Dive Brief:
- AI automation is expected to force meaningful change in operational capabilities for companies as they shift from digital to autonomous businesses, 80% of CEOs said in a Gartner report released Thursday. The report surveyed 469 CEOs and other executives worldwide in late 2025.
- Some CEOs said AI will negatively affect their profit models, as agents could disrupt existing intermediated systems or price negotiation processes. The shift could force executives to pursue recurring, outcome-based revenue models, the report said.
- The transition to autonomous businesses requires executives to prioritize how work gets done and how human value is delivered, Jennifer Carter, senior principal analyst at Gartner, told CIO Dive. They will be able to focus on the intrinsic, specialized value that employees can bring to their role.
Dive Insight:
Enterprises are in the early stages of deploying autonomous AI at scale, but expect that they will ramp up their usage in the next several years. The long term effect on business models remains to be seen.
More than half of CEOs said automation was currently limited to specific tasks, but only 13% expect to remain at that level by the end of 2028. One-third of CEOs said their organizations will use self-learning and adaptable AI tools in human decision-making, and more than a quarter plan to use AI primarily without human intervention.
“We’re looking at our entire end-to-end operations and saying: How can we create entire workflows that, fundamentally, run themselves?” Carter said. “They can be managed by humans, but really turning inwards with the opportunity for automation.”
A recent Writer study found that tech leaders are feeling the pressure of AI adoption, with 61% reporting they fear losing their job if they fail to successfully lead their organization through AI deployment. Some say their own skills could become obsolete in the age of AI.
Still, executives said they believe they can use AI to deepen relationships with existing customers and non-human, machine customers. Gartner expects enterprises will expand their use of dedicated business units for machine customers.
The increased reliance on agents and autonomous workflows intensifies an enterprise’s need for trust, accuracy and data integrity, the report said. As adoption accelerates, the foundation on which companies deploy their AI becomes a core requirement, and poor AI hygiene will have lasting effects, Carter said.
As CIOs take expanded responsibility over AI at their organizations, they must look inward at their operations and outward as the business landscape changes, Carter said. Leaders should be paying attention to market needs and understanding customers while assessing their autonomous ecosystem.
Roles all across the enterprise will likely shift during this transformation, Carter said. It will become important for agent management to become a part of workflows, but it will also free up time for teams to focus on the uniquely human parts of business, she said.
“We can get rid of some of the drudgery,” she said. “What’s the specialty stuff that’s left over?”
