Gartner Predicts Sharp Rise in AI Agents Within Enterprise Applications by 2026

CPGs continue to heavily invest in AI, with many prioritizing it over the next three years. This includes increased efforts in agentic AI, which are engineered to handle complex, end-to-end tasks independently without human prompts or involvement. 

Recent reports by Gartner predict that by the end of 2026, 40% of enterprise applications will incorporate task-specific AI agents, up from less than 5% today. Additionally, by the end of 2025, nearly all enterprise apps will have embedded AI assistants, signaling a rapid shift toward agent-driven capabilities as organizations accelerate their digital transformation efforts. 

AI assistants will help move toward agentic AI by making tasks and interactions easier for users, but they do not operate independently like agents and depend on human input. 

“C-level leaders at software organizations need to offer suitable AI assistants today that can be seamlessly integrated with their enterprise apps to improve user productivity, initializing the shift away from traditional keyboard-centric interfaces,” said Anushree Verma, senior director analyst at Gartner, in a statement. 

This shift will also significantly affect business, with Gartner forecasts indicating that AI could generate approximately 30% of enterprise application software revenue by 2035, exceeding $450 billion, up from 2% in 2025. 

Gartner predicts that the evolution of agentic AI will happen in five stages, a transition will lead to new pricing models, business strategies, and user experiences.  

1. Assistants embedded in every app (2025) 

2. Task-specific agents (2026) 

3. Collaborative agents within apps (2027) 

4. Cross-application agent ecosystems (2028)

5. A “new normal” where nearly half of workers will be trained to create or manage AI agents (2029) 

“AI agents will evolve rapidly, progressing from task and application-specific agents to agentic ecosystems,” said Verma. “This shift will transform enterprise applications from tools supporting individual productivity into platforms enabling seamless autonomous collaboration and dynamic workflow orchestration.”

With the industry at a crucial turning point, C-level executives at software companies have a critical three-to-six-month window to develop their agentic AI product strategy, or they risk falling behind competitors if they neglect development, cautioned the research firm.