Nine in every 10 IT executives have business processes that would be improved by agentic AI, while 77% state they are prepared to invest in agentic AI this year, according to a report from UiPath.
The report is based on a research project in which 252 US IT executives were surveyed in October 2024. They all worked at companies above $1 billion in revenue and had roles as VPs and directors of IT, and 100% said they were familiar with AI and automation.
The report is also based on interviews with eight IT and AI leaders who were particularly familiar with these topics to learn more about their thinking about agentic AI.
Results show that 37% of respondents say they are already using agentic AI, and 93% are either extremely or very interested in exploring it.
An AI agent is a software entity that uses AI techniques to perceive its environment, process information, and take actions to achieve specific goals or objectives. AI agents can operate autonomously or semi-autonomously and are designed to mimic human decision-making or problem-solving processes in a given domain.
While most IT leaders have seen value from their automation and AI deployments to date, they have also experienced challenges – namely, security, development complexity, integration, and data quality.
When asked which benefits of agentic AI would be most appealing to their businesses, respondents cited improved oversight of business workflows (58%), increased integration among applications (53%), and the automation of complex business workflows (52%).
According to the report, the top limitation with existing AI tools is lack of integration with other business applications, with 87% stating that interoperability between different AI technologies is essential or significant to their organizations.
According to UiPath, businesses continue to face substantial challenges in driving AI transformation, especially when dealing with complex workflows across multiple systems. Many have yet to see the promised productivity gains materialize and don’t trust AI in their most critical enterprise processes.
Respondents identified IT security issues (56%) and integration with existing systems (35%) as their top concerns with agentic AI, along with cost of implementation (37%).
When asked what capabilities would be most critical to effective implementation of agentic AI workflows, the top-ranked response was to “safety and privacy,” followed by “seamless integration with existing systems.”
Executives see business value from agentic technology that can operate autonomously, so long as it is governed, secure, and trustworthy, the report found.
