Workday agrees to acquire C1.ai

C1.ai connects to business systems including email, CRM, code repositories, finance systems and cloud infrastructure.[1] Workday says the platform is intended to give each person and agent appropriate access when needed and remove it when it is no longer needed.[1] Workday says access would be governed across Workday and other enterprise systems, from when a person joins until they leave and through moves in between.[1] The company says this would help secure the workforce by managing and enforcing access to connected apps and systems.[1]

Workday says agents will receive access when they need it and lose it immediately when their work or role ends.[1] The company says its Agent System of Record already gives organizations one place to see and manage their agents.[1] Bringing C1.ai’s identity governance into Workday’s core would allow access management for humans and agents in real time, according to Workday.[1] Workday also says the platform is designed to reduce managers’ manual approvals and the time employees spend waiting for permissions.[1] Workday describes this as a design goal.[1]

Workday cited C1.ai research finding that 95% of large U.S. companies already run autonomous agents, while 21% report having a mature way to govern AI agents.[1] Workday also says most organizations manage employee access across hundreds of applications using manual tickets, spreadsheets and periodic reviews.[1] Those figures frame the problem the proposed acquisition is intended to address; they do not establish how much the platform would reduce access-management work or improve security. Workday says there are more than 11,500 organizations worldwide, and that more than 65% of Fortune 500 companies trust it to deliver.[1]

The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of Workday’s fiscal 2027, which ends January 31, 2027, and remains subject to customary closing conditions.[1] The announcement did not name an acquisition price.[2] Workday named BofA Securities as its financial adviser and Orrick as its legal adviser; C1.ai named Qatalyst as its financial adviser and Ashurst Perkins Coie as its legal adviser.[1] C1.ai CEO Alex Bovee said joining Workday would bring the company’s mission to more organizations, faster.[3]