Over 40 percent of agentic artificial intelligence (AI) projects will be cancelled by the end of 2027 due to escalating costs, unclear business value or inadequate risk controls, according to new Gartner research.
Garter claimed that many vendors are contributing to agentic AI 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.
Gartner estimates only about 130 of the thousands of agentic AI vendors are real.
Are organizations blind to the cost and complexity of agentic AI projects?
In a 2025 Gartner poll of 3,412 webinar attendees, 19 percent said their organization had made significant investments in agentic AI, 42 percent had made conservative investments and 8 percent no investments, with the remaining 31 percent 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,” said Anushree Verma, senior director analyst at Gartner. “This can blind organizations 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.”
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 added. “Many use cases positioned as agentic today don’t require agentic implementations.”
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Realizing business value from agentic AI projects
Despite early challenges, the rise of agentic AI marks a major advancement in AI capabilities and market potential, Gartner stated. Unlike traditional automation tools or virtual assistants, agentic AI can autonomously manage complex tasks, improve resource efficiency and drive breakthrough innovations across industries.
This next-generation AI technology is poised to transform how businesses operate by delivering smarter, more adaptive solutions beyond scripted automation.
Gartner predicts at least 15 percent of day-to-day work decisions will be made autonomously through agentic AI by 2028, up from 0 percent in 2024. What’s more, 33 percent of enterprise software applications will include agentic AI by 2028, up from less than 1 percent in 2024.
At this early stage of adoption, Gartner advises pursuing agentic AI only when it delivers clear business value or measurable ROI. Integrating AI agents into legacy systems can be technically challenging, often leading to workflow disruptions and expensive system modifications.
To fully leverage the potential of agentic AI, many organizations will benefit more by reimagining workflows from the ground up, enabling seamless implementation and long-term efficiency gains, Gartner stated.
“To get real value from agentic AI, organizations must focus on enterprise productivity, rather than just individual task augmentation,” said Verma. “They can start by using AI agents when decisions are needed, automation for routine workflows and assistants for simple retrieval. It’s about driving business value through cost, quality, speed and scale.”
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