Agentic AI and governance drove AI and data software providers’ acquisitions in 2H 2025

M&A was central to AI innovation among AI and data software vendors in 2H 2025. Most of these companies’ M&A deals made direct reference to AI, with a particular focus on agentic AI. AI governance and data governance were the other main drivers of M&A activity in 2H 2025.

Vendors are making acquisitions either to provide agentic AI services directly, or to provide tools to facilitate operators’ own agentic AI developments. Vendors with relatively more mature agentic AI capabilities, such as Redhat and ServiceNow, are adding capabilities that enable AI governance, while Atlassian (the provider of a collaboration platform for service management) and Snowflake are adding capabilities that can facilitate effective data governance.