California-based Workday, which provides an AI platform for managing people and finances, has announced its plan to acquire Sana, a company that creates advanced knowledge tools for businesses.

Under the terms of the definitive agreement, Workday will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Sana for approximately $1.1B. 

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of Workday’s fiscal year 2026, ending January 31, 2026, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. 

“Our focus has always been on creating intuitive AI tools that improve how people learn and work,” says Joel Hellermark, founder and CEO of Sana. “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.”

The acquisition

This acquisition aims to integrate knowledge, data, actions, and learning into a unified experience for users.

Since its inception in 2016, Sana has been developing intuitive tools that elevate humans with AI.

Its main products, Sana Learn and Sana Agents, have served over one million users in hundreds of companies.

Now, as part of Workday, Sana will improve the Workday experience and keep improving Sana Learn and Sana Agents.

Sana Agents extends enterprise AI beyond basic search and chat. With the platform’s no-code agent builder, users can create AI agents to automate repetitive tasks and act proactively on their behalf.

These agents streamline workflows while helping ensure that every action remains secure and compliant with company policies through the Workday Agent System of Record. 

On the other hand, Sana Learn will complement Workday Learning with hyper-personalised skill-building capabilities and AI-native content creation at scale.

With Sana, Workday will create a future work experience where knowledge, data, and actions come together. This will help people complete their tasks and empower employees with AI agents that can:

  • Find answers, information and files by instantly searching across a company’s most critical data sources, including Workday, Google Drive, SharePoint, and Office 365.
  • Act proactively by anticipating needs, summarising insights, and assisting with projects.
  • Create presentations, documents, and dashboards, even full learning courses, based on company knowledge.
  • Automate repetitive tasks and routine work by executing workflows end-to-end.

Using Workday’s data about employees and finances, the employee experience will be more personalised and proactive, responding to the needs of individuals based on their roles, teams, and projects.

“Sana pioneered the world of intelligent agents and AI-native learning at scale,” says Josh Bersin, global industry analyst and CEO of The Josh Bersin Company and a Sana customer. “I think Sana’s AI agent and learning system allows Workday customers to completely transform the way their employees learn, grow, and operate as super workers in this new age of AI.”

Workday: Enterprise AI platform

Workday combines human resources and finance into one platform that uses AI.

This helps people at all levels access the information they need to adapt quickly, make better decisions, and achieve important results.

Over 11,000 organisations around the world use Workday, including more than 65 per cent of Fortune 500 companies and many medium-sized businesses.