As agentic AI adoption grows, IT leaders reportearly wins building agent-led experiences thatmeet enterprise standards. Executive Summary Agentic AI promises to accelerate developmentcycles, automate complex work, and make IT teamsmore productive. Without a clear strategy, however,organizations risk creating AI sprawl, deployingagents whose decision processes are difficult toexplain, and introducing inconsistent experiencesfor employees and customers. have a centralized approach to AI governance,with most relying instead on project-level rulesor ad hoc approaches. To help organizations close this gap betweenrapid AI adoption and the need for strongeroversight, this report explores: That’s the consensus of 1,900 global IT leaderssurveyed by OutSystems for this 2026 State ofAI Development report. Results show that marketmomentum for agentic AI continues to build,with 97% of respondents saying they’re exploringagentic strategies right now. •Benchmarks to assess your organization’sagentic maturity level•Which industries are using it most and why•The multiple challenges holding enterprises back•How to integrate AI-generated code and agenticsystems into enterprise workflows While leaders are eager to advance from pilot toproduction, their data and governance frameworksaren’t set up for agentic AI. Only 36% of respondents of organizations surveyedare exploring agenticstrategies right now97% of respondents havea centralized approachto AI governance36% A message from our CEO Welcome to the first State of AI Development Report. As a leader in building or modernizing yourorganization's technology, you are witnessing a fundamental shift: building software and buildingAI systems are now the same job. This report is designed to help you move faster from AIexperimentation to real outcomes. Artificial intelligence is quickly moving from experimentation to everyday reality. Intelligent agents areaugmenting the systems we use and build, embedded in applications to help teams complete tasksfaster and make better decisions. AI is also becoming integral to the process of creating software itself,assisting with everything from generating requirements and writing code to testing and optimization. The shift from hype to measurable outcomes is underway. We found that 49% of surveyed enterprises havealready moved more than half of their agentic AI projects from pilot to full enterprise production. Moreover,companies are shifting entire workloads to agents that can operate autonomously in the background,planning their own steps, calling APIs, and monitoring outcomes without constant human prompting. I’ve had conversations with customers globally who are building powerful agentic systems: manufacturingteams interpreting technical drawings, travel companies designing personalized itineraries, and financialinstitutions preemptively addressing technical issues. Inside OutSystems, agents are assisting our teamswith research, knowledge management, and sales strategy. However, the most significant shift is the emergence of systems of agents working together acrossdifferent models, tools, and business applications to coordinate increasingly complex work. The findings reflect both the momentum and the complexity of this shift. Organizations are registeringearly returns from agentic AI in areas like IT productivity and operational efficiency. At the same time,tech leaders are navigating challenges around trust, governance, and agent autonomy in mission-criticalprocesses. Legacy fragmentation and integration difficulties are the top barriers to AI developmentsuccess for over 40% of surveyed leaders. As multi-agent systems grow more sophisticated, leading organizations recognize the need for a newarchitectural layer for the agentic era. This layer must allow rapid experimentation with new AI modelswhile providing a stable foundation for defining processes, coordinating agents, and controlling outcomes.I believe this will become the backbone of the agentic enterprise. In the pages that follow, you willdiscover how IT leaders worldwide are approaching this transition. TABLE OF CONTENTS Agentic AI adoption trends across industries, regions5 Agentic AI enters a complex development ecosystem7 Using agentic AI to reimagine legacy systems9 Areas of agentic impact: IT leads the way10 The agentic AI trust gap is closing in mission-critical processes 11 Fragmentation is preventing agentic AI from scaling13 CIO checklist for building an agentic enterprise14 CONCLUSION:Build your agentic enterprise with OutSystems APPENDIX16 Agentic AI adoption trends across industries, regionsSECTION 1 IT teams are beginning to deploy agentic AI in real workflows. Thoughprogress varies widely by sector and region, our survey results revealwhere adoption is moving fastest and where organizations are still inthe earlier stages of maturity. list their agenticAI capabilitiesas “advanced”or “expert”49% Currently, 49% of respondents list their cap