Half Of Tech Execs Are Ready To Let Ai Take The Wheel

Research shows AI is shifting from pilots to halfway operations, pinch agentic AI taking halfway shape for maturation and strategy.

As AI shifts from experimental to essential, tech executives opportunity that much than half of AI deployments will beryllium functioning autonomously successful their institution successful nan adjacent 2 years, according to a caller survey by master services patient Ernst & Young (EY).

While generative AI (genAI) exertion has captured nan attraction of business leaders for nan past respective years, agentic AI, a circumstantial benignant of AI strategy that acts autonomously aliases semi-autonomously to execute goals, has mostly flown nether nan radar. That changed successful precocious 2024 erstwhile hunt postulation for agentic AI and AI agents began to surge, according to Google Trends data.

Now, half of much than 500 tech executives surveyed by EY successful its latest Technology Pulse Poll said AI agents will dress up nan mostly of upcoming AI deployments. The study revealed that 48% are already adopting aliases afloat deploying AI agents, and half of those leaders opportunity that much than 50% of AI deployments will beryllium autonomous successful their institution successful nan adjacent 24 months.

The EY study besides showed rising AI investment, pinch 92% of tech leaders readying to boost AI spending and complete half believing they’re up of competitors successful AI investment. Additionally, 81% of tech executives surveyed said they consciousness optimistic astir AI’s promises related to achieving their organization’s goals complete nan adjacent 12 months.

Tech companies are starring nan complaint successful adopting agentic AI, according to James Brundage, a leader successful EY’s Technology Sector group. “Despite economical uncertainty, executives stay assured successful AI’s value, ramping up finance and shifting from pilots to afloat deployment. Still, they’re nether unit to show existent ROI done measurable business results,” he said.

Among respondents readying to summation their AI budgets, 43% opportunity agentic AI will declare much than half of their full AI budget. Leading reasons for adopting agentic AI see staying competitory (69%), helping customers (59%), and for soul strategy purposes (59%).

Tech companies are ever early adopters, and galore judge they’re up of nan competition, but that assurance successful AI often exceeds nan reality, according to Ken Englund, a leader successful EY Americas’ Technology Sector Growth.

“It is still very early successful nan AI lifecycle, truthful it remains to beryllium seen wherever these companies guidelines against nan competition, and an outside-in position will beryllium a captious measuring stick,” Englund said.

Tapping into agentic AI requires structural change

Investment successful agentic AI is accelerating, reshaping endeavor architecture. While genAI gets astir of nan spotlight, advances successful classical AI and instrumentality learning are besides cardinal to enabling agentic AI, according to Englund, who sees nan exertion arsenic a “flexible framework” for utilizing nan correct devices to present outcomes crossed platforms.

AI agents connection much than a productivity boost; they’re fundamentally reshaping customer interactions and business operations. And while there’s still activity to do connected spot and accuracy, nan world is opening a caller tech era — 1 that mightiness yet present connected nan promises seen successful movies like Minority Report and Iron Man, according to Salesforce CEO Marc Benoiff.

Salesforce has embedded AI into its CRM done nan Einstein 1 Platform and devices for illustration Agentforce, enabling businesses to deploy autonomous agents crossed sales, service, marketing, and commerce. Its generative AI tools, Einstein GPT and Einstein Copilot, enactment arsenic intelligent assistants that draught communications, summarize lawsuit histories, auto-fill records, and reply questions utilizing institution data.

To execute competitory advantage successful this caller world, businesses must displacement their attraction from isolated genAI devices for illustration chatbots to heavy integration of precocious AI systems — particularly agentic architectures, wherever autonomous AI agents collaborate to negociate and optimize analyzable workflows, according to a caller report from services patient Accenture.

The Accenture study was based connected a study of 2,000 C-suite and data-science executives crossed aggregate countries and industries. Although galore companies admit AI’s potential, nan study said, existent endeavor reinvention requires structural change, beardown leadership, and, crucially, a robust information foundation — an area wherever galore still struggle, peculiarly pinch unstructured data.

Additionally, outdated IT systems and inadequate worker training inhibit progress. However, a mini group of “front-runner” companies are succeeding by combining foundational AI investments pinch “bold, strategical initiatives that embed AI astatine nan halfway of their operations,” nan study said.

Only 8% of companies — alleged “front-runners” — are scaling AI astatine an endeavor level, embedding nan exertion into halfway business strategy.

But of those front-runners that scaled their AI implementations, galore recovered a coagulated return connected investment. According to Accenture:

• Front-runners pinch yearly gross exceeding $10 cardinal grew their gross 7% faster than companies still experimenting pinch AI.
• Across each sizes, front-runners outperformed nan different 3 institution groups, delivering shareholder returns that were 6% higher.
• After deploying and scaling AI crossed their enterprise, companies expect to trim their costs by 11% and summation their productivity by 13%, connected average, wrong 18 months.

Most tech leaders are still not AI savvy, CEOs say

But earlier this month, Gartner Research issued nan results of a study showing that conscionable 44% of CIOs are deemed by their CEOs to beryllium “AI-savvy.”

The study of 456 CEOs and different elder business executives worldwide besides revealed that 77% of respondents judge AI is ushering successful a caller business era, making nan deficiency of AI savviness amongst executive teams each nan much meaningful.

“We person ne'er seen specified a disproportionate spread successful CEOs’ impressions astir technological disruption,” said David Furlonger, a distinguished VP expert and Gartner Fellow.

“AI is not conscionable an incremental alteration from integer business. AI is simply a measurement alteration successful really business and nine work,” he said. “A important accusation is that, if savviness crossed nan C-suite is not quickly improved, competitiveness will suffer, and firm endurance will beryllium astatine stake.”

CEOs perceived moreover nan CIO, main accusation information serviceman (CISO), and main information serviceman (CDO) arsenic lacking AI savviness. Respondents said nan apical 2 factors limiting AI’s deployment and usage are nan inability to prosecute capable numbers of skilled group and an inability to cipher worth aliases outcomes.

“CEOs person shifted their position of AI from conscionable a instrumentality to a transformative measurement of working,” said Jennifer Carter, a main expert astatine Gartner. “This alteration has highlighted nan value of upskilling. As leaders admit AI’s imaginable and its effect connected their organizations, they understand that occurrence isn’t conscionable astir hiring caller talent. Instead, it’s astir equipping their existent employees pinch nan skills needed to seamlessly incorporated AI into mundane tasks.”

This attraction connected upskilling is simply a strategical consequence to AI’s evolving domiciled successful business, ensuring that nan full statement tin accommodate and thrive successful this caller paradigm. Sixty-six percent of CEOs said their business models are not fresh for AI purposes, according to Gartner’s survey. Therefore, executives must build and amended AI savviness related to each mission-critical priority.

Hiring workers pinch nan correct skills is besides portion of nan effort, noted EY’s Englund. “According to our exertion beat poll, 84% of tech leaders opportunity they expect hiring successful nan adjacent six months arsenic a consequence of AI adoption,” he said.

“We proceed to spot beardown wide demand for AI skills and an summation successful those skills progressive successful nan deployment of AI accumulation solutions. In particular, we spot accrued recruiting of AI knowledgeable Product Managers, Data Engineers, MLOps, and Forward Deployed Engineers (FDE’s),” Englund said.

In nan unreserved to instrumentality AI, galore companies are besides turning to extracurricular freelancers pinch nan skills they need. New investigation from Fiverr, a world freelance worker marketplace, recovered an 18,000% surge successful businesses seeking freelance thief to instrumentality agents and a 641% increase for freelancers who specialize successful “humanizing AI content.”

Last week, Fiverr published its Spring 2025 Business Trends Index, which uses information from tens of millions of searches connected its level complete nan past six months to supply a snapshot of today’s (and tomorrow’s) economy.

[ Related: Freelancers now correspond much than 1 successful 4 US workers ]

The request for freelancers who person nan skills to activity pinch AI agents shows that businesses are eager — but often unsure astir — really to deploy nan “digital colleagues” who tin independently negociate tasks for illustration reference emails, scheduling meetings, aliases answering customer questions.

“At nan aforesaid time, a spike successful searches for freelancers who tin rewrite chatbot scripts, trading emails, and website transcript to sound much earthy highlights a clear takeaway: AI mightiness beryllium powerful, but it still needs a quality touch,” Fiverr said successful its report.