ACT 1 Group
ACT 1 Group is a privately-held global workforce solutions provider generating $1.1B in net sales across 47 countries, delivering staffing, RPO, MSP/BPO, and enterprise AI orchestration through brands including AppleOne, AgileOne, AllSTEM, and Aria.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1978
- HeadquartersTorrance, United States
- Headcount1,001–5,000
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What ACT 1 Group does
ACT 1 Group (The Act 1 Group, Inc.) is a privately-held, founder-owned global workforce solutions and business process outsourcing holding company headquartered in Torrance, California. Founded in 1978 by Janice Bryant Howroyd with $1,500, it has grown to approximately $1.1 billion in net sales with 2,600+ employees operating in 47 countries and serving 28,000+ clients. The company is positioned as the largest privately-held, woman- and minority-owned workforce management company in the United States. Its core commercial activity remains staffing and contingent workforce services delivered through wholly-owned operating brands: AppleOne (general staffing across U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, Asia), All's Well (healthcare staffing), AllSTEM Connections (STEM talent), ActOne Executive Search (executive search), AgileOne (BPO/total talent management/procurement), ActOne Entertainment Staffing, ActOne Government Solutions, and ATIMS (public safety software).
The company's go-to-market is enterprise-direct across both staffing and automation divisions, using dedicated hiring advisors for staffing engagements and consultative field sales with demo-led discovery for Aria. Revenue derives from a mix of professional services (staffing placements, contingency/direct hire, RPO), managed services (AgileOne MSP/BPO programs), and an emerging subscription/outcome-based revenue stream from Aria. Customers are concentrated in Fortune 500 organizations, mid-market companies, and government agencies, with named enterprise relationships including Bristol-Myers Squibb (AgileOne contingent workforce partnership), and demonstrated depth in healthcare, pharmaceutical, financial services, and manufacturing verticals.
In 2025, the company expanded its product architecture into enterprise AI orchestration with two new platforms: Assembly Orchestration (July 2025, via a strategic investment in Assembly Industries) and Aria Orchestration Solutions (October 2025), an enterprise platform combining AI agents with human-in-the-loop oversight for end-to-end workflow automation. Aria offers process orchestration, custom agentic AI, and industry-specific modules spanning healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, retail, HR, and procurement automation, with documented connectivity to 200+ enterprise systems and SOC 2 Type 2 compliance. The shift signals a deliberate attempt to move the business model up the stack from labor arbitrage toward software-driven process automation, although the AI revenue base remains undisclosed.
ACT 1 Group firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- ACT 1 Group
- Legal name
- The Act 1 Group, Inc.
- Website
- https://actonegroup.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1978
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1,001–5,000 employees
- Short description
- ACT 1 Group is a privately-held global workforce solutions provider generating $1.1B in net sales across 47 countries, delivering staffing, RPO, MSP/BPO, and enterprise AI orchestration through brands including AppleOne, AgileOne, AllSTEM, and Aria.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
ACT 1 Group industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Workforce Management Services
- NAICS
- Employment Placement Agencies (561311)
- SIC
- Services-Employment Agencies (7361), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Agents & Autonomous Workflows (Tool Use, Planning, Multi-Agent) (HDAAACAF)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- iPaaS & Workflow Automation (BPAMAOAB), Responsible AI, AI Governance & Compliance Services (BPAEAHAJ), Integration-Centric Low-Code (Workflow + iPaaS) (HDAEAKAC)
Keywords
Where ACT 1 Group is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Torrance
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices5 records
Markets served
ACT 1 Group business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Staffing and Workforce Solutions: Traditional staffing services including temporary staffing, direct hire, recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), payroll services, and contingent workforce management through divisions like AppleOne, All's Well, AllSTEM Connections, and AgileOne.
- AI Orchestration Solutions (Aria): Enterprise AI platform providing intelligent workflow automation and process orchestration. Delivers measurable business outcomes including 30-50% cost savings and 60% productivity gains. Revenue derived from automation implementation and ongoing orchestration services.
- Managed Workforce Services: Business process outsourcing including workforce and procurement solutions through AgileOne. Scalable programs for outsourcing, insourcing, on-site or off-site program management with cloud-based technology platforms.
- Healthcare Staffing Services: Specialized clinical staffing through All's Well including contingency and direct hire placements for nurses and medical talent. Services include JCAHO compliant locations, medical clerical staffing, and experienced coding/billing/collections.
- Executive Search: Executive talent acquisition and leadership placements through ActOne Executive Search. Includes retained search, confidential search, and global network reach for identifying top-tier candidates.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise AI Orchestration - Custom Pricing |
| Outcome Based/ Performance | Multi-year contract | Process Automation - Outcome-Based |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels6 records
Marketing channels6 records
ACT 1 Group product offering
Product offeringCore offering
ACT 1 Group is a global workforce solutions enterprise offering staffing, recruitment process outsourcing, contingent workforce management, executive search, and business process outsourcing across healthcare, STEM, and general business segments through divisions such as AppleOne, All's Well, AllSTEM Connections, ActOne Executive Search, and AgileOne. The company has expanded into enterprise AI with Aria Orchestration Solutions, a platform that automates and coordinates business workflows by combining AI agents with human experts, delivering guaranteed ROI within 90 days.
Product overview
ActOne Group operates as a global workforce solutions provider with a dual product architecture: (1) Traditional Staffing & Workforce Services including AppleOne (general staffing), All's Well (healthcare staffing), AllSTEM Connections (STEM talent), ActOne Executive Search (executive recruitment), AgileOne (BPO/procurement), and ATIMS (public safety software); and (2) AI-Powered Automation Platforms led by Aria Orchestration Solutions, which encompasses Process Orchestration, Custom Agentic AI, and Customized Results modules. Aria orchestrates end-to-end business workflows by combining AI agents with human expertise, while the staffing brands provide talent acquisition across healthcare, STEM, executive, and general workforce segments.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- AppleOne
Quantifiable outcome
- 47% average efficiency gains through intelligent workflow orchestration
- +12 more outcomes
Companies that use ACT 1 Group
Customer profileNamed customers7 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
ACT 1 Group technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability12 records
Feature5 records
ACT 1 Group partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Two partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.
- OHUB (Opportunity Hub)coreStrategic partnership to increase the diversity of the STEM workforce. OHUB advances its mission to ensure everyone has access to STEM opportunities while ActOne Group provides workforce solutions and talent acquisition expertise to support diversity initiatives in technology careers.
- Bristol-Myers SquibbflagshipAgileOne selected as Bristol-Myers Squibb's Contingent Workforce Talent Solutions Partner. Bristol-Myers Squibb is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and delivering innovative medicines. AgileOne provides comprehensive workforce management and talent solutions.
Scale indicators14 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
ACT 1 Group competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Robert Half: Robert Half is a global staffing and talent solutions firm specializing in finance, technology, and administrative placements. It competes directly with ActOne's Executive Search, AllSTEM Connections, and AppleOne Technical divisions for specialized professional talent.
- Celonis: Celonis is a process intelligence and orchestration platform that maps, monitors, and automates business workflows across enterprise systems. Aria's process orchestration module with end-to-end workflow coordination competes directly with Celonis's process-mining-led automation approach.
- UiPath: UiPath is a leading robotic process automation and AI orchestration platform selling into enterprise automation buyers. Aria's modular AI agents and end-to-end process orchestration compete directly with UiPath's agentic automation and Orchestrator platform for the same enterprise operations and shared-services RFPs.
- ManpowerGroup: ManpowerGroup is a global staffing and workforce solutions company with comparable breadth (AppleOne, All's Well, AgileOne). Both serve Fortune 500 contingent workforce needs across multiple geographies and verticals and compete for the same enterprise MSP/RPO contracts.
- Workato: Workato is an integration-centric low-code/iPaaS and workflow orchestration platform that competes head-to-head with Aria Orchestration in connecting enterprise systems and automating multi-step business processes. Both target enterprise operations leaders with no-code workflow building, pre-built connectors, and outcome-based ROI claims.
- Kelly Services: Kelly Services is a global workforce solutions provider with specialty staffing, RPO, and MSP capabilities across STEM, healthcare, and administrative roles. It competes directly with AppleOne, AllSTEM, and AgileOne for Fortune 500 contingent workforce contracts.
- Automation Anywhere: Automation Anywhere provides AI-powered process automation and agentic workflows with similar autonomous agent capabilities to Aria. Both vendors target enterprise operations and back-office transformation with measurable ROI guarantees.
Broad incumbents
- Workday: Workday's HCM and workforce management platform increasingly bundles AI agents and process automation, overlapping with Aria's HR and staffing automation use cases (candidate discovery, predictive analytics). As a broad incumbent, Workday is the systems-of-record alternative for many of the same enterprise buyers.
- ServiceNow: ServiceNow is a broad enterprise workflow and AI platform whose App Engine and Now Assist offerings overlap with Aria's process orchestration. As a much larger incumbent, ServiceNow competes for enterprise-wide automation RFPs that ActOne's AI business must also win.
Emerging players
- Zapier: Zapier is a workflow automation platform connecting thousands of SaaS apps, often serving as the default SMB/mid-market automation choice for the same operational efficiency use cases Aria addresses. Aria's enterprise governance and human-in-the-loop features differentiate it for complex regulated deployments.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks7 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
ACT 1 Group social profiles
Digital presenceACT 1 Group compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance2 records
ACT 1 Group financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
ACT 1 Group leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
ACT 1 Group subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries15 records
ACT 1 Group funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
ACT 1 Group M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about ACT 1 Group
What does ACT 1 Group do?
ACT 1 Group is a global workforce solutions enterprise offering staffing, recruitment process outsourcing, contingent workforce management, executive search, and business process outsourcing across healthcare, STEM, and general business segments through divisions such as AppleOne, All's Well, AllSTEM Connections, ActOne Executive Search, and AgileOne. The company has expanded into enterprise AI with Aria Orchestration Solutions, a platform that automates and coordinates business workflows by combining AI agents with human experts, delivering guaranteed ROI within 90 days.
Is ACT 1 Group a public or private company?
ACT 1 Group is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was ACT 1 Group founded?
ACT 1 Group was founded in 1978. It employs 1,001 to 5,000 people.
Where is ACT 1 Group based?
ACT 1 Group is headquartered in Torrance, United States, in the North America region.
How does ACT 1 Group make money?
Five revenue lines are on record. Staffing and Workforce Solutions are the primary driver. The others are AI Orchestration Solutions (Aria), managed Workforce Services, healthcare Staffing Services and executive Search.
Who are ACT 1 Group's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Robert Half, Celonis, UiPath, ManpowerGroup, Workato, Kelly Services and Automation Anywhere. Broad incumbents are Workday and ServiceNow. Zapier is listed as an emerging player.
Does ACT 1 Group have an API?
No public API is recorded for ACT 1 Group.
What industry is ACT 1 Group in?
ACT 1 Group's product category is Workforce Management Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAAACAF, Agents & Autonomous Workflows (Tool Use, Planning, Multi-Agent), with a secondary code of BPAMAOAB, iPaaS & Workflow Automation. Its NAICS code is 561311 and its SIC code is 7361.