Three Quarters of Organizations Admit Gap Between Agentic AI Vision and Reality

State of Agentic Orchestration and Automation report reveals most organizations now use AI agents, but only 1 in 10 use cases reach production as risk, complexity and skill gaps hold back progress

BERLIN & SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Camunda, the leader in agentic automation, today released its 2026 State of Agentic Orchestration and Automation report, revealing almost three-quarters (73%) of organizations admit there is a gap between their agentic AI vision and the current reality. The report finds that despite 71% of organizations stating they use AI agents, only 11% of agentic AI use cases have reached production in the last year. Furthermore, 50% believe untamed agentic AI risks “fanning the flames” of poorly implemented processes and automations.

According to the report, while many organizations are experimenting with AI agents or plan to, trust remains a major barrier to wider adoption:

• 84% are worried about the business risk of AI in day-to-day processes when IT does not have the appropriate controls in place
• 80% are concerned about a lack of transparency into how AI is used
• 66% cite compliance concerns around the use of AI agents

As a result, agentic AI adoption patterns are uneven: 80% say most of their AI agents are chatbots or assistants that summarize or answer questions, instead of handling mission-critical cases. A further 48% say their AI agents operate in silos and are not woven into end-to-end business processes.

“The promise of agentic AI is undeniable, but trust remains the key barrier to adoption,” said Kurt Petersen, senior vice president, customer success at Camunda. “Right now, exercising caution with agentic AI means many organizations can’t move beyond pilots or isolated use cases. Without clear guardrails and visibility, agents will stay at the edge of the business. Once a foundation of trust is in place, agents can become powerful multipliers inside governed processes instead of siloed copilots or chatbots.”

Automation impact is clear, but complexity is outpacing control

The report highlights that the majority (95%) of organizations have seen increased business growth due to process automation over the past year (up from 87% last year). On average, organizations have automated 48% of their processes and believe this could reach 64%. Nearly four in five (79%) plan to increase automation spend, with budgets expected to rise by an average of 20% over the next two years.

At the same time, technology stacks are becoming more distributed and the number of endpoints involved in each process is growing. In fact, more than three quarters (76%) of organizations say the volume and diversity of endpoints is increasing exponentially.

As a result, 85% say they need better tools to manage the intersections between processes, highlighting the challenge organizations face in realising full value from their AI and automation investments.

Agentic orchestration is the new operating model, but maturity is currently lacking as the next step

Agentic orchestration blends the deterministic and dynamic orchestration of business processes, leveraging agents to add dynamic reasoning to processes so they can adapt in real time.

The report highlights:

• 88% say AI needs to be orchestrated across business processes if organizations are to get maximum benefit from their AI investments
• 90% say AI needs to be orchestrated like any other endpoint within automated business processes to ensure compliance with regulations
• 85% say they have not yet reached the right level of process maturity to implement agentic orchestration

“Agentic orchestration, not standalone agents, is the key to closing the AI vision-reality gap,” added Petersen. “Deterministic orchestration has always established structured guardrails. By blending it with dynamic orchestration patterns to leverage reasoning across AI agents, people, and systems in end-to-end processes, enterprises can build a foundation for AI agents they truly trust. This is enterprise agentic automation in practice, and it is how organizations will turn today’s AI experiments into durable, business-critical capabilities.”

Additional resources

• To download the report, visit here
• To learn more about the report, join the webinar Closing the gap between AI vision and reality on Thursday, Feb 12, 10.00 am ET / 4.00 pm CET
• Report infographics can be found here
• For more information about Camunda, visit camunda.com

About the report

Camunda commissioned Coleman Parkes to conduct research among 1,150 senior IT decision makers, business decision makers and enterprise software architects responsible for process automation in large organizations with more than 1,000 employees. Respondents were split geographically (505 US, 216 UK, 216 France and 215 Germany) as well as from multiple industries. The survey was conducted online between September 23 and October 23, 2025.

About Camunda

Camunda is the leader in enterprise agentic automation, orchestrating complex business processes, including high-value knowledge work, across agents, people and systems. By creating production-ready, enterprise-grade agents with built-in governance, Camunda uniquely delivers trusted AI agents for business-critical processes. Over 700 leading innovators like Atlassian, ING and Vodafone rely on Camunda to slash time-to-value from months to days, boost operational efficiency and elevate customer experiences. Ready to become an AI-first enterprise? Visit camunda.com.