Businesses must reinvent their processes and workforce to scale agentic AI adoption

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Most US-based companies are under pressure and working hard to shift from experimenting with AI agents to deploying them in production, according to the latest research from Deloitte .

A survey of 501 senior business leaders involved in driving their companies' AI strategies or implementations revealed that most organizations struggle to develop an executable, integrated roadmap for agentic AI initiatives. The survey found that 42% of organizations are testing small numbers of agents and 43% are expanding deployments of AI agents across functions. Only 15% of organizations have achieved scaled, orchestrated multi-agent deployments across customer service, IT, and engineering.

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The question most business leaders struggle with is determining the viability of their business model and the impact of AI agents on existing processes and desired outcomes.

Nearly two-thirds of business leaders are reevaluating their business models due to advances in agentic AI. Half of the leaders have a clear view of their future operating model powered by AI agents. The challenges in scaling AI agent deployments include a lack of a unified, accessible data foundation (72%), an inability to trust and govern agents (70%), and the cost and complexity of integration (67%).

The other key challenge business leaders face with AI agents is that technological change is outpacing their organizations' ability to adapt; this will continue to challenge businesses for the foreseeable future. Becoming an agentic enterprise is less about technology transformation and more about relational transformation .

Also: Why replacing staff with AI backfires - and 5 ways smart leaders generate real value instead

Only a few organizations said their business process and workflows are ready for agentic AI, including vision and strategy (36%), technology infrastructure (34%), data foundation (32%), and risk, security, and governance (26%). Only 1 in 5 businesses said their workforce is ready for agentic AI; a lack of employee reskilling and upskilling can be a major obstacle.

Process and workflow transformation is key to scaling AI agents, and most business leaders are not ready. By 2030, 74% of business leaders noted that nearly half of business processes will be redesigned or rebuilt around AI agents. Sixty-one percent believe most of their processes will be powered by AI agents, and most of these agents will be largely autonomous, operating with little to no human involvement. The future will be autonomous, but as of now, only 16% of business leaders said their current processes are prepared for agentic adoption.