Cloudera has released the findings of a new global survey, “The Future of Enterprise AI Agents”, and found 98% of UAE enterprises believe it’s important to invest in agents to maintain a competitive edge within their industry.
Globally, the research reveals an overwhelming 96% of enterprise IT leaders globally plan to expand their use of AI agents in the next 12 months, with half aiming for significant, organization-wide deployment, highlighting a rapid shift toward AI-powered operations. In the UAE, 90% of respondents expressed similar intentions, with 39% targeting broad implementation.
The survey polled nearly 1,500 enterprise IT leaders across 14 countries, including the UAE, to understand their adoption patterns, use cases, and sentiments around AI agents. The applications for this deployment include performance optimization bots (66%), security monitoring agents (63%), and development assistants (62%).
For business and IT leaders alike, agentic AI marks a new frontier—moving beyond traditional automation to systems that can reason, act, and adapt in real-time. When implemented effectively, these intelligent agents unlock operational agility, drive cost savings, and dramatically improve customer engagement. As a result, AI agents are quickly becoming a key source of competitive advantage, with 83% of organizations globally—and an even higher 98% in the UAE— stating that investing in them is crucial to maintaining their edge in the market.
“Businesses are now recognizing how AI agents are driving efficiencies and real-time insights. These agents have moved beyond experimentation and are now actively used by businesses to enhance their overall performance. We are focused on helping these organizations navigate the new world of enterprise AI. Empowering global enterprises to innovate and thrive in today’s digital economy,” says Ahmad Shakora, Group Vice President – Emerging Markets (META), Cloudera.
In addition to the benefits of the technology, Cloudera’s survey answered some of the biggest questions around agentic AI, including:
- How widely is this being adopted in the UAE? Adoption is already underway. One-quarter (27%) of respondents started implementing AI agents within the last two years. A majority (97%) say their prior investments in generative AI prepared them well to implement agentic AI.
- How are UAE organizations deploying agents? AI agents are being deployed across various business functions, with the highest adoption in IT (67%), followed by customer support (11%) and HR (6%). In terms of specific use cases, AI agents are most commonly used for customer support (73%), process automation (66%), and sales and marketing personalization (58%), highlighting their role in both operational efficiency and enhanced customer experiences.
- What’s getting in the way? The top three barriers are data privacy concerns (62%), followed by high costs (48%), governance concerns (31%), and lack of expertise (31%). These pain points all stem from a common root: the need for robust, unified data management and governance.
- What is the biggest risk? Enterprises worry that AI agents carry the risk of undermining consumer and employee trust. 29% of surveyed IT leaders have significant concerns about AI bias and fairness.
- How to govern AI responsibly? To combat bias, 42% of respondents have introduced some bias-check measures, such as periodic human reviews or bias-detection tools. Another 40% are instituting multiple processes, such as human review loops, diverse training data, and formal fairness audits.
Download the full report here.
