Australian firms to boost agentic AI investment to USD $12.3 billion
Over 90% of Australian organisations are using or making plans to adopt agentic artificial intelligence (AI) within the next six months, according to new research published by IDC and sponsored by UiPath.
The IDC InfoBrief, titled "Agentic Automation: Unlocking Seamless Orchestration for the Modern Enterprise", reveals that 41% of Australian organisations are already deploying agentic AI, with an additional 50% seeking to implement it in the near future.
Investment and expectations
The report found that investment appetite is strong, with 47% of organisations having established spending plans for agentic AI. Additionally, 78% expressed willingness to pay a premium of up to 50% to realise the potential value of this technology across their business operations.
Australian C-suite leaders are also setting ambitious benchmarks for the technology, with many targeting a threefold return on investment from agentic AI deployment.
The summary of findings indicates a shift from isolated AI experimentation towards broad, enterprise-level automation, as businesses seek to scale technological adoption and maintain competitiveness amid ongoing digital disruption.
Adoption drivers
Key motivations for agentic AI adoption include gains in productivity and efficiency, as more organisations strive to automate manual processes and upskill their workforce. The IDC InfoBrief highlights that AI agents are increasingly facilitating a redesign of how work is executed and coordinated across teams and systems.
Organisational benefits set out in the report include enhanced customer experience, improved competitive positioning, and strengthened risk management. According to the data, 69% of organisations cited productivity improvements as a key outcome of agentic AI adoption, 68% reported the ability to tackle more complex tasks, and 58% identified superior decision-making capabilities as a result of their investment.
These impacts are observed across several sectors including retail, wholesale, financial services, and healthcare and life sciences.
Addressing risks
Risks associated with agentic AI are also being scrutinised more closely as adoption increases. Key concerns among Australian organisations include potential misuse by malicious actors (49%), unintended system-user interactions (48%), and data privacy breaches (44%).
Significant implementation barriers were also identified, with 59% of organisations pointing to data security as the primary obstacle. Integration with existing systems (50%) and ambiguity concerning the appropriate application of agentic AI (44%) were also cited as major challenges.
The report emphasises the necessity of addressing these risks in order to foster greater trust in agentic AI systems and align their implementation with broader digital transformation objectives.
Scalability and integration
Despite these challenges, the report notes that Australian organisations are preparing to scale their use of agentic AI. Many businesses are moving past initial pilot stages to embed agentic AI more deeply in their operational processes, with agentic automation forming a cornerstone of this shift.
Agentic automation combines agentic AI with robotic process automation, enabling the deployment of AI agents to tackle complex and unstructured processes in real time. This development allows organisations to operationalise agentic AI on a larger scale, creating more dynamic, context-aware workflows that extend beyond traditional automation's capabilities.
"We're at a pivotal moment for AI in Australia," said Peter Graves, Area Vice President, Australia and New Zealand at UiPath. "Agentic automation is the missing link between AI experimentation and enterprise transformation. It's how organisations are starting to put AI agents to work – taking on complex tasks, making decisions in real time, and adapting as they go. It gives them the control and confidence to scale AI safely and effectively. With AI investment in Australia forecast to hit US$12.3 billion by 2028, the organisations laying the right foundations now will be the ones out in front."
Deepika Giri, Associate Vice President, AI Research IDC Asia/Pacific, and Dr. Chris Marshall, Vice President of Data, Analytics, AI, Sustainability, and Industry Research at IDC, commented:
"Becoming an AI-fuelled business is no longer an option in today's unpredictable climate. For many organisations, it's fast becoming a strategic necessity. In Australia, organisations are embracing agentic AI and agentic automation at scale. Many leaders see its potential to drive unprecedented levels of productivity, innovation, and growth, which will be key to building resilience against future disruptions."
