Agentic AI is poised to deliver up to $450 billion (£336.3bn) in economic value within the next three years, but despite strong momentum, only 2% of organisations have fully scaled deployment, and trust in AI agents is falling fast.
According to the Capgemini Research Institute’s latest report, Rise of Agentic AI: How Trust is the Key to Human-AI Collaboration, most firms are stuck in the early stages of agentic AI application.
While nearly a quarter of the 1,500 senior execs polled have already launched pilots, and a small number have begun implementation (14%), the majority remain in planning mode, a stark contrast to executive ambition – nearly all (93%) of business leaders believe that scaling AI agents over the next year will provide a much-needed competitive edge.
“To succeed, organisations must remain focused on outcomes, reimagining their processes with an AI-first mindset. Central to this transformation is the need to build trust in AI by ensuring it is developed responsibly, with ethics and safety baked in from the outset,” said Franck Greverie, chief portfolio and technology officer at Capgemini.
“It also means reshaping organisations to support effective human-AI chemistry, creating the right conditions for these systems to enhance human judgment and help deliver superior business outcomes.”
Capgemini argues that this human-AI chemistry is the key to lasting adoption among enterprises.
Within the next twelve months, over 60% of organisations expect to form human-agent teams where AI agents function as subordinates or work to supplement human capabilities. The report claims this means AI agents can no longer be considered tools, but rather active participants in the team.
Meanwhile, 70% of organisations believe AI agents will necessitate organisational restructuring, prompting leaders to rethink roles, team structures, and workflows. With effective human-AI collaboration, organisations expect a 65% increase in human engagement in high-value tasks, a 53% rise in creativity, and a 49% boost in employee satisfaction.
Enterprises are discovering that AI agents deliver most value when humans remain in the loop, with trust in fully autonomous AI agents has dropped sharply, from 43% to 27% in the past year alone.
Only 40% of organisations say they trust AI agents to manage tasks and processes autonomously, while most do not fully trust the technology.
Those figures back up the findings of an earlier, global study from KPMG, which found that AI has hit a trust crisis, with users becoming less trusting and more worried since before the launch of ChatGPT back in 2022.
Added to that, Capgemini found that most organisations are not yet equipped to scale agentic AI effectively.
Around 80% lack mature AI infrastructure, fewer than one in five report high levels of data-readiness, and ethical concerns, such as data privacy, algorithmic bias, and lack of explainability, remain widespread, but few organisations are taking decisive action.
For example, although thought privacy is the primary concern for over half of organisations (51%), only 34% are actively taking steps to mitigate it.
“The economic potential of AI agents is significant, but realising this value depends on more than just the technology, it requires a comprehensive and strategic transformation across people, processes and systems,” said Greverie.
Source: DIGIT