Diving briefs:
- According to a KPMG survey released Thursday, about a third of organizations have entered the full-scale deployment of agent artificial intelligence technology, tripling for the second consecutive quarter, at 11%.
- 57% of the organizations surveyed are pilot agents, down from 65%, with 10% investigating the likelihood of using them.
- “The data shows how quickly AI agents move from pilot to production. That momentum is only going to accelerate,” said Steve Chase, vice-chairman of AI and digital innovation at KPMG, in a press release. “What makes this moment unique is seeing more and more leaders not only as a way for agents to reduce costs, but as a way for them to rethink growth and create new value.”
Dive Insights:
Still early technology continues to pose implementation challenges, KPMG said. According to a report on the findings, major obstacles to agent deployment include technical skills gaps, workforce resistance to change, and system complexity.
Gartner predicts that over 40% of Agent AI projects will be cancelled by the end of 2027 due to increased costs, unclear business value, or inadequate risk management.
“Most Agent AI projects today are early stage experiments or proof of concepts driven primarily by hype and often misapplied,” Gartner's senior director analyst Anoulli Verma said in a press release Wednesday. “This allows organizations to blind the real costs and complexity of deploying AI agents at scale and moving projects to production. They need to get past the hype and make careful strategic decisions about where and how to apply this new technology.”
Many vendors have contributed to the hype by engaging in AI assistants, robotic processes automation, chatbots and other existing products, automating robotic processes, and chatbots, according to releases.
Microsoft, Salesforce, Oracle, SAP and Workday are among the tech giants that started launching agents last year, and promise the next phase of enterprise automation.
Four accounting firms, including KPMG and Deloitte, quickly jumping into the band Wagon, offering their own agent AI solutions for their customers.
According to the results of the KPMG survey, among companies deploying agent AI, many companies take a balanced, strategic approach.
According to a KPMG report, almost half of leaders (46%) said they focused on efficiency and revenue growth related to their AI agent strategies. Meanwhile, leaders' concerns about data privacy, regulatory issues and data quality are the highest in three quarters, the report said.
