G2, the world’s largest and most trusted software marketplace, released its 2025 AI Agents Insights Report, revealing that AI agents are succeeding where the first wave of generative AI fell short: driving tangible business growth. Based primarily on a survey of over 1,000 B2B decision-makers, the report finds that nearly 60% of organizations already have AI agents in production, and more than half are highly likely to expand the scope or budget for agents over the next 12 months.

“The most successful organizations are leveraging trust to build powerful and scalable AI agent strategies,” said Tim Sanders, Chief Innovation Officer at G2.

G2’s findings suggest a critical maturation of both the AI landscape and investment in AI technology. Where generative AI was designed to advise and assist, agents are designed to act — autonomously executing tasks, coordinating with systems, and accelerating work. The report indicates that this new wave of technology is winning trust and quickly becoming an essential business tool.

“Agents are the great leap in the application of AI technology that we’ve all been waiting for, signaling a shift from measuring individual productivity to predicting organizational velocity,” said Tim Sanders, Chief Innovation Officer at G2. “That transition is being powered by trust, as agent systems are far more likely to advance to deployment in 2025 when they maintain a human in the loop. As technology leaders integrate more agents into their tech stacks, the most successful organizations are leveraging that trust to build powerful and scalable agent strategies. I expect software vendors to adapt their messaging, targets, and pricing to thrive in an agent-first future.”

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Some of the top trends observed in G2’s 2025 AI Agents Insights Report include:

Agent adoption is happening at scale

Companies have moved past the C-suite’s initial “fear of missing out” and are now making problem-first, outcome-driven investments with a clear focus on return on investment (ROI).

• 57% of companies have agents in production, demonstrating a surprisingly short cycle between testing and scaling.
• 40% of companies have an AI agent budget of over $1 million, and 1 in 4 large enterprises are prepared to spend $5 million or more.
• Leading use cases for AI agents at enterprise companies include customer service, business intelligence, and software development.

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Agents are driving speed and growth

Time-to-value is a critical consideration for software buyers, but despite an initial trust gap, AI agents are fulfilling the promise of growth. The median time to the first meaningful outcome is six months or less, which matches or exceeds prior AI investments.

• 34% of study participants have enough confidence in AI agents to follow a “let it rip” approach and make any reactive corrections as needed.
• 83% of buyers are satisfied with agent performance, indicating low churn and high confidence in the technology.
• Respondents reported a median 23% gain in speed-to-market, and G2 Review Data shows velocity gains of up to 50% in marketing and sales use cases.

Agents are winning trust in the boardroom – and the front lines

G2’s research reveals that AI agents are not just driving outcomes for the bottom line, but they are also improving employee experience. As organizations experience the benefits of agents, leaders and employees trust them more, increasingly giving them more autonomy.

• Nearly 90% of study participants reported higher employee satisfaction in departments where agents were deployed.
• Nearly 50% of buyers would grant full autonomy to agents in low-risk workflows.
• 45% of leaders predict a net increase in jobs by 2028 due to talent redeployment to higher-value work.
• Agent programs with a human in the loop were twice as likely to deliver cost savings of 75% or more than fully autonomous agent strategies.

SaaS faces a mandate to evolve

The rise of agents is forcing a massive evolution in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry, where standalone applications are no longer enough.

• More than one in three companies would switch from a current SaaS vendor to acquire agent functionality.
• The majority of leaders (68%) believe the future will see agents augmenting SaaS in a complementary relationship, not replacing it entirely.
• The agent-to-agent (A2A) era is already beginning, with 50% of companies reporting their agents are handing off work across different vendors and platforms.