About the news
G2 published its 2026 AI Agents Report, titled “Crossing the Agentic Chasm,” based on a survey of more than 1,000 B2B decision-makers. The findings show clear progress in adoption alongside a persistent friction around trust and supervision.
Key results from the G2 report:
- 86% of B2B software buyers purchased AI agent software or services in the past year, a 25% increase from the previous year
- 66% of organizations now have agents in limited or scaled production
- 31% of buyers say employees spend 6 or more hours each week overseeing agent work (often called “bot-sitting”)
- 45% say oversight and rework consume more than a quarter of the productivity gains they expected
- Many organizations still manage agents informally or through decentralized models rather than formal governance
Why it matters
In practical terms, agents can speed up work and reduce repetitive tasks. At the same time, a meaningful share of the expected savings is spent on reviewing outputs, correcting mistakes, handling exceptions, and deciding when a human must step in.
Related research from OutSystems, conducted with CIO Dive and KPMG, pointed to a similar gap: executive confidence in governance often runs ahead of actual operational readiness for managing agent conflicts, integration issues, and ongoing oversight.
The overall picture is straightforward. Agents are no longer only experimental. They are running in production at a growing number of companies. The remaining barrier is less about whether they can perform tasks and more about how much human effort is still required to keep those tasks reliable and safe.
Sources
- G2 official announcementcompany.g2.com/news/2026-ai-agents-report
- PR Newswire releasewww.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-g2-research-ai-agents-have-moved-from-pilot-to-production-but-oversight-comes-at-a-cost-302908654.html
- OutSystems-related coveragecioinfluence.com/security/the-agentic-ai-era-is-here-enterprise-readiness-is-not-new-outsystems-research-finds/
