Gartner Forecasts High Failure Rate for Agentic AI Projects Amid Rising Hype and Cost

A new report from Gartner warns that over 40% of agentic AI projects will be abandoned by 2027 due to unclear value and unsustainable costs. Despite aggressive investment by companies like Salesforce and Oracle, most current agentic AI efforts remain experimental and lack the autonomy to deliver long-term business impact.

Gartner analysts caution that many vendors are “agent-washing” basic AI tools — rebranding chatbots and assistants without real agency. Of the thousands of players in the space, only about 130 meet true agentic criteria. Still, adoption is expected to grow: Gartner predicts 15% of daily business decisions will be made autonomously via agentic AI by 2028, and 33% of enterprise software will include these capabilities.