Zapier Survey Finds 84% of Enterprises Plan to Boost AI Agent Investment
New data reveals nearly three-quarters of enterprises are using or testing AI agents; security and data privacy concerns top list of barriers
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zapier, the most connected AI orchestration platform, today released a new survey revealing that enterprise commitment to AI agents is soaring, with 84% of leaders planning to increase investments in the technology over the next 12 months. The growth in funding comes as 72% of enterprises are already actively using or testing AI agents, positioning agentic AI as a critical component of 2026 business strategy.
The survey of over 500 U.S. enterprise leaders highlights a pivotal shift toward autonomous AI but also reveals operational challenges in governance, integration, and security.
"Enterprises are rushing to adopt AI agents because the potential for automating routine workflows is massive; 30% of leaders see this as the greatest potential use case," said Emily Mabie, AI Automation Engineer at Zapier. "However, the enthusiasm is tempered by some skepticism. Our data shows that while AI agents can operate autonomously, most companies still prefer a 'human-in-the-loop' approach."
Key Findings on Agent Adoption and Concerns
- Investment is strong: 84% of enterprise leaders say it is likely or certain they will increase AI agent investments in the next year.
- Adoption is widespread: 72% of enterprises are currently using or testing AI agents. Of this group, 40% have multiple agents in production.
- Security remains a barrier: Security and data privacy concerns are the biggest barriers to AI agent adoption. This mirrors findings from a separate Zapier AI Tool Sprawl survey, where 36% of enterprises reported increased security and privacy risks due to disconnected AI tools.
- Top departments for AI agents: Customer Support (49%) and Operations (47%) are the departments most likely to have deployed AI agents.
- Most popular use case: Nearly half of all enterprises (47%) use AI agents for data management, such as data entry and extraction.
The Integration and Governance Gap Persists
The rapid adoption of AI agents is happening while most businesses still prefer to maintain close supervision over them: the "human-in-the-loop" approach is the most common strategy for managing AI agents in the enterprise. This preference for oversight suggests a general caution, with security and data privacy concerns being cited as barriers currently delaying AI agent adoption.
Despite the high adoption rate , the majority of companies are not ready to fully hand the reins over to AI. This points to the challenge of integrating autonomous technology in a way that satisfies both the need for progress and the requirements for security and control.
Recommendations
- Prioritize increasing investments in AI agents to automate established workflows, as this is where the majority of enterprise leaders see the greatest potential.
- Give employees the autonomy to build their own AI agents. Avoid IT bottlenecks by democratizing access to AI agents with no-code AI agent builders.
- Balance human oversight with autonomous AI. Add human-in-the-loop checkpoints at key steps in your workflows.
- Verify the security and governance practices of your AI agents. Ensure that the platforms you use to build AI agents have enterprise-grade security.
"Companies need to shift their focus from simply acquiring the latest AI tools to properly orchestrating them into unified business processes," Mabie added. "An integrated approach is the only way to ensure these new AI agents enhance productivity, rather than creating new organizational headaches and costs."
Full survey results see: https://zapier.com/blog/ai-agents-survey/
About the Survey
The AI Agent Investments survey was conducted by Centiment for Zapier between October 23 and October 27, 2025. The results are based on 525 completed surveys. To qualify, respondents were screened as U.S. C-Suite Executives, Presidents, Owners, or Partners at companies with 1,000+ employees. Data are unweighted, and the margin of error is approximately +/-4% for the overall sample at the 95% confidence level.
About Zapier
Zapier is an AI orchestration platform that connects 8,000+ apps to help companies automate workflows and improve productivity. Since 2012, millions of users have trusted Zapier to automate everything from lead routing and data synchronization to customer conversations—all without writing code. By turning complex integrations into simple, point-and-click workflows, Zapier empowers teams of all sizes to focus on strategic work. From startups to Fortune 500 companies, organizations worldwide trust Zapier to streamline operations, reduce errors, and accelerate growth through intelligent automation.
Learn more at www.zapier.com.
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