A new report by the Capgemini Research Institute forecasts that AI agents—autonomous systems capable of making decisions and executing tasks—could generate up to $450 billion in economic value by 2028 through revenue growth and cost savings across 14 surveyed markets. The study, The Rise of Agentic AI: How Trust is the Key to Human-AI Collaboration, surveyed 1,500 senior executives and highlights both the potential and growing skepticism surrounding agentic AI adoption.
Capgemini defines AI agents as intelligent software programs that operate within business environments to achieve defined goals with varying levels of autonomy. Despite accelerating adoption, only 2% of organizations have deployed AI agents at scale, while 61% are still exploring use cases. Industries such as automotive, financial services, telecom, and retail are leading pilot programs.
Key findings include:
- $450B economic potential by 2028 through revenue uplift and efficiency gains.
- Confidence in fully autonomous AI agents dropped from 43% in 2024 to 27% in 2025. Largely due to ethical concerns and limited transparency.
- By 2028, 38% of companies expect AI agents to operate as team members within human-supervised teams.
- Over 80% of organizations report low-to-medium maturity in computing, integration, and cybersecurity capabilities needed to support AI agents.
15% of business processes will reach partial or full autonomy within the next year, growing to 25% by 2028, with digital labor managing at least one process in over half of business functions.
The report concludes that the winners of the AI agent era will not be those deploying the most tools. However, those embedding ethical frameworks, rethinking workflows, and reskilling their workforce to build trust-driven, hybrid human-AI enterprises.
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