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New Research Confirms Costly Copilot Limitations, Driving Demand for Governed, Process-Centric AI Solutions That Accelerate Autonomy
SAN JOSE, Calif., June 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Automation Anywhere, the leader in Agentic Process Automation (APA), today released a new proprietary research report developed in collaboration with Forrester Consulting, revealing key barriers and breakthroughs shaping enterprise adoption of AI agents. The findings highlight the increasing momentum of AI agents across industries, as well as the implementation challenges organizations must address to realize their full potential.
The study, based on a survey of global decision-makers overseeing enterprise-wide AI strategies, found that 60% of respondents believe automation platforms—especially those from Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and AI leaders like Automation Anywhere—are the most valuable foundation for managing AI-driven processes. This preference outpaces general-purpose AI providers such as OpenAI (ChatGPT) and Anthropic (Claude), as well as broader enterprise platforms like Microsoft Power Automate and Salesforce Einstein, highlighting the need for automation-native solutions purpose-built for process orchestration and scale. Additionally, 71% of respondents agreed that automation solutions should augment human capabilities rather than replace them—reinforcing the importance of keeping strategic decision-making in human hands.
“This research highlights a critical inflection point for enterprises,” said Mihir Shukla, CEO of Automation Anywhere. “Leaders are clearly prioritizing AI-augmented workflows, recognizing the undeniable value of Agentic AI. The fact that a significant majority are specifically seeking these solutions from modern, cloud-native RPA and AI automation vendors underscores that deep process automation expertise is critical to scale adoption and unlock meaningful impact, accelerating the journey to the autonomous enterprise and paving the path to artificial general intelligence for work.”
Key Insights from the Study:
High Interest Meets Practical Hurdles
With deep roots in AI-powered automation and RPA, Automation Anywhere’s APA system is purpose-built to overcome the key hurdles slowing AI agent adoption. While 74% of respondents recognize the promise of AI agents to surface insights from vast data sets, concerns around data privacy (66%), skillset gaps (63%), and integration complexity (61%) persist. APA is designed to balance autonomous execution with enterprise-grade governance and human oversight—making it possible to scale safely and effectively.
Transformational Opportunities Across Business Functions
Organizations are already piloting or implementing AI agents for internal employee support (53%) and customer service (48%). Many plan to extend these capabilities to broader business functions, to enterprise automation and organizational stewardship in the next two years. The potential value of AI agents for areas such as customer service, sales automation, and compliance received transformational value ratings exceeding eight out of ten on average. With the launch of our new Agentic Solutions, Automation Anywhere is helping organizations accelerate this shift—offering pre-built, enterprise-grade AI agents that go beyond pilots to deliver real business impact across customer service, finance, compliance, and more.
Businesses Demand Enterprise-Grade AI Automation Platforms
When evaluating platforms for building and deploying AI agents, 60% of respondents found intelligent automation platforms from RPA and AI automation vendors to be highly valuable for long-running processes. Organizations strongly prefer solutions capable of enterprise-grade integration, end-to-end process orchestration, and mature data security. Automation Anywhere is uniquely positioned to meet these enterprise demands with their APA system—offering intelligent, secure, and scalable AI agents that integrate seamlessly across systems, orchestrate complex, long-running processes end-to-end, and uphold the highest standards of data security and governance.
Early Adoption & Transformational Value
Nearly 75% of leaders plan to pilot AI agents for customer support within the next year, with 71% eyeing research applications. Across all potential use cases, respondents expect transformational levels of value, underscoring strong confidence in AI agents’ impact.
Navigating the Road Ahead
While challenges remain, enterprise leaders are clear-eyed and confident about the transformational potential of AI agents. By proactively addressing hurdles around security, cost, and talent, organizations can move beyond experimentation and begin scaling Agentic AI to drive measurable business outcomes. Those that act decisively today will be best positioned to lead in the AI-powered enterprise of tomorrow. Automation Anywhere is helping enterprises accelerate this journey—offering a secure, cost-effective, and easy-to-adopt APA system with new pre-built Agentic Solutions and the agentic solutions workspace that reduce complexity, lower barriers to entry, and empower business users to confidently scale AI agents.
About Automation Anywhere
Automation Anywhere is the leader in Agentic Process Automation (APA) and guided by its vision to fuel the future of work by unleashing human potential through automation. Learn more at www.automationanywhere.com.
