Workday Acquires AI Firm Sana to Supercharge Enterprise Service

U.S. HR Tech firm Workday has acquired AI firm Sana Labs for $1.1 billion. Sana offers a range of products that include corporate training and an AI agent that helps with tasks like note taking. According to Yahoo Finance, Workday is seeking to integrate AI into its products to increase demand for its enterprise services.

Building Next-Generation Knowledge Tools

Workday provides enterprises with a platform for managing human and finance resources. The latest acquisition will enable the HR software firm to leverage Sana AI features for enterprises to build the next generation of knowledge tools to create a new front door for work.

“Sana’s team, AI-native approach, and beautiful design perfectly align with our vision to reimagine the future of work. This will make Workday the new front door for work, delivering a proactive, personalized, and intelligent experience that unlocks unmatched AI capabilities for the workplace,” Workday’s President, Product, and Technology Gerrit Kazmaier said.

Sana has been helping enterprises to develop AI agents for automating tasks since 2016. Over 1 million users in hundreds of enterprises use the company’s main products, Sana Agents and Sana Learn. As part of Workday’s HR AI software, Sana will continue to develop innovative tools for customers to fast-track its growth.

“Our focus has always been on creating intuitive AI tools that improve how people learn and work. I’m excited to bring these tools to 75 million Workday users and partner with Workday’s iconic team to launch a new era of superintelligence for work,” Sana Labs Founder and CEO Joel Hellermark said.

Sana’s AI Advantage

Workday customers access applications for managing key HR services like recruitment, auditing, payroll, and accounting through a single cloud-based platform. In May 2025, US Agency, Office of Personnel Management awarded Workday a contract to manage HR work, including time and attendance tracking, HR processing, and talent acquisition.

Sana’s AI technology will be critical to Workday’s AI 2025 strategy as the company seeks to provide AI-powered tools to enterprise customers. These include tools that can search company data sources instantly to find information, answers, and files fast.

Workday also wants its AI tools to anticipate company needs, summarize insights, create documents and presentations based on company information, and automate repetitive tasks. Customers will also be able to generate customized dashboards and automate performance review processes using Sana’s AI technology.

Additionally, Workday said Sana’s AI technology will enable it to deepen its educational offerings. The technology will support employee skill-building by allowing enterprises to create courses fast and provide personalized tutoring through AI tools.

Workday’s move to strengthen enterprise AI comes months after a Gartner report warned that 40% of agentic AI projects could fail. According to the tech research and advisory firm most companies will terminate agentic AI projects due to rising costs, insufficient risk controls, and the lack of clarity regarding the business value that AI agents offer.

Workday Acquisitions and Partnerships

Workday’s Sana AI tools buyout comes soon after the HR Tech company acquired Paradox to leverage its AI-powered talent acquisition suite. Paradox is a candidate experience agent that uses conversational AI to simplify every step of the job application journey for high-volume frontline industries. The company employs nearly 3 billion workers globally.

On September 16, 2025, Workday revealed additional initiatives that are facilitating its roll out of AI tools to enterprises. These include its partnership with Microsoft to help businesses manage AI agents across different platforms. The HR firm also said that it will be unveiling Workday Build, a developer platform designed to help customers develop AI tools directly.

In 2024, Salesforce and Workday launched an AI-powered employee agent that automates routine tasks, offers data-driven insights, and provides personalized support to enterprises, enabling them to work faster and smarter. Workday expects to close its Sana acquisition deal in its fourth quarter, which ends on January 31, 2026.