Kelly Clarkson has been roasted online after performing at a corporate party for Workday, a software firm that is increasingly positioning itself around artificial intelligence. The performance came a fortnight after she told a podcast that she loves AI, prompting one Reddit user to quip: 'Bills must be high lol'. The comment captured the scepticism of users who questioned her decision to perform for a company embracing the technology.
Clarkson headlined the customer appreciation party at Workday's Rising 2026 conference, held in Las Vegas from 12 to 15 October. The company announced her as its headline act in July, two months before the podcast episode that fuelled the online reaction. Footage shared on social media placed the performance at Allegiant Stadium and highlighted Workday's tagline, 'Reinventing work with agentic AI'.
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Workday is best known for its human resources and finance software, rather than for developing AI models. However, it now describes itself as 'the enterprise AI platform for HR, finance, and IT'. For critics, that emphasis on AI made Clarkson's appearance an easy target, particularly given her recent comments about the technology.
What She Actually Said About AI
Clarkson discussed the subject on an episode of the podcast Las Culturistas, published on 30 September. 'Here's the thing. I love AI,' she said, adding that 'there are very amazing things with AI that I am obsessed with'.
Her comments, however, were more nuanced than that headline-friendly soundbite suggested. She also argued that AI-generated music should not compete directly with music made by human artists, saying: 'I think there should be a separate chart'.
Kelly Clarkson "loves" AI but says AI artists should not be on the same music charts as humans.
— Variety (@Variety) October 1, 2026
“I love AI. Controversial, I don’t care. Here’s the thing, I love AI. There are very amazing things with AI that I’m obsessed with. But also, and I’m very into it artistically too, I… pic.twitter.com/IaQF0tWDX5
That distinction offered a more complicated picture than a simple endorsement of AI. Nevertheless, her declaration of love for the technology became a focal point for critics following the Workday booking.
Commenters Reach for a Calculator
The jokes about Clarkson's bills also drew on a separate controversy that had recently put her in the spotlight. She was already days into a public row with a Brooklyn shop after posting about an encounter involving a mechanical singing bird and a $15,000 price tag. Clarkson said the interaction had left her feeling that staff thought she could not afford it.
The shop disputed that account, explaining that the bird was fixed to the wall and was not for sale. It said a nearly identical bird by the same maker cost $15,000 and that staff had offered Clarkson a different piece for around $2,000.
The two stories soon became intertwined in the online discussion. One widely upvoted comment mocked up a household budget listing rent at $800, food at $200 and an animatronic bird at $15,000, before asking for help balancing the figures. Another summed up the joke in a single line: 'Whimsical bird budget is through the roof'.
Other users were less amused by the singer's account of the shop visit. 'I'm laughing extra hard at anyone who was on kelly clarkson's side here,' one commenter wrote. 'If you've worked even a single day in retail and told a customer "no," you'd know exactly how this went down.'
Not Everyone Blamed the Brand
Workday was not without its defenders. One of the most upvoted replies pushed back against the idea that the company's AI messaging made it particularly deserving of criticism. 'Frankly every company's tagline these days is "Reinventing [industry] with agentic AI",' the commenter wrote, arguing that Workday was 'far from being like OpenAI or something'.
Others echoed that view, suggesting that AI has become such a common selling point in the technology sector that Workday's messaging is hardly unusual. Some pointed to the company's more familiar role in workplace administration.
'Workday is just an HR software that you've probably encountered if you've ever worked at a corporate job or have applied to one,' one user wrote. Another was less impressed by its claims of innovation, commenting: 'anyone who works with Workday knows they ain't reinventing anything'.
The Criticism That Stuck
Even among those who acknowledged how widespread AI marketing has become, some remained critical of Clarkson's decision to perform at the event. One commenter who works in the same industry argued that companies were scrambling to demonstrate their adoption of AI but questioned whether the singer needed to lend her name to them.
'I still think Kelly should not be doing gigs for these companies,' they wrote. 'If she has enough to buy a $15k animatronic bird, she can turn down performing for companies with questionable PR and/or practices.'
Clarkson has not commented on the booking, and nobody has suggested she did anything beyond accept it. But the debate returned to the same question that had fuelled the thread from the start: whether accepting a corporate gig carries its own message, regardless of what a performer has said publicly about the technology involved.
As one commenter put it after a lengthy discussion about tech companies chasing the same buzzwords: 'But yes, Kelly made a clear choice here.'
