HBR: only 6% of companies fully trust AI agents to handle core business processes | Fortune

"Only 6% of companies fully trust AI agents to autonomously run their core business processes, highlighting a stark gap between enthusiasm for artificial intelligence and confidence in turning it loose on the most critical workflows. That's just one of the headline findings from a new Harvard Business Review Analytic Services research report, sponsored by automation platform provider Workato and Amazon Web Services, which surveyed 603 business and technology leaders worldwide in July 2025."

"The report finds that while agentic AI-systems that can make decisions and take actions with minimal human supervision-is spreading quickly, trust remains tightly constrained to lower-risk work. For example, 43% of respondents said they only trust AI agents with limited or routine operational tasks, and 39% restrict them to supervised use cases or noncore processes. The pattern underscores a cautious posture: most enterprises are willing to experiment, but not yet ready to let AI agents make unsupervised decisions that affect finances, customers, or the workforce"

"Despite this caution, deployment is moving fast. Nine percent of organizations say they have already fully deployed agentic AI, and half report piloting or exploring use cases, with only 10% deciding not to move forward after initial consideration. Eighty‑six percent of respondents expect investment in agentic AI to increase over the next two years, signaling that experimentation will deepen even as skepticism persists."

Only 6% of companies fully trust AI agents to autonomously run core business processes. Agentic AI systems that can make decisions and take actions with minimal human supervision are spreading quickly, but trust remains constrained to lower‑risk work. Forty‑three percent of respondents trust AI agents only for limited or routine operational tasks, and 39% restrict them to supervised or noncore processes. Deployment is accelerating: 9% have fully deployed agentic AI and about half are piloting or exploring use cases. Eighty‑six percent expect investment in agentic AI to increase over the next two years. Technology infrastructure, data systems, and governance controls lag readiness.

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