Home / Workday: Elliot Stake, Sana Acquisition & Microsoft Collaboration

Workday: Elliot Stake, Sana Acquisition & Microsoft Collaboration

By: Jasmin Espinas

Updated: September 17, 2025

Published: September 16, 2025

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Workday, a prominent provider of cloud-based enterprise software for finance and HR, continues to expand its influence across the AI space.

Most recently, the company secured a stake in Elliott Management.

Workday Stock Jumps After Elliott Confirms $2B Investment

Workday shares climbed nearly 9% on Wednesday, September 1, after Elliott Management disclosed a stake exceeding $2 billion.

The activist investor publicly backed the company’s current leadership, citing consistent execution and operational progress over the past several years.

In addition, Workday announced a plan to repurchase $5 billion worth of stock by fiscal 2027.

Workday Announces Acquisition of Sana for $1.1 Billion

Workday confirmed on Tuesday, September 16, that it plans to acquire Stockholm-based AI company Sana for approximately $1.1 billion.

Big news! We’ve signed a definitive agreement to acquire @sanalabs, a leading AI company building the next-gen of enterprise knowledge tools. Sana will power a new Workday experience, establishing it as the new front door for work: #WDAYRising https://t.co/Yh3HWLJgVP pic.twitter.com/Mut3bZTyLd

— Workday (@Workday) September 16, 2025

This deal reflects Workday’s continued effort to bring advanced automation into its finance and HR software.

Sana, launched in 2016, develops AI agents designed to automate internal workflows.

Its products – Sana Learn and Sana Agents – allow teams to build task-specific automation systems across company data and communication channels.

Workday said both products will continue under Sana’s existing roadmap while powering new capabilities within Workday’s broader platform.

The acquisition also expands Workday’s product stack beyond traditional ERP. The goal is to streamline tasks such as performance reviews, personalized dashboard creation, and internal knowledge delivery.

In addition, Workday stated that hiring managers will be able to generate summaries, automate review cycles, and manage data-heavy tasks.

Furthermore, this deal closely follows Workday’s recent agreement to acquire Paradox, an AI firm focused on hiring automation.

The company expects the Sana acquisition to close in Q4 of its fiscal year 2026, which ends January 31.

Workday Partners With Microsoft for a Unified Agentic Enterprise Experience

Workday also announced on September 16 plans for a new partnership with Microsoft. It aims to give companies better control over how AI agents function across enterprise systems.

Today’s a big day for Workday! Here’s a quick look at our latest announcements:

Workday Data Cloud ☁️
Workday Build 🚀
Illuminate Agents 🤖@Microsoft Integration 🤝

The future of work is here! #WDAYRising pic.twitter.com/WZ4YaHVmYF

— Workday (@Workday) September 16, 2025

This collaboration aligns agent development and identity management between the two platforms.

Therefore, organizations using Microsoft’s Azure AI Studio and Copilot Studio to build agents will be able to register and manage them through Workday’s Agent System of Record (ASOR).

This connection provides consistent oversight, linking each agent to its assigned responsibilities and source data.

The integration also connects Workday ASOR with Microsoft’s Entra Agent ID service.

This setup assigns verified digital identities to each agent. It ensures they follow appropriate access rules and operate with a clear business context across systems.

Workday EVP Sayan Chakraborty confirmed the program is currently in early access.

Selected customers can test the integration, offer feedback, and influence how the feature develops before it becomes widely available.

Conclusion

Elliott Management’s $2 billion stake signals that investors see long-term potential in that strategy – but it also raises expectations.

The backing gives Workday more room to execute, but with closer scrutiny on performance, discipline, and return on innovation.

Looking ahead, analysts will likely watch how efficiently Workday turns these investments into features that drive adoption beyond its existing customer base.

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