How to Unlock Enterprise Value with AI Agents

As GenAI becomes more integrated into enterprise workflows, agentic AI is emerging as the next frontier: combining GenAI’s reasoning capabilities with the ability to act on insights in real time. The question is no longer ‘What is Agentic AI?’—it’s ‘How do I deploy agentic AI effectively?’”

These AI agents can make decisions, adapt to changing conditions, and execute tasks aligned to business objectives—without human intervention. Tasks once considered too complex to automate are now within reach. And with agent capabilities doubling every three months, the scope of what’s possible is expanding rapidly.

We expect most organizations to evolve into hybrid workforces, where humans and agents collaborate across functions to drive speed, scale, and strategic advantage. For CIOs, this shift presents a unique opportunity to reimagine how technology leadership can unlock new levels of operational efficiency, workforce agility, and enterprise value.

CIOs face unprecedented pressure to ensure their business objectives are driving the right tech strategy. To make that happen, many are consolidating their fragmented solutions and ensuring they’re getting the greatest ROI from their tech investments so they can realize exponential business outcomes.

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Agentic AI is no longer theoretical—it’s becoming a strategic lever for CIOs looking to drive enterprise-wide transformation. Beyond efficiency and productivity gains, agentic systems are reshaping how organizations operate, make decisions, and scale innovation. By our calculations, agentic AI could generate $3 trillion in corporate productivity improvements over the next decade.¹

Four ways CIOs can Unlock Tangible Value with Agentic AI

Expand the scope of automation

Move beyond routine tasks to automate complex workflows, freeing up talent for strategic initiatives.

Enable 24/7/365 operations

Deploy agents to monitor, respond, and optimize processes continuously—without the constraints of human work hours.

Build resilience through real-time optimization

Use agents to surface insights, recommend actions, and support faster, more informed decision-making.

Turn knowledge into action

Operationalize internal data and institutional knowledge by feeding it into agents that can act on it dynamically.

For CIOs, the opportunity isn’t just to adopt agentic AI—it’s to architect a future-ready enterprise where intelligent automation drives measurable business outcomes.

Interest in agentic AI is high, with 90% of organizations moving beyond agent experimentation to piloting and deployment.² For CIOs, this presents a rare window: the chance to lead adoption while the competitive field is taking shape. Acting now means shaping how agents integrate into core operations—not just reacting to market shifts later.

Six steps to prepare for agentic AI

For CIOs, preparing for agentic AI isn’t just about experimentation—it’s about laying the groundwork for scalable, secure, and strategic deployment. These six steps can help technology leaders move from pilot to enterprise-wide impact:

Articulate a vision

Outline how AI agents will transform the business, desired outcomes, key business goals to pursue, and how to start the initial steps for deploying agents

Start agentic pilots

Identify high-value areas to run test programs

Prepare to scale agents within key functions

Determine which types of agents will best address your needs, and which processes and departments are best suited for them

Evolve your trusted AI governance and playbook for agents

Expand existing programs to account for agents, including a process to catalog, manage, and maintain them

Implement Trusted AI evaluations specific to AI agents

Develop a rigorous reporting approach for AI agents that aligns with your governance policies

Establish performance metrics for AI agents

Create a process to measure and optimize agent performance, as well as gather feedback and learnings from stakeholders

Determining where and how to deploy agentic AI isn’t just a technical decision—it’s a strategic one. CIOs need a clear framework to match agent capabilities with business priorities, operational complexity, and desired outcomes. To support this, we developed the “TACO Framework”™—Taskers, Automators, Collaborators, and Orchestrators—which helps categorize agent types and guide deployment across the enterprise.

KPMG TACO^TM framework overview

	Types of AI agents
	Taskers	Automators	Collaborators	Orchestrators
Overall complexity	Low	Low-to-medium	Medium-to-high	High
Primary use	Execute singular goals with one or many tasks	Automate goals that span multiple systems and process areas	Human/AI partnerships, with AI acting as a teammate for problem solving	Multi-agent coordination across ecosystems in pursuit of complex goals
Planning capabilities	Simple: Planning with prompt-based execution including chaining and gated logic.	Basic: Several sub-goals, deterministic logic with decision points, and adaptive prompts	Intermediate: Adaptive and contextual planning with human collaboration	Sophisticated: Multi-agent coordination with contingency planning and resource optimization
Value propositions	Free up workforce for higher-value tasks. Efficiency, innovation, and new ways of working.	Coordinate multiple goals across systems. Reimagine workflows and processes. Cycle time reduction. Improved customer experience.	Enhance workforce creativity and innovation. Create unlimited human multiplier effect. Improved employee experience.	Drive new revenue streams and models. Unleash economic transformation.

KPMG works with CIOs to turn agentic AI into a strategic advantage—accelerating transformation from pilot to scale with a focus on measurable outcomes, governance, and enterprise alignment. Our approach is grounded in trust, built for speed, and designed to help technology leaders unlock the full potential of human–agent collaboration.

Whether you're shaping your agentic AI strategy, launching pilots, or scaling across functions, our portfolio of services is built to help CIOs overcome key barriers and deliver lasting business value. Here’s how we support CIOs at every stage of the agentic AI journey:

KPMG AI strategy
Helps shape your agentic AI strategy and business case with an actionable roadmap.
- Shape your agentic AI strategy and execution plan tailored to your unique starting point and business needs
- Build a credible business case with quantified returns/metrics to help drive investments and release product funding
Jumpstart your agentic journey
Accelerates your path to value from proof-of-concept to launch to adoption at scale
- Identify agentic-AI use cases and accelerate path to value with a replicable proof-of-concept factory approach
- Safely experiment with AI agents and scale adoption of tested use cases across your organization
Agentic workforce
Unlocks the full potential of agentic AI for, and with, your people during the journey
- Augment your workforce with AI agents, enabling more strategic work and accelerating efficiencies
- Reshape your workforce and define agentic AI governance to help realize the full value of your investments

Footnote

1 Quantifying the GenAI Opportunity, KPMG, 2025

2 Source: KPMG AI Pulse Survey Q2, June 2025.

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What sets apart good from great tech leaders? It's their ability to consolidate and connect fragmented solutions, effectively manage business demands from different business functions in a holistic way, and ensure they’re getting the greatest ROI from their tech investment.

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