Signal 83% of chief data officers say agent benefits outweigh risks

Summary

Chief data officers, who are often accountable for delivering results with AI, are notably confident about AI agents in IBM's research. Among them, 83% judge that the potential gains from deploying agents in their organisation are greater than the risks. In addition, 77% say they are at ease with their organisation depending on what those agents produce. IBM uses this to show that the people closest to AI delivery trust the technology. It immediately balances the point, however, by reporting that only about 40% of agentic initiatives succeeded on objective measures in 2025, so confidence runs ahead of proven results.