AI agents promise $450B value but face trust and adoption hurdles

New research reveals both the massive potential and significant barriers to AI agent adoption

$450 Billion Opportunity by 2028

According to Capgemini's latest research, AI agents could generate up to $450 billion in economic value within three years through increased revenue and cost savings. However, benefits will be unevenly distributed:

• Companies with scaled deployments could see $382 million gains
• Lower-scale adopters may only realize $76 million

Global Adoption Lagging

Despite the potential, adoption remains low worldwide:

• Only 2% of organizations have fully scaled AI agents
• In the UK, just 1% have achieved full deployment
• Nearly half of UK firms remain in pilot phase

Trust Declines as Implementation Grows

As companies move from testing to deployment, trust in AI agents has dropped significantly:

• Global trust fell from 43% to 27% year-over-year
• UK trust declined from 50% to 32% (still above global average)

Franck Greverie, Capgemini's CTO, emphasizes that "trust must be built into AI from the outset" through responsible development practices.

Key Barriers to Scaling

Several challenges hinder widespread adoption:

1. Infrastructure gaps: 80% of organizations report immature AI infrastructure
2. Data readiness: Fewer than 20% have high data preparedness
3. AI literacy: Low across most sectors
4. Privacy concerns: Create additional friction

Most Promising Applications

Customer service, IT, and sales are expected to see the biggest benefits from AI agent deployment.

93% of respondents agree scaling AI agents would provide competitive advantage within a year.

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