Agentic AI Breaks Out of the Lab and Into the Org Chart

Artificial intelligence has moved rapidly from experimentation to execution inside large enterprises. New PYMNTS Intelligence data from the latest CAIO Report shows that firms have effectively settled the debate over the use of agentic AI. What is changing now is how much authority companies are willing to give these systems and how quickly they are putting them to work. Across industries, executives are shifting from cautious interest to active deployment, with implications for how they build products, serve customers and make operational decisions. The findings point to a market that has crossed a threshold, where trust, adoption and scale are advancing in tandem rather than sequentially.

The Rise of Agentic AI

Trust Shift

In just three months, resistance to granting AI systems real autonomy fell sharply. In August 2025, nearly all surveyed firms refused to give agentic AI any meaningful authority. By November, that stance had softened considerably, with nearly 40% of product leaders now willing to allow some level of autonomous access. The technology sector is driving this change, with more than half of firms open to agentic autonomy and nearly one-third prepared to grant full execution rights across functions. This shift reflects a broader recalibration of risk, where the cost of inaction increasingly outweighs concerns about control.

Agentic AI Interest Surge

Interest in agentic AI has intensified across every core product function. By November, more than 86% of chief product officers reported a strong interest in using autonomous agents for customer and user experience research, up sharply from August. Product lifecycle management emerged as the top use case, with nearly 90% expressing high interest. The breadth of this demand signals that firms no longer view agentic AI as a niche efficiency tool. Instead, they increasingly see it as a foundational capability that can support decision-making from early research through post-launch analysis.

The Widening Action Gap

The share of companies merely exploring agentic AI is shrinking, while active use is rising. In August, more than half of firms said they were only considering the technology. By November, that figure had dropped to 30%. At the same time, nearly one-quarter of companies reported they were either piloting or fully using agentic AI. This shift suggests a widening divide between organizations moving quickly to operationalize AI and those that remain stalled at the evaluation stage, with speed becoming a competitive differentiator.

Universal Demand for Agentic AI

Agentic AI adoption is converging around a standard set of use cases across industries rather than fragmenting by sector. Interest levels for core functions such as customer research, product lifecycle management and reporting rarely fall below 70%, regardless of whether firms operate in technology, goods or services. This pattern points to the emergence of a universal AI playbook, in which companies expect autonomous systems to support the entire product stack rather than just isolated tasks. The implication is that vendors and platforms must deliver breadth, not just depth.

The Mainstream Adoption Leap

Agentic AI has crossed into the physical economy. Goods and manufacturing firms, which reported virtually no usage in August, moved to nearly 20% active pilots by November. Services firms saw adoption jump fivefold over the same period, while technology companies extended their lead. This rapid uptake across traditionally slower-moving sectors indicates that AI-driven automation is no longer confined to digital-first businesses. The gap between digital and physical industries is narrowing as agentic systems become embedded in everyday operations.