Workday agrees to acquire C1.ai, an agentic identity platform for people and agents

Workday, Inc. (WDAY) said in a regulatory filing that it has agreed to acquire C1.ai, an agentic identity platform for people and agents. The agreement was signed Oct. 12, and the company announced it in a press release dated Oct. 13 at Workday Rising 2026 in Las Vegas.

Under the agreement, Workday will acquire all of the outstanding capital stock of C1.ai, subject to customary closing conditions. The filing does not disclose a purchase price or how the deal will be paid for.

Workday said the acquisition would extend its role in managing access. The company already governs people, money and agents, and it said that with C1.ai it would become the identity governance layer for all three.

"Today's companies run on a combined workforce of people and AI agents," Workday President, product and technology Gerrit Kazmaier said. "With C1.ai, we'll help secure that workforce by managing and enforcing exactly who\u2014and what\u2014has access to connected apps and systems."

C1.ai connects to the systems a business runs on, including email, CRM, code repositories, finance systems and cloud infrastructure. It gives each person and agent the right access at the right time, and removes that access when it is no longer needed.

The release gives an example of a new hire who spends the first few days filing tickets to get access to Slack, Jira and the finance dashboard. It said the same employee can keep that access long after changing roles.

The company cited C1.ai research showing that 95% of large U.S. companies already run autonomous agents. It also cited Deloitte's State of AI research, which it said found that only 21% of organizations report having a mature way to govern them.

Workday's Agent System of Record already gives companies one place to see and manage their agents. Under the deal, C1.ai would build on that by governing what agents can access across Workday and other enterprise systems.

"Enterprises can't secure the AI era using yesterday's IT tickets," C1.ai CEO and co-founder Alex Bovee said.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of Workday's fiscal 2027, which ends Jan. 31, 2027, subject to customary closing conditions.

The forward-looking section lists regulatory approvals among the risks to the deal. The filing does not say which approvals are required.

BofA Securities is financial advisor to Workday, and Orrick is its legal advisor. Qatalyst is financial advisor to C1.ai, and Ashurst Perkins Coie is its legal advisor.

The filing does not give C1.ai's revenue, headcount or valuation.