Despite Soaring Investment in AI, Study Finds Trust in AI to Autonomously Handle Core Processes is Low

Investments in enterprise orchestration are a top priority for IT organizations looking to succeed with AI

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A study of more than 600 technology decision-makers* conducted by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services, sponsored by Workato®, the leader in Enterprise Model Context Protocol (MCP), shows only 6% of respondents say their organization trusts agentic AI to handle core business processes. The trust gap is not stopping agentic AI adoption – 86% of respondents expect their organization’s investments in agentic AI to increase over the next two years. Titled, From the Edge to the Core: Bringing Agentic AI to the Heart of the Enterprise, the study explores what it will take for leaders to trust agentic AI and the readiness divide holding back enterprise transformation.

"This report exposes a critical trust gap among tech leaders and their companies when it comes to adopting agentic AI. While the majority of businesses are doubling down on AI investments, IT leaders do not trust AI agents to make those transformation projects successful,” said Carter Busse, Chief Information Officer, Workato. “These results are consistent with what I hear from CIOs every day who are looking for an enterprise-ready approach to deploy AI that blends orchestration, governance, and enterprise-grade skills so that it acts predictably and securely in mission-critical systems. The companies that solve this fundamental problem will be the ones who win in this new era of AI.”

The data also shows a surge in technology investment, such as enterprise orchestration, as the answer to the trust gap – 74% of respondents say their organization is either currently working on implementing enterprise orchestration or planning to implement it in preparation for agentic AI use. In addition:

• 82% of respondents say that providing connectivity to applications is a very or moderately important outcome of enterprise orchestration for their organization.
• 80% say providing information/context from data and applications to support agentic AI decisions and actions is a very or moderately important outcome of their enterprise orchestration efforts.
• 76% of respondents agree that in the next two years their organization expects to invest in technologies and platforms to help it deploy agentic AI within core organizational processes.

"We have been on this journey with AI agents for a little over a year, but there's a lot of hype, so we have taken a very thoughtful and pragmatic approach; one that is grounded in our business outcomes," said Kim Huffman, Chief Information Officer, Workiva. "We start with a value hypothesis of the use case we're testing, define how we're going to assess our value hypothesis, and measure value, and then if we see the value we expected, we build out our deployment at scale.”

The data also underscores the importance of agents that deliver meaningful impact to KPIs, and shows that enterprises expect the benefits of AI agents in their processes to outweigh the challenges.

• 67% of respondents reported that their organization expects improved efficiency and productivity from agentic AI implementation.
• Respondents also expect to see increased cost savings (62%), improved employee agility, speed, and responsiveness (54%), improved customer experience (48%), and improved decision making (46%).

Respondents expect agentic AI use to have its greatest impact at their organization in the IT departments (56%), followed by operations (55%), marketing (32%), and sales (31%).

To access the full report, visit here. To learn more about the future of Enterprise MCP and request a demo, visit here.

Survey Methodology

*The research report by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services surveyed 603 members of the Harvard Business Review audience involved in their organization's technology decisions, from organizations that have at least considered using agentic AI. The research was conducted in July 2025 and sponsored by Workato.

About Workato

Workato delivers enterprise infrastructure for the agentic era, redefining iPaaS and helping enterprises unify data, applications, processes, and AI into a single, governed platform. A leader in Enterprise MCP and trusted by 50% of the Fortune 500, Workato’s cloud-native architecture connects every application, data source, and process to power real-time orchestration at scale. With enterprise-grade security and continuous innovation at its core, Workato provides the trusted foundation for organizations to automate with confidence and operationalize AI across the business. To learn more, visit www.workato.com.

Source: Workato