77% of Enterprises Have Experienced Negative Consequences from Ungoverned AI Agents
News related to:Redwood Software · 2 min read
VIENNA, Va., Oct. 22, 2026 /CourierPR/ -- The report highlights the rapid adoption of agentic AI, which is outpacing the integration, ownership, and governance necessary to run it with confidence.
According to the research, 77% of enterprises have experienced negative consequences from ungoverned AI agents. The most common issues include unexpected cloud costs, operational disruptions, and compliance issues. This finding underscores the critical need for robust governance and oversight in AI deployment.
Agentic AI is catching up to AI overall, with 89% of respondents reporting increased agentic deployment in the past year. Moreover, 54% of enterprises are scaling or have mature agentic adoption. However, the research reveals that while many are expanding AI use, responsibility for AI agents is fragmented across IT Operations, dedicated AI or automation teams, and software engineering. This lack of a single point of accountability can lead to inconsistent integration, visibility, and governance enforcement.
The report also indicates that 82% of respondents agree that existing systems are the biggest obstacles to scaling AI, with only 42% reporting a strong ability to connect AI agents to legacy or core systems. Furthermore, just 51% of enterprises have real-time monitoring of agent activity, highlighting the gap between deployment and governance.
Redwood customers are significantly more prepared to connect AI to existing workloads. They are 1.4 times as likely as non-customers to have a fully prepared, funded plan to integrate AI with existing systems and 1.2 times as likely to report a strong ability to connect AI to both legacy and cloud/SaaS applications.
The research further reveals that 62% of respondents believe better observability or real-time visibility is essential for expanding agentic AI with confidence. Additionally, 58% cite a proven ability to integrate AI agents with legacy or core systems as a critical factor.
Charles Crouchman, Chief Product Officer at Redwood Software, emphasized the importance of governance in AI deployment.
Redwood Software, with 30 years of experience and trusted by more than 50% of the Fortune 50, continues to drive business transformation at the lowest total cost of ownership. Through its SaaS-first automation fabric, Redwood accelerates the path to autonomous operations, embedding AI across the automation lifecycle to empower organizations to focus on innovation and growth.