, enabling real-time, data-driven voice interactions for your users.

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