Workday Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY), an enterprise software provider, is widening its AI ambitions with a new Anthropic partnership and an agreement to acquire C1.ai.
The moves come as part of a broader rollout of AI tools across human resources, finance and IT, giving Workday a larger role in how enterprises deploy and govern AI agents.
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Workday Partners with Anthropic
At the center of the push is Workday’s partnership with Anthropic.
The companies plan to connect Claude’s reasoning capabilities with Workday’s Sana AI agents and HR and finance data. Employees will be able to move between both platforms while completing business tasks.
The integration will use the Model Context Protocol and retain Workday permissions and controls.
Claude users will be able to tap Sana agents for tasks such as reviewing headcount, planning internal hiring moves and handling invoice exceptions.
Workday has already made Sana in Claude available to early-access customers and plans a broader launch in late 2026.
“Together, Workday Sana and Claude unlock lawful AI across the enterprise to get real work done,” said Gerrit Kazmaier, Workday president of product and technology.
Workday To Acquire C1.ai
Workday also signed a definitive agreement to acquire C1.ai, a platform that manages identity and system access for employees and AI agents. Financial terms were not disclosed.
C1.ai connects with enterprise applications, including email, CRM, code repositories, finance software, and cloud infrastructure. It grants or removes access based on user or agent needs.
Workday plans to integrate C1.ai with its Agent System of Record. The move will give customers greater control over which systems and data AI agents can access.
The company expects to close the acquisition in its fiscal fourth quarter ending Jan. 31, 2027.
Workday Broadens Sana and AI Product Suite
The broader strategy extends beyond Claude and C1.ai.
Workday said Sana will operate within Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise, Microsoft Copilot and Teams, Slack and Claude, allowing employees to initiate Workday tasks from those platforms.
The company also launched Autopilot Agents for hiring, payroll, accounting and deployment workflows. It also expanded Decision Intelligence across HR and finance.
Workday introduced Work Intelligence to help companies assess where AI can automate or augment tasks and made Sana the new Workday Home for coordinating work and AI agents.
Separately, Workday’s new Candidate Profile will let job seekers save information once and reuse it across applications. The feature is expected to become generally available in early 2027.
WDAY Price Action: Workday shares were down 0.71% to $186.92 at the time of publication on Tuesday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Photo: Courtesy Workday
