AI agents are poised to drive enterprise-wide transformation in 2026
Regional disparities revealed with the introduction of AI
Language and voice AI will become essential infrastructure for global business
new york, December 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — The era of AI agents has arrived. 2026 marks the decisive shift from AI experimentation to agent automation, according to new research from DeepL, a global AI products and research company, revealing that the majority of global business leaders (69%) expect agent AI to transform their operations in the year ahead.
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A DeepL survey of 5,000 executives in the US, UK, France, Germany, and Japan found that companies are preparing to deploy autonomous AI agents at scale to handle knowledge work, increase productivity, and reshape the workforce, suggesting this could be the most significant operational change in business since the cloud.
“AI agents are no longer experimental, they are inevitable,” said Jarek Kutylowski, CEO and founder of DeepL. “The next step is to deeply embed AI into the way we work. By 2026, AI agents will take away the heavy lifting of context switching and repetitive tasks, allowing people to focus on actually driving the business forward.”
AI agents will be the next corporate disruptor
After early pilots and narrow use cases, AI agents are moving into enterprise operations.
Almost half (44%) of global business leaders expect a major transformation from agent AI in 2026, and a further quarter (25%) say the transformation has already begun. Only 7% believe AI agents will do not have Change operations and emphasize speed of adoption.
Respondents reported that the top three drivers of trust in AI agents include proven ROI and efficiency (22%), employee adaptability (18%), and increased company responsiveness (18%).
However, respondents cited cost (16%), workforce readiness (13%), and technology maturity (12%) as the main challenges to deploying AI agents.
AI is the biggest growth driver for global business
Beyond AI agents, AI as a whole is now seen as a key driver of business growth in 2026.
More than two-thirds (67%) of respondents reported increased ROI from their AI initiatives this year, and more than half (52%) expect AI to contribute more to their company’s growth next year than any other technology.
The UK (80%) leads in terms of measurable business performance from AI (80%), followed by Germany (78%), the US (71%) and France (70%), but Japan lags behind at just 35%, suggesting a lag in adoption and readiness.
Interestingly, more than half (51%) of global business leaders believe that AI will create more new roles than they will replace in the next year, and 52% say that most new hires will need AI skills.
Language and voice AI evolves from tool to infrastructure
DeepL’s research also highlights that linguistic and voice AI are becoming critical layers of enterprise infrastructure.
Almost two-thirds (64%) of global companies plan to increase investment in linguistic AI in 2026. The UK (76%) leads the way, followed by Germany (74%), the US (67%) and France (65%). Because multilingual communication and content generation are at the core of cross-border growth. In contrast, Japan (38%) remains relatively conservative, indicating slowing momentum but still reflecting growing interest among more than one in three business leaders.
On the other hand, voice AI has gone from being a “nice to have” to non-negotiable.
More than half (54%) of global business leaders say real-time speech translation will be essential by 2026, up from one-third (32%) today.
While the UK (48%) and France (33%) lead in early reliance on real-time speech translation tools, Japan remains hesitant, currently relying on just 11%.
Demand is driven by advances in live audio technology (46%), customer expectations (40%), and cross-market expansion (38%).
“Real-time speech translation is the next layer of global communications,” said Kutylowski. “Collaboration accelerates when people can speak naturally and be fully understood.”
These insights help provide the world’s business leaders with critical insight into what’s next with AI, revealing how these changes will reshape industries, redefine customer expectations, and spill over into the competitive landscape. If you want to know what DeepL management predicts about AI in technology, marketing, law, and more, check out this blog post.
methodology
The survey was conducted by Census Wide on behalf of DeepL and surveyed business leaders in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Japan. This study was conducted in September 2025. Overall Census adheres to and employs members of the Market Research Association based on ESOMAR principles.
About DeepL
DeepL is a global AI products and research company focused on building secure and intelligent solutions to complex business problems. Today, more than 200,000 enterprise customers and millions of individuals in 228 markets worldwide trust DeepL’s language AI platform for human-like translation, improved sentences, and real-time speech translation. Building on its history of innovation, quality, and security, DeepL continues to expand its services beyond languages, including DeepL Agent, an autonomous AI assistant designed to transform the way enterprises and knowledge workers get work done. Founded in 2017 by CEO Jarek Kutylowski, DeepL currently has over 1,000 dedicated employees and is supported by world-renowned investors including Benchmark, IVP, and Index Ventures. For more information about DeepL, please visit www.deepl.com.
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