Workday acquires AI-powered document platform Evisort | TechCrunch

Workday today announced it’s acquiring Evisort, an AI-powered contract management platform, for an undisclosed amount.

In a statement, Terrance Wampler, group general manager at Workday, said that Evisort’s tech will enable Workday to add a range of AI-powered document processing tools to its existing finance and HR software.

“Evisort will help us deliver on our vision to help customers unlock the value of their most critical data,” Wampler. “With AI-powered document intelligence, they’ll be able to surface and act on insights more quickly and efficiently, keeping them ahead of today’s rapidly changing business landscape.”

San Francisco-based Evisort was founded by a team of Harvard Law and MIT researchers — Amine Anoun, Jake Sussman, and Jerry Ting — in 2016.

Today, the startup offers AI-powered modules that let customers analyze documents like revenue contracts, asset agreements, and supplier invoices for things like errors, and get recommendations on document language.

Evisort also helps highlight key elements in documents such as unclaimed benefits in supplier agreements, evaluate document language against historical benchmarks, and automatically notify customers of important upcoming dates (e.g. contract renewals).

Competition in the AI document tooling segment is fierce. But Evisort found success relatively early on (despite some security incidents), expanding its customer base over the years to include brands like Microsoft, Motley Fool, NetApp, and Vonage.

Evisort raised $155.6 million in capital and debt from investors including TCV, General Atlantic, Vertex Ventures and M12, Microsoft’s corporate venture arm prior to its exit, according to Crunchbase.

Ting, Evisort’s CEO, said that Workday customers can expect Evisort’s features — including chatbots built to reference a company’s knowledge base, like HR and finance policies — to make their way into Workday’s suite in the coming months.

“AI is a powerful force, transforming how organizations convert unstructured data in documents into strategic business decisions,” Ting said in a press release. “We’re excited to combine Evisort’s document intelligence technology with Workday’s unified finance and HR platform, which will empower customers to leverage critical business data more effectively, within a single system of truth.”

Workday expects the acquisition — its second this year after HR platform HiredScore — to close in Q3 of its fiscal year 2025, subject to customary closing conditions.

Evisort adds to Workday’s its growing collection of AI-focused acquisitions, which started with Identified in 2014. In 2018, the company bought SkipFlag, makers of an AI knowledge base that builds itself from a company’s internal chats.

Broadly, Workday has increased its investments in AI over the past several years, in 2023 announcing it would expand its Workday Ventures VC fund by $250 million in part to support AI, machine learning, and automation startups.