Workday to Acquire C1.ai, an Identity Platform for People and AI Agents

Workday announced at its Workday Rising 2026 event in Las Vegas that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire C1.ai. The price was not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to close in Workday's fourth fiscal quarter of 2027, which ends January 31, 2027, subject to customary closing conditions.

C1.ai describes itself as an agentic identity platform. It connects people and AI agents to business systems such as email, CRM, code repositories, finance systems and cloud infrastructure, granting access when it is needed and removing it when it is no longer required. Workday says the deal will let it act as the identity governance layer for people, money and agents.

Gerrit Kazmaier, Workday's president of product and technology, and Alex Bovee, CEO and co-founder of C1.ai, are named in the announcement. BofA Securities and Orrick advised Workday, and Qatalyst and Ashurst Perkins Coie advised C1.ai.

Why it matters

Access provisioning has long been driven by HR events: a hire, a role change or a departure triggers accounts being created or removed. Workday is betting that the HR system of record should also govern access for AI agents, which pulls identity management closer to HR and IT buying decisions.

For HR and IT teams, the practical question is how joiner, mover and leaver processes will work once software agents also hold permissions. Organizations already using SSO and SCIM provisioning should ask their HR and identity vendors how agent accounts will be created, reviewed and revoked.

Read the original: Workday Newsroom.