Key Takeaways

  • Nearly three-quarters of North American enterprises expect to run "semi-autonomous or fully autonomous" IT systems by 2030, while only 45% of organizations currently achieve this state, according to a report released Monday by technology company Digitate.
  • The research indicates that enterprise AI adoption has reached a"critical tipping point". Digitate, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, is an AI tool developer. The report states that the rapid rise of AI agents is accelerating the arrival of the autonomous IT era—a model in which systems collaborate with human teams by anticipating needs, supporting or executing operations.
  • "AI maturity is accelerating the transformation toward autonomous enterprises," said Avi Bhagtani, Chief Marketing Officer at Digitate, in a press release. "Organizations have moved from automation experimentation to deploying AI at scale to generate sustained and meaningful business impact."

Deeper Insights

The report echoes a study released by Salesforce in August, which showed thatCFOs are adjusting AI spending and strategiesin response to the rise of agents. On average, surveyed financial executives allocate 25% of their total AI budgets to agents, and generally expect these investments to both reduce costs and boost revenue.

Paris-based technology consulting firm Capgemini predicted in a July report that by 2028, agentic AI couldcreate up to $450 billion in economic value。

through revenue growth and cost savings globally. However, the path to widespread adoption of AI agents is expected to be uneven. Capgemini also reported that confidence in fully autonomous AI agents has declined sharply over the past year, driven by privacy and ethical concerns. In a survey of 1,500 senior executives across 14 countries, only 27% of respondents expressed trust in fully autonomous agents, down from 43% a year earlier.

Meanwhile, Gartner predicts that by the end of 2027, more than 40% of agentic AIprojects will be canceled, due to rising costs, unclear business value, or insufficient risk controls.

Digitate's research shows that despite strong enthusiasm for autonomous operations across the industry, organizational readiness varies widely.

"The path to the autonomous enterprise will require sustained investment in trust, transparency, and talent," Digitate stated in the report. "Governance frameworks must evolve from policy-level to practice-level, ensuring that every AI-driven decision is explainable and aligned with corporate ethics."

Digitate said the research is based on survey responses from 600 IT decision-makers in the United States and Canada.