Boomi study finds AI agent trust lags enterprise adoption

Insider Spotlight

• Most enterprises have deployed AI agents, but only a third fully trust their decisions 
• Integration and governance emerged as key differentiators between organizations confidently scaling AI and those struggling with "agentic chaos"
• Poor AI readiness carries financial risks, with less-prepared organizations facing average additional costs of about P120 million ($2.1 million)
  
   

Despite widespread enterprise adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) agents, trust in their autonomous decision-making remains low, underscoring a growing gap between AI deployment and operational readiness.

A new Forrester Consulting study commissioned by Boomi found that 86 percent of organizations surveyed have progressed beyond AI agent pilot programs, yet only 34 percent said they trust the actions their AI agents are taking. 

The survey covered 409 IT and technology decision-makers at the director level and above across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.

The big picture

The study attributes the trust deficit not to the sophistication of AI models but to weaknesses in enterprise data integration, governance, and connectivity.

"This research confirms what we're seeing everywhere: the trust problem with agentic AI is really a data problem," Boomi CEO Steve Lucas said in a press statement. 

"Agents can only be trusted to act on data that's been properly activated, connected, and governed, and most companies deployed agents before they did that work. The ones who did it first are the ones getting real value now," Lucas added.

Organizations categorized as operating in "agentic chaos"—the lowest quartile in operational readiness—are still aggressively deploying AI. About 77 percent of these companies are moving AI agents into production despite governance shortcomings, exposing themselves to an average of $2.1 million, or roughly P120 million, in additional costs from compliance penalties, operational disruptions, customer losses, and rework.

Why it matters

The research found that companies achieving "agentic control" are significantly more likely to invest in integration platforms, API management, and governance frameworks before expanding AI deployments.

Among these organizations, 46 percent use integration platform as a service (iPaaS) to support agentic workflows, compared with 25 percent among companies in agentic chaos. Likewise, 86 percent view iPaaS and API management capabilities as critical to AI readiness, versus 58 percent of less-prepared organizations.

The study also found that organizations with stronger governance are more likely to establish centralized management of Model Context Protocol, align AI and integration teams, and prioritize connecting AI agents with enterprise systems instead of focusing solely on improving large language models.

Bottom line

Enterprises that build a strong integration foundation are seeing measurable returns. Among organizations classified as having agentic control, 59 percent reported productivity improvements, 51 percent cited increased innovation, 46 percent developed reusable capabilities across the business, and 45 percent automated repetitive tasks. 

Forrester recommends aligning AI and integration teams under a unified operating model while implementing governance and orchestration layers to narrow the trust gap as AI agents move deeper into enterprise operations. —Vanessa Hidalgo| Ed: Corrie S. Narisma