Nearly every organization across the globe, 96%, is already using AI agents in some capacity, and 97% are exploring system-wide agentic AI strategies, according to a report from OutSystems.
OutSystems commissioned a survey of 1,879 global IT leaders across regions, including 527 respondents from the Asia-Pacific region spanning India, Australia, and Japan.
The survey examined agentic AI adoption levels, use cases, development approaches, and governance practices, along with the barriers organizations encounter as they move from pilot to production. Survey responses were collected in December 2025 through January 2026.
Findings signal a clear shift from pilots to production as businesses embed AI into mission-critical operations.
This shift is increasingly visible in APAC, where markets such as India are already reporting advanced levels of agentic AI capability, and countries like Australia and Japan are steadily moving initiatives from pilot to production.
However, as adoption accelerates, governance is struggling to keep pace. According to the report, 94% of organizations report concern that AI sprawl is increasing complexity, technical debt, and security risk.
Still, only a small fraction of enterprises have established a centralized approach to agentic AI governance, meaning most are using agents across fragmented environments.
Agentic AI represents a significant evolution from earlier applications of AI, capable of autonomously executing workflows, making decisions, and adapting in real time. Gartner predicts that 40% of enterprise applications will include task-specific AI agents by the end of 2026, highlighting the speed at which autonomous systems are becoming embedded in enterprise software.
According to the OutSystems report, which surveyed 1,900 global IT leaders, 49% describe their agentic AI capabilities as advanced or expert.
Adoption maturity varies by region. In APAC, India stands out with some of the highest levels of advanced and expert agentic AI capability, while Australia and Japan reflect a growing base of organizations at an intermediate stage of maturity.
Organizations in Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States are also reporting intermediate progress. Financial services and technology organizations report the highest levels of production deployment.
The impact of agentic AI is most apparent within IT and software development, where time-to-value is easily measurable. Among respondents, 31% say AI is already integral to their development practices, and another 42% have embedded AI into specific phases of the software development lifecycle.
Generative AI-assisted development emerged as the leading method in markets such as India and Australia.
As agents prove value in development environments, 52% of organizations now rely on a human-on-the-loop model, allowing systems to operate with reduced direct oversight while maintaining supervisory control.
“The transition from AI experimentation to measurable business outcomes is no longer a future state—it is our current reality. The findings in the State of AI Development Report reveal a fundamental shift where building software and building AI systems have become one and the same,” said Woodson Martin, CEO at OutSystems.
“As organizations move toward a ‘system of agents’ model, the challenge is no longer just about adoption, but about creating a stable architectural foundation that can coordinate these complex intelligent systems to drive real-world productivity,” said Martin.
Despite momentum, architectural fragmentation remains a challenge. Among organizations surveyed, 38% report mixing custom-built and pre-built agents, creating AI stacks that are difficult to standardize and secure.
While 12% have implemented a centralized platform to manage sprawl, most enterprises are still experimenting with governance approaches that vary by team and region.
