Workday expands AI ambitions with C1.ai identity platform acquisition

Fresh off its $1.1 billion acquisition of AI startup Sana, Workday is making another bet on enterprise AI, this time targeting the governance challenge. The company said it will acquire agentic identity platform C1.ai to help customers manage and secure AI agents operating across enterprise applications.

The acquisition will build on Workday’s Agent System of Record, which gives enterprises a centralized view of their AI agents, by adding controls over what those agents can access across Workday and other enterprise systems, the company said.

That would allow enterprises to grant agents the permissions they need to perform specific tasks and revoke them when those tasks are completed, rather than risk agents retaining access to data and applications they no longer need, it added.

The combined capabilities could also help streamline access management for employees as they join an organization, change roles, or leave, reducing the manual work involved in managing permissions while limiting potential security gaps, it further said.

These governance and identity management capabilities become increasingly important as Workday, alongside the acquisition, also continues to expand the role of AI agents across its suite.

During the week, the company announced several updates to Sana, including making it the new home interface for its applications.

The interface brings tasks, decisions, meetings, and agent activity into one place, allowing employees to use natural-language prompts to get Workday agents to complete tasks rather than simply retrieve information, the company said.

The company also extended Sana into third-party tools, including Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Microsoft Copilot, allowing employees to invoke Workday capabilities from the applications they already use.

That expanded ability to invoke Workday agents across applications underscores the need for enterprises to govern what these agents can access and do across systems. C1.ai’s acquisition is expected to close by the end of January.