Dive Brief:

• Nearly half (48%) of technology companies are already adopting or fully deploying artificial intelligence agents, Big Four accounting firm Ernst & Young found in a recent survey.
• The research shows that AI investment in general continues to gain momentum, with 92% of tech leaders expecting to increase AI spending over the next year, a 10% increase from March 2024, according to the report. Of those planning a spending hike, 43% of respondents said that more than half of their current AI budget is allocated for agents.
• “Our survey shows reaffirmations in ambitious AI spending and a move from pilots to production, which are other indicators of the positive trendline for these leaders,” James Brundage, EY’s global and Americas technology sector leader, said in a press release. “That said, despite the optimism they’re feeling, there’s still tremendous pressure for these technology leaders to demonstrate return on investment now through measurement and tangible top-line and bottom-line results.”

Dive Insight:

A growing number of enterprise software companies have begun offering AI agents designed to streamline business functions, including finance, human resources and sales.

AI agents are capable of independent decision making, long-term goal pursuit and problem solving, according to a March blog post published by investment advisory firm Adams Street Partners.

“Unlike traditional AI, which is often reactive and constrained to specific tasks, agentic AI operates with a degree of self-direction, dynamically interacting with its environment, other models, and humans, to achieve defined outcomes,” the blog post said.

During a February earnings call, Salesforce CFO Amy Weaver said the company was expecting “Agentforce,” a new agentic AI product, to supply a “modest contribution” to the enterprise software company’s revenue this year. She said the new product was still in the early phase of getting adopted among customers.

“We expect the momentum to build throughout the year, driving a more meaningful contribution in fiscal ‘27,” Weaver said at the time.

EY found that tech executives are adopting agentic AI for reasons such as staying competitive and helping customers. More than 80% of tech leaders responding to the poll said they anticipate hiring in the next six months as a result of AI adoption.

Meanwhile, some tech companies are using job cuts to free up capital that can then be reinvested into AI-related initiatives.

“Against an uncertain macroeconomic and trade environment, executives are still overwhelmingly positive on the business value that agentic AI can deliver,” Brundage said.

EY surveyed more than 500 technology leaders in April.