TCS Enterprise AI Study: 84% say productivity is AI’s top benefit; just 10% let AI act without human oversight

25-country global survey shows that security, risk and governance is the #1 factor that leaders are considering when deploying AI

Eighty-four percent of executives surveyed rank productivity improvement as the leading source of value realized from AI investments, yet only 10% of global enterprises allow AI agents to execute decisions without human approval across multiple functions or business areas, according to a new global study from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The study also finds that just 9% of executives report AI agents capable of securely orchestrating workflows across enterprise applications. The findings highlight the gap between the value that enterprises are already deriving from AI-assisted work and their readiness to give AI agents greater autonomy and authority to act.

The study, TCS Enterprise AI Study: Intelligence that is Real, highlights security as a defining factor in the next phase of enterprise AI. Security, risk, and governance considerations rank as the leading factor shaping how and where AI systems are developed and deployed, ahead of cost, speed, and ease of deployment. That emphasis is becoming increasingly consequential as enterprises give AI greater access to applications, workflows and decision-making processes.

The findings reflect the evolution toward a Human+AI operating model, where AI progresses from assisting employees to taking on greater responsibility and, where appropriate, operating with increasing levels of autonomy. As enterprises move along that continuum, deriving greater value from AI will depend on having the right security, governance and controls in place to determine where human oversight remains essential and where AI can be given greater authority to act.

Amit Kapur, Chief AI and Services Transformation Officer, TCS, said, “We are seeing significant progress in scaling AI for enterprises. The shift is clearly in AI moving from assisting people to taking more autonomous action with deep access into an enterprise. Productivity is clearly where enterprises are seeing the greatest value from AI today, with 84% of executives ranking it as the leading source of value from their AI investments though 10% have also indicated that they have seen an uplift in revenue. What seems to be holding organisations back – and rightly so – are concerns around security, governance, and resilience. Deploying AI responsibly, with the right guardrails and enterprise controls will be the big focus in the next stage of this journey.”

Platform independence: Executives are also increasingly focused on AI resilience and flexibility. Ninety percent of respondents say that model independence is an important factor in AI investment decisions, while 34% identify AI sovereignty-related requirements involving control over data location, model choice, and compliance as a high or very high organisational risk. The concern is particularly acute in Europe, where 43% of respondents cite AI sovereignty-related requirements as a high or very high organizational risk. At the same time, only 7% of global respondents report having organization-wide provider-switching continuity plans, suggesting that concern about model dependence and sovereignty is advancing faster than operational preparedness.

Other key global findings from the report include:

• AI economics are under review: 39% of enterprises said that they continue to assess whether AI initiatives generate sufficient value relative to token and compute costs.
• Enterprise knowledge remains fragmented: 44% of respondents report that important business knowledge remains embedded within employees or fragmented documentation, potentially limiting AI’s ability to consistently access enterprise context.
• Open-source AI is gaining traction: 46% report targeted deployment of open-source AI for selected use cases.
• AI’s workforce impact is becoming less predictable. The proportion of leaders saying it is still too early to determine AI’s effect on jobs rose from 4% in 2024 to 19% in 2026.
• Productivity remains the leading source of AI value, followed by improvements in customer experience and the development of new products or services.