The ROI of Gen AI and Agents 2026

While agentic AI solutions are not widespread, and often are not yet very complex, our research shows that agents are already gaining traction among early gen AI adopters: 

• 32% of respondents say they have agentic solutions in production today.

• Senior executives expect up to a 47% return on agentic investments in the next 12 months, in line with gen AI results to date.

• 44% of organizations with multiple gen AI use cases in production are already using agentic AI.

It is not surprising that early adopters of gen AI are taking their learnings to the agentic level. But it is significant that more tech-forward organizations may be opening up a sizable lead over competitors. Download the full report for details.

An often-feared outcome of generative and agentic AI is that it will eliminate human jobs. And it has. Teams most often experiencing job loss due to gen AI in the past year were IT operations (at 40% of surveyed orgs), customer service/support (37%) and data analytics (37%). But that's not the whole story.

• 42% of respondents say that gen AI has only created jobs at their organization.

• 11% responded only that jobs have been lost. 

• 35% report that jobs have both been created and lost due to AI.

• 13% said that employment had not been affected by AI-powered automation. 

See the report for more information on how job impacts affect seniority levels and more.

The pivot to agentic enthusiasm does not mean that gen AI is now child’s play. While nearly every respondent reports that gen AI is returning value, 96% say that they grapple with significant issues, including: 

• Data quality and quantity (40% of respondents)

• Employee expertise or skill (35%)

• Integration with existing or legacy systems (31%)

• Scalability and performance (27%)

For midsized companies, talent is a bigger challenge: 43% cited it as a problem, compared to 34% of enterprise respondents.

The most common teams to deploy gen AI and agents are ITOps (62% of respondents), data analytics (59%), cybersecurity (53%), software development (50%) and customer service (49%). The top three drivers behind these deployments are: 

• Operational efficiency, cited by 51% as a top goal. And 88% of all respondents report material gains.

• Better innovation, cited by 44% — with 83% of all respondents saying they’ve seen measurable improvement.

• Upleveled CX, cited by 40% who sought better customer experience; 84% of all respondents say they’ve achieved it.

The full report dives into how key business and IT teams are using gen AI, and whether they’re finding success. (Spoiler: They are.)

We break down highlights from 10 countries and six industries. Top takeaways include: 

• Canadian organizations are aggressively focused on customer use cases; 54% apply gen AI to customer service and support (versus 48% globally). 

• French orgs struggle to achieve gen AI ROI, quantifying it at 32%, versus 49% globally.

• Financial services firms are more often concerned not with operational efficiency but improved financial performance, cited as a top adoption driver by 44% versus 29% across all other sectors.

• Manufacturers were more likely to cite problems with employee skills and experience (41% versus a 34% average).

Read the report for detailed highlights across region and industry, from who has the highest ROI to who’s moving fastest on agents to who sneaks in the most shadow AI.