Businesses View AI Agents as Essential, Not Just Experimental: IBM
A new study by the IBM Institute for
Business Value reveals that enterprises are expected to significantly scale
AI-enabled workflows, many driven by agentic AI, relying on them for
improved decision making and automation.
The AI Projects to Profits study,
which surveyed 2,900 executives globally, revealed that respondents expect
AI-enabled workflows to grow from 3% today to 25% by the end of 2025. With 70%
of surveyed executives indicating that agentic AI is important to their
organization's future, the research suggests that many organizations are
actively encouraging experimentation.
As the pace of digital
transformation accelerates, enterprises can turn to AI agents as the next evolution of
intelligent automation. 83% of respondents say they expect AI agents to improve
process efficiency and output by 2026, and 71% believe agents will autonomously
adapt to changing workflows.
"We see more clients looking
at agentic AI as the key to help them move past incremental productivity gains
and actually gain business value from AI, especially when applied in their core
processes like supply chain and HR," said Francesco
Brenna, VP
& Senior Partner, AI Integration Services, IBM Consulting. "This isn't about plugging an agent into an
existing process and hoping for the best. It means re-architecting how the
process is executed, redesigning the user experience, orchestrating agents
end-to-end, and integrating the right data to provide context, memory, and
intelligence throughout."
These are the top five benefits of
agentic AI systems that are driving adoption across industries, according to
the report:
· Over two-thirds (69%) of executives
surveyed say 'improved decision-making' is the number one benefit
of agentic AI systems.
· 67% of those surveyed cite 'cost
reduction through automation' as a benefit.
· Almost half (47%) of leaders surveyed
indicate 'competitive advantage' as a top benefit of agentic AI systems.
· 'Scaled employee experience' is cited
as a top benefit, according to 44% of executives surveyed.
· 42% of those surveyed indicate that
'improved talent retention' is another major benefit to
implementing agentic AI systems.
Though benefits were cited among
those surveyed, concerns with agentic AI adoption are still present among
leaders. Those surveyed indicate that concerns around data (49%), trust issues
(46%) and skills shortages (42%) remain barriers to adoption for their
organizations.
Other key findings include:
· Executives surveyed indicate that AI
investment has grown to about 12% of IT spend in 2024. By 2026, the
participants indicated they expect this number is to increase by over
two-thirds to account for 20% of IT spend.
· Respondents say that 64% of AI
budgets are now spent on core business functions, underscoring AI's move from
an experimentation phase to an important part of business strategy.
· The proportion of surveyed
organizations relying on an ad hoc approach to AI has declined from a reported
19% last year to just 6% today, indicating increased confidence and commitment
to AI-driven transformation.
· One in four companies surveyed are
already using an "AI-first" approach
· Among those with an
"AI-first" approach, respondents say they attribute more than half of
their revenue growth (52%) and operating margin improvements (54%) to AI
initiatives in the last 12 months
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