Workday agrees to buy C1.ai to control access for employees and AI agents

Workday signed a definitive agreement on October 13, 2026, to acquire C1.ai, seeking to connect workforce management with control over software access. The planned combination would govern which applications and data employees and AI agents can reach—and remove those permissions when a person changes roles or an agent’s work ends.

The companies did not disclose a purchase price. Workday expects the transaction to close in its fiscal 2027 fourth quarter, which ends January 31, 2027, subject to customary closing conditions. The agreement is a proposed acquisition, not a completed deal or an announcement that the combined capabilities are available.

Permissions that follow the job

C1.ai describes its product as an identity-governance platform: software that controls what people and agents can access. It connects to systems including email, customer-management software, code repositories, finance applications and cloud infrastructure. Its remit extends beyond Workday to the other systems a business uses.

Workday’s acquisition announcement describes the process it wants to replace: employee access managed through service tickets, spreadsheets and periodic reviews across hundreds of applications. A worker joining, moving within or leaving a company creates another set of permissions to grant, change or withdraw.

The proposed combination would tie those decisions to employment changes. Workday says new hires would receive appropriate access when they start, employees would gain and lose permissions as their roles change, and departing workers would have access removed promptly. It presents fewer manual approvals and shorter waits for permissions as intended benefits.

C1.ai CEO Alex Bovee’s rationale is that Workday already records hiring, job changes and exits. In his announcement, he described the intended division of labor: Workday knows who a person is and what an agent is for; C1.ai governs what each can reach.

Enterprises can't secure the AI era using yesterday's IT tickets

Alex Bovee, C1.ai CEO and co-founder, in Workday’s acquisition announcement

An agent registry becomes an access-control point

The agent side introduces a distinction between an employee’s authority and the authority of software acting for them. Workday says some agents assist an employee and should reach only part of what that person can access. Others operate independently, with broader permissions that need close oversight.

Workday’s existing Agent System of Record gives companies a central place to see and manage their agents. C1.ai would extend that function beyond registering agents to governing their access across Workday and other enterprise systems. Keeping an inventory and enforcing permissions are separate parts of the proposed setup.

Under Workday’s plan, a registered agent would receive access when needed and lose it immediately when its work or role ends. The announcement points to retired agents retaining access as a problem the combination is intended to address, rather than treating registration alone as sufficient control.

C1.ai says its platform combines limited permissions, enforced policies, human approval and a record of every action. Those are its stated controls for connecting human and agent identities to enterprise systems—not simply a directory of accounts.

A larger audience, with integration still ahead

For C1.ai, the deal offers a route into a much larger customer base. Workday says more than 11,500 organizations use its platform, including more than 65% of the Fortune 500. Bovee says joining Workday would bring C1.ai’s identity-governance offering to more organizations faster.

Delivery remains conditional on more than closing the transaction. Workday identifies successful integration of C1.ai’s technology and operations as a risk. It also warns that unreleased features may change or never arrive, and tells customers to base purchases on capabilities that are currently available.