Workday agrees to buy C1.ai, formerly ConductorOne, to govern access for AI agents

C1.ai, previously named ConductorOne, was founded by CEO Alex Bovee and CTO Paul Querna, who met building zero trust products. Workday signed the definitive agreement on October 12 and announced it on October 13 alongside its Rising event. Workday did not disclose terms. C1's October 2025 Series B of $79M was led by Greycroft at a valuation of about $350M, according to Forbes, and total capital raised passed $100M. The platform connects to email, CRM, code repositories, finance systems and cloud infrastructure and adjusts each person's or agent's permissions to current need. Workday plans to use hiring, role changes and exits in its HR system as triggers, and to extend its Agent System of Record. The revenue figure is a Lounge estimate, as none has been reported. For AI builders, the deal shows large enterprise platforms buying identity and access control for autonomous agents. Startups selling agents will meet governance requirements earlier in procurement, and agent-security tooling is becoming an acquisition category.