- 47% say ‘AI accountability’ is most important factor when evaluating new AI tools
- Companies average 28 AI agents today and expect to hit 40 within the next year — a 43% jump
- 48% increase in agent deployment for larger organizations by 2027
ALAMEDA, Calif., May 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Jitterbit, the leader in intelligent automation, integration and accountable AI, today revealed that the era of the agentic AI pilot is over with a reported 78% of AI projects delivering real business value. But despite this tempered success, a striking 95% of enterprises are waiting to scale, held by growing security concerns.
The biggest obstacle standing between organizations and the agentic enterprise is no longer the CFO, it’s the CISO. That’s a central finding of the Jitterbit 2026 AI Automation Benchmark Report.
“Organizations have seen the value; now they just need to scale with AI accountability and security in mind — especially with agent sprawl and agent contamination as real threats to today’s enterprise,” said Jitterbit President & CEO Bill Conner.
Nearly half (47%) say ‘AI accountability’ (encompassing security, auditability, and guardrails) is now the single most important factor when evaluating new tools. For AI-forward “Agentic and Orchestrated” organizations, that number jumps to two-thirds.
Conversely, only 15% of IT leaders surveyed describe ‘budget’ as a meaningful challenge.
Data privacy and sovereignty adding pressure
As litigation and geopolitical activity around data rights intensifies globally, a massive race to build localized data centers is forcing enterprises to fundamentally rethink where their data lives in the first place — giving AI more of a physical footprint.
“With AI models maturing and agents now more omnipresent, where, who and what has access to your data is more paramount than ever,” said Conner.
In fact, agents are quietly accumulating what the report calls “God-mode” access to sensitive databases, with no oversight in place to catch it. AI-generated code is adding to the risk, creating exploitable security gaps that existing tools miss a third of the time.
The shadow AI problem is equally evident from the research. Reportedly, nearly half of corporate AI usage is happening on personal, unmanaged accounts, completely outside IT visibility.
Faced with these mounting concerns, 39% of business leaders have already abandoned custom-build approaches in favor of more tested off-the-shelf agents, a significant strategic shift driven squarely by security anxiety.
Solving unmitigated AI, sprawl and agent contamination
Jitterbit positions itself as the answer to expanding data silos and accelerating agent sprawl and eventual agent contamination. The Jitterbit Harmony platform, including the industry’s first Deep Message Inspection technology, is designed to give enterprises ‘true ‘AI accountability’ — the checks and balances needed to move beyond risky pilots and into secure, governed, and scalable agentic workflows.
The company also recently became the first company in the integration space to earn ISO 42001 certification for AI management.
The full Jitterbit 2026 AI Automation Benchmark Report is available at jitterbit.com.
About Jitterbit
Jitterbit accelerates data transformation by unifying accountable AI agents, apps, and automation on the industry’s only AI-infused platform. Trusted in 60-plus countries and ranked No. 1 in enterprise ROI, Harmony empowers any user to securely build, deploy and manage intelligent automation and AI agents. We don’t just integrate systems; we orchestrate the future of work with intelligence you can trust. Learn more at www.jitterbit.com and follow us on LinkedIn.
Media Contact:
Geoff Blaine
Jitterbit
Email: geoff.blaine@jitterbit.com
