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Despite the enthusiasm around AI agents, industry research suggests a significant correction is coming. In fact, over 40% of AI agent projects will be canceled by the end of 2027 due to escalating costs, unclear business value or inadequate risk controls, according to Gartner.
But that doesn’t mean organizations won’t find success if HR leaders make thoughtful, strategic choices about where and how to use this developing technology.
The AI ‘agent washing’ problem
“Most AI agent projects right now are early-stage experiments or proofs of concepts that are mostly driven by hype and are often misapplied,” says Anushree Verma, senior director analyst at Gartner. She warns that organizations may overlook the true costs and challenges of implementing AI agents at scale, which can prevent projects from reaching production.
Anushree Verma, Gartner
Adding to the confusion is what Gartner calls “agent washing”—vendors rebranding existing products, such as AI assistants, robotic process automation and chatbots, as agents without substantial agent capabilities. Gartner estimates that only about 130 of the thousands of AI agent vendors are real.
In fact, some tools are being dubbed agentic when that level of orchestration isn’t even necessary, Verma says: “Many use cases positioned as agentic today don’t require
