AI Agents Move Beyond Experimentation as Leaders Prepare for Competitive Transformation Within 24 Months

NEW YORK, JUNE 26, 2025 – AI is rewriting the playbook with 82% of leaders agreeing their industry’s competitive landscape will look different in the next 24 months, according to the latest KPMG AI Quarterly Pulse Survey. This dynamic is prompting organizations to rapidly scale their AI and agent capabilities, targeting both efficiency and revenue growth, in preparation for competitive transformation.

AI-agent strategies are moving past the experimentation phase

The majority of organizations are past AI agent experimentation, 33% of which have deployed at least some agents, up three-fold after two consecutive quarters at 11%. While this momentum reflects a critical inflection point where agents are transitioning from experimental technology to business-critical infrastructure, the real transformation will likely accelerate as organizations begin to implement more sophisticated agent types, like adaptive AI and multiagent systems, that can collaborate and orchestrate tasks on their own.

Many leaders are taking a balanced, long-term approach to their agent strategies – nearly half (46%) are equally prioritizing efficiency gains and revenue growth, recognizing that sustainable AI transformation requires both operational optimization and new value creation.

“The data shows just how quickly AI agents are moving out of pilots and into production – and that momentum will only accelerate,” said Steve Chase, Vice Chair of AI & Digital Innovation, KPMG. “What makes this moment unique is that leaders increasingly see agents not just as a way to cut costs, but as a way to rethink growth and create new value. But we’ve seen firsthand, both in our own journey and with clients, how transformation at this pace puts real pressure on the foundations of AI: trust, governance, data, leadership alignment, and workforce readiness. The organizations that invested early in these areas are now scaling with confidence and positioning themselves to lead in this next phase.”

AI-agents transition from tools to teammates

​As AI-agent adoption accelerates, there is near unanimous agreement that comprehensive organizational changes are coming. Organizations are realizing that a complete rethinking of the workforce must be considered. Nearly nine in ten leaders think agents will require organizations to redefine performance metrics and will also prompt organizations to upskill employees currently in roles that may be displaced, according to 87%.

To prepare, organizations are implementing targeted training strategies, from teaching prompt skills to maximize AI agent effectiveness (69%), to creating agent-specific sandbox environments for hands-on practice (49%).

"The organizations that will thrive in this agentic future are those that recognize deployment is only the beginning,” said Edwige Sacco, Head of Workforce Innovation at KPMG.  “As employers, we have a responsibility to help prepare current and future workers for the transition to a new era of work; a healthier and happier workforce is necessary for every company's long-term growth and resilience. Investments in human-centric change management, modern ways of learning, proactive upskilling, and new human-AI collaboration models are essential for unlocking the long-term return on AI investments.”

ROI focus shifts amid data challenges and need for board expertise

Leaders now find themselves in a position of achieving clear success while struggling to articulate exactly what that success means. Traditional approaches to measuring ROI – clean metrics, predictable timelines and quantifiable outcomes – have proven inadequate for capturing AI's transformative impact.

“Our clients are no longer asking 'if' AI will transform their business, they're asking 'how fast’ it can be deployed,” said Todd Lohr, Head of Ecosystems at KPMG. “This isn't just about technology adoption, it's about fundamental business transformation that requires reimagining how work gets done and how it is measured."

For organizations, productivity (98%) and profitability (97%) continue to be the top ROI metrics followed by improved performance and work quality (94%). However, when communicating results to investors, leaders emphasize slightly different priorities – profitability and established responsibility and governance policies are the most important factors for demonstrating ROI – according to 55%.

This dynamic extends to the boardroom. Only 8% of leaders believe their organizations have substantial AI board expertise, even though 45% say their board covers AI-related topics in every meeting. With concerns about data privacy (69%) and data quality (56%) at their highest since last year, and macroeconomic factors considered the top factor influencing near-term strategies (69%), board oversight and strategic guidance have never been more critical to navigating AI deployment.

"Too few organizations are having the conversation about how AI disrupts their entire business model–from barriers-to-entry to strategic competition,” continued Lohr. “But the long-term transformative potential of AI outweighs short-term gains."

The KPMG Quarterly Pulse Survey captures perspectives from 130 U.S.-based C-suite and business leaders representing organizations with an annual revenue of $1 billion or more. Read additional findings below.