40% of agentic AI projects forecasted to be cancelled
Agentic AI can operate independently without constant manual intervention but a new survey says over 40% of agentic AI projects will be cancelled by the end of 2027 because of escalating costs, unclear business value or inadequate risk controls. Anyway, by 2028, 33% of enterprise software applications are expected to include agentic AI, up from less than 1% in 2024.
The survey by market research firm Gartner shows that 19% of webinar attendees say their organisation has made significant investments in agentic AI, 42% has made conservative investments, 8% no investments, with the remaining 31% taking a wait and see approach or are unsure.
“Most agentic AI projects right now are early stage experiments or proof of concepts that are mostly driven by hype and are often misapplied,” says Anushree Verma, the company’s senior director analyst.
“This can blind organisations to the real cost and complexity of deploying AI agents at scale, stalling projects from moving into production. They need to cut through the hype to make careful, strategic decisions about where and how they apply this emerging technology.”
Gartner says that many vendors are contributing to the hype by engaging in “agent washing” – the rebranding of existing products, such as AI assistants, robotic process automation (RPA) and chatbots, without substantial agentic capabilities.
“Only about 130 of the thousands of agentic AI vendors are real”, the company says.
“Most agentic AI propositions lack significant value or return on investment (ROI), as current models don’t have the maturity and agency to autonomously achieve complex business goals or follow nuanced instructions over time,” Verma says.
“Many use cases positioned as agentic today don’t require agentic implementations.”
The report says that despite these initial challenges, the trend toward agentic AI represents a leap forward in AI capabilities and market opportunity.
“Agentic AI will provide new means to enhance resource efficiency, automate complex tasks and introduce new business innovations, beyond the capabilities of scripted automation bots and virtual assistants.”
The company predicts at least 15% of day-to-day work decisions will be made autonomously through agentic AI by 2028, up from 0% in 2024. In addition, 33% of enterprise software applications will include agentic AI by 2028, up from less than 1% in 2024.
The report recommends agentic AI only be pursued where it delivers clear value or ROI. Integrating agents into legacy systems can be technically complex, often disrupting workflows and requiring costly modifications.
“In many cases, rethinking workflows with agentic AI from the ground up is the ideal path to successful implementation.”
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