Enterprise AI is mainstream: most surveys report strong year-over-year growth in usage and pilots moving to production. Here is what the latest research agrees on.
What the surveys agree on
- GenAI agents are emerging quickly: multiple surveys show roughly one-third to two-thirds of large firms piloting or deploying agents in 2025.
- Budget momentum: executives widely plan to increase AI spend over the next 12–24 months.
- Scaling challenge: data foundations, governance, and change management remain the top barriers to value realization.
- Workforce impact: large majorities expect AI to augment roles, while broad workflow integration is still early.
- Security & risk: leaders are investing in guardrails (governance, safety, cybersecurity) as adoption scales.
- Early value pockets: customer service, marketing, software engineering, and analytics show the fastest time-to-value.
Selected datapoints
- PwC — AI Agent Survey (May 2025): roughly 88% plan to increase AI budgets; 79% already using agents.
- KPMG — AI Quarterly Pulse Survey (Jun–Sep 2025): roughly 33–42% report deploying AI agents across 2025 waves.
- Bain & Company — Generative AI Survey (May 2025): roughly 95% of US companies using GenAI; production use cases doubled year over year.
- Accenture — Front-runners' Guide to Scaling AI (May 2025): roughly 70% say strong data foundations are critical to scale AI.
- BCG — AI at Work 2025 (Jun 2025): strong momentum, but only a minority show broad workflow integration.
Sources
- McKinsey & Company — The State of AI: How organizations are rewiring to capture value (Mar 2025)
- Deloitte — State of Generative AI in the Enterprise, 2024 Year-End (Mar 2025)
- PwC — AI Agent Survey (May 2025)
- KPMG — AI Quarterly Pulse Survey, Q2–Q3 2025 (Jun–Sep 2025)
- Bain & Company — Generative AI Survey, periodic waves (May 2025)
- BCG — AI at Work 2025 (Jun 2025)
- Accenture — Front-runners' Guide to Scaling AI (May 2025)
- IBM (IBV) — 2025 CEO Study: 5 mindshifts to supercharge growth (May 2025)
- Capgemini Research Institute — Generative AI in Organizations 2025 (Sep 2025)