Agentic AI Breaks Out of the Sandbox

The debate inside companies over whether to adopt agentic AI is closing. The core question now centers on how quickly enterprises will hand over the keys to a next-generation technology capable of performing complex, layered tasks and functions without human intervention. PYMNTS Intelligence data from November 2025 shows how chief product officers shifted from tentative exploration to implementation in just 90 days. Last August, 98.3% of surveyed enterprise CPOs refused to grant AI agents meaningful autonomy. But by November, that resistance had fallen to 63.3%, with nearly 40% of product leaders now open to active permissions.

This newfound trust has triggered an immediate surge in action. The share of companies merely considering using agentic AI dropped considerably between last August and November. Active deployment, defined as piloting or full use, increased during that period. Meanwhile, a “universal playbook” has emerged, with executives across firms showing strong interest in a wide range of use cases.

As 2026 unfolds, the constraint on growth is no longer a matter of technology or interest but of organizational readiness. The “just looking” phase of the AI cycle is winding down, and the winners of the next adoption phase will be not the companies that buy the best models but those that trust them enough to take their hands off the wheel.

These are just some of the findings detailed in “Agentic AI Breaks Out of the Sandbox,” a PYMNTS Intelligence exclusive report. This edition examines the adoption of agentic AI by enterprise-level companies. It draws on insights from a survey of 60 chief product officers at U.S. firms with at least $1 billion in annual revenues that was conducted from Nov. 20, 2025, through Nov. 28. 2025.

• The ‘If’ Debate Is Dead. The ‘Where’ Is Everywhere
• The ‘Permission Wall’ Has Cracked
• Enough Pondering. Time to Act
• Read More
• Methodology

The ‘If’ Debate Is Dead. The ‘Where’ Is Everywhere

Skepticism has dissipated among CPOs, with interest in agentic AI surging across the board, including for critical strategic roles.

Across all six product functions tracked, the percentage of CPOs reporting that they are “very or extremely interested” in deploying agentic AI surged between August and November. High interest in using the technology for customer research/user experience spiked from 70.0% to 86.7%. Product lifecycle management soared from 73.3% to 88.3%, making it the most desired use case for autonomous agents. Skepticism has faded nearly completely, signaling that the debate over whether enterprises should use agents is over. The question now centers on the functions and tasks for which companies will use them.

The universal agentic AI playbook: Every sector wants it all

Instead of developing into a fragmented landscape of niche tools, agentic AI is becoming a “universal playbook” in which every industry is demanding the same core capabilities. This convergence is led by customer experience and user experience (CX/UX) research and product lifecycle management. Interest in using agentic AI in those areas consistently tops 80% across technology, goods and services, reaching as high as 92.3% in the tech sector. Physical supply chains are now automating just as aggressively as digital ones, signaling that agentic AI is becoming a mainstream operational imperative.

Yet the data reveals a broader phenomenon in which high executive interest almost never drops below 70% for any listed task. This demonstrates that CPOs are not merely looking for a single solution to solve their hardest problems; instead, they are interested in a comprehensive autonomous layer that can handle the entire product stack, from the creative spark of innovation to the daily grind of reporting.

The ‘Permission Wall’ Has Cracked

With nearly four in 10 CPOs willing to grant agentic AI access to directories, the ‘trust gap’ is closing.

In just three months, willingness to grant agentic AI autonomy surged, driven by the tech and services sectors. In August 2025, virtually no CPOs surveyed were willing to grant any significant autonomy to the technology. That resistance has collapsed, as nearly 40% of firms are now willing to open the door to some level of autonomous access.

The technology sector has shifted from skepticism to adoption, with 53.8% of tech firms now willing to grant agents access, including 30.8% ready to provide full access, meaning broad execution authority across functions. The services industry is following a more pragmatic path, with half of firms now amenable to some degree of autonomy. Nearly one in three are now willing to grant “substantial access.”

Enough Pondering. Time to Act

Interest in agentic AI has turned into implementation.

Last August, 51.7% of companies were merely “considering” or “exploring” agentic AI. By November 2025, that hesitance had dropped to 30%. Interest has rapidly given way to action, with nearly one in four (23.4%) CPOs reporting that they are either piloting (11.7%) or fully using (11.7%) the technology. The most striking move is the conversion rate. The one in five companies that said they were “exploring” appear to have graduated to “piloting” and “using” in November.

In other words, there is now a significant bifurcation. Half of enterprise CPOs are sprinting toward autonomy (moving from “considering” to “using” in just three months), while the other half stands on the sidelines.

Adoption is surging across every vertical.

Agentic AI has moved from a niche experiment to a near-universal imperative, triggering an implementation surge across every industry vertical. The most striking signal comes from the goods and manufacturing sector, which sprinted from effectively zero reported usage last August to having active pilots in 19.4% of firms by November—proof that even physical supply chains are now rushing to automate.

This momentum is mirrored in the services sector, where adoption exploded fivefold over August-November 2025, from 4.3% to 25%, and in technology, which tripled over the period to 30.8%. The “digital divide” has effectively vanished; regardless of whether a company sells software, legal advice or steel, the result is the same: Just five months ago, agentic AI was a theory, but by last November, it had become an operational department.

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Methodology

“Agentic AI Breaks Out of the Sandbox” is based on a survey of 60 chief product officers at U.S. firms with at least $1 billion in annual revenues that was conducted from Nov. 20, 2025, through Nov. 28. 2025. The report examines how companies are approaching and using artificial intelligence’s fully autonomous iteration.