More than half of organizations are now actively deploying artificial intelligence agents, up from just 12% two years ago, according to a new survey from KPMG.
The KPMG US Q1 AI Quarterly Pulse found that U.S. organizations plan to spend an average of $207 million on AI over the next 12 months — nearly double spending from the same period last year.
Steve Chase, global head of AI and digital innovation at KPMG, said investment is at its highest level yet.
“The harder question organizations are now facing is whether they can move fast enough, sufficiently reimagine entire areas of their business, and do it all responsibly.”
Agent deployment accelerates
AI agents were largely exploratory in early 2024, with only 12% of organizations deploying them. By the second quarter of 2024, that figure tripled to 33%. Today, 54% of organizations are actively deploying AI agents.
Operations and technology departments lead in agent deployment, at 79% and 78% respectively. Nearly three-quarters of organizations are using AI agents to automate workflows that span multiple functions. More than half rely on agents to route information and decisions between teams, while 51% use them to provide shared knowledge bases or unified dashboards.
Scaling and skills remain top barriers
Despite heavy investment, organizations are struggling to convert AI activity into measurable returns. The top barriers to demonstrating return on investment are:
- Difficulty scaling use cases: 65% (up from 33% last quarter)
- Skills gaps: 62% (up from 25% last quarter)
A human-led model is emerging as the dominant approach. More than half of leaders — 57% — now expect people to manage and direct AI agents, and employee adoption sits at 55%. Skills gaps and concerns about job security are the main sources of resistance, cited by 76% and 67% of employees respectively.
Workforce readiness drives outcomes
Rahsaan Shears, aIQ program lead at KPMG, said the technology is no longer the limiting factor.
“The limiting factor isn’t the technology, it’s whether people have the skills to direct AI, apply judgment and take responsibility for results.”
Upskilling and reskilling the existing workforce is the top priority for 87% of leaders when building an AI-enabled workforce, ahead of hiring new talent at 68% and redesigning jobs at 55%.
For entry-level roles, adaptability and continuous learning are now valued more highly than technical programming skills, cited by 83% and 67% of leaders respectively.
Governance now a prerequisite
As agent deployment grows, governance has moved from a best practice to a baseline requirement. Ninety-one per cent of leaders say data security, privacy, and risk will influence their AI strategies over the next six months.
Human validation of AI agent outputs is now required by 63% of organizations, up sharply from 22% in the first quarter of 2025. Another 47% rely on trusted technology providers to build their AI agents.
Global findings
This quarter, KPMG launched its first Global AI Pulse Survey, expanding the research to 20 countries. Globally, organizations plan to spend an average of $186 million on AI over the next 12 months, compared with $207 million in the U.S.
Regional approaches to AI agents differ. U.S. organizations favour a human-AI collaboration model. European organizations emphasize a human-first approach. Organizations in the Asia-Pacific region are more likely to pursue agent-first operating models.
The KPMG US Q1 AI Quarterly Pulse surveyed 237 U.S.-based executives and business leaders representing organizations with annual revenue of $1 billion or more, with more than a third reporting revenues above $10 billion. Fieldwork was conducted between Feb. 17 and March 17, 2026. The Global AI Pulse Survey collected responses from 2,110 C-suite and business leaders across 20 countries, with 75% of respondents from companies exceeding $1 billion in annual revenue.
