theCUBE Research conducted a primary research survey in late 3Q 2025 which was complemented by dozens of interviews with industry pioneers across our ecosystem to create the 2025 Agentic AI Futures Index, which offers one of the first comprehensive benchmarks on how enterprises are preparing for the golden age of agentic AI and the rise of digital labor. The findings form the foundation of our Agentic AI and digital labor transformation advisories and insights.
With an extensive sampling of enterprise AI professionals answering dozens of questions based on a maturity-index methodology, this research will help companies understand the current landscape and identify where the next wave of competitive advantage will emerge in the super-cycle of innovation that’s upon us.
The survey consists of five maturity indices that collectively create a foundational roadmap for enterprise leadership in agentic AI.
- Digital Labor Transformation Index: Charts how organizations are integrating digital co-workers, reshaping workforce strategies, redefining HR models, and navigating the cultural and operational shifts that come with a hybrid human–AI workforce. (n=625)
- Agentic AI Maturity Index: Charts the enterprise journey from pilots to orchestrated, enterprise-wide agentic workflows, spotlighting investment priorities, adoption hurdles, technology plans, and opportunities for differentiation. (n=625)
- Trust & Governance Index: Assesses the strength of governance, explainability, and accountability frameworks—highlighting that trust is the essential foundation for success and capturing the tension between the drive for speed and innovation. (n=625)
- Reasoning & Decision Intelligence Index: Tracks the progression of how enterprises plan to evolve from task execution to advanced reasoning, where AI agents support decision-making, problem-solving, and planning based on the understanding of cause-and-effect mechanisms, consequences, and “what if” simulations. (n=625)
- Causal AI Innovation Index: Explores the shift from AI pattern recognition to AI that can understand why things happen and the consequences of actions, enabling AI agents to help humans reason, anticipate, and make more informed decisions. (n=625)
Together, these indices define a strategic maturity curve that helps organizations craft AI strategies, showcase solution leadership, benchmark progress against peers, and anticipate the technologies that will shape the next decade of innovation.
WHY IT MATTERS
Innovation cycles are accelerating at warp speed. Agentic AI, advanced reasoning and decision intelligence, and governance-as-code are converging to spark a new Golden Age of Digital Labor, unleashing a new super-cycle of innovation and business productivity. In this environment, falling behind may mean never being able to catch up.
The opportunity is enormous: agentic AI surpasses today’s generative AI by enabling digital workers who can reason, plan, and collaborate to make decisions. However, real challenges remain, from building trust to reshaping workplace culture. Leaders need to decide not only how to deploy AI agents but also how to integrate them across their workforces and across organizational boundaries responsibly.
The 2025 Agentic AI Futures Index provides the clarity leaders need. This independent, authoritative research survey, produced by theCUBE Research, trusted by over a million monthly visitors, offers a unique benchmark for understanding the market’s trajectory, improving your competitive advantage, and establishing market leadership.
Executives who engage with the Index gain actionable insights to strengthen strategy, build user trust in AI, and capture market leadership in the next great wave of innovation. For those determined not to fall behind, participation isn’t optional; it’s essential.
SAMPLE INSIGHT
To what extent do you agree with the statement: “This generation of business leaders will be the last to manage a human-only workforce”?
For this sample question, 1 of 61 explored with the 625 respondents, the findings reveal a strong belief that digital labor is becoming a near-term reality as a response to increasing workforce pressures. With an maturity Index score of 4.1 and widespread agreement among leaders, digital workers are no longer viewed as optional innovations but as essential solutions to talent shortages, rising costs, and productivity needs. Larger companies, where labor models are most complex and human capacity is most sustainable, show the greatest conviction.
The message is clear: digital labor is not just about efficiency; it’s about resilience and competitiveness. Those who do not incorporate AI agents into their workforces risk widening skills gaps, increasing costs, and falling behind peers already using digital labor to offset structural labor constraints and unlock new productivity sources.
Key Takeaways include:
- Digital labor seen as inevitable: With more than 90% in agreement, it’s not a distant vision but an approaching reality.
- Conviction grows with proximity: Those with the most experience express the strongest belief, with 73% strongly agreeing.
- Scale amplifies urgency: Large enterprises (76%) express the highest confidence, reflecting intense labor market dynamics.
Further cross-table analysis also confirms that digital labor is widely expected to become a defining reality, with strong agreement across industries, larger enterprises, and especially U.S. respondents. In addition, the more AI experience a respondent had and the greater their familiarity with Agentic AI, the more likely they are to believe that the rise of digital labor is inevitable. While conviction varies, the clear signal is that organizations must begin reframing workforce strategy around AI agents now—or risk being left behind as peers move decisively into the next era of digital labor.
However, as we unpack the other 60 questions in the research survey, we find that ASPERATIONS are outpacing STRATEGY, which is well outpacing the EXECUTION. This reminds me of what I used to preach to my teams while at IBM — “A strategy without execution is hallucination.” Luckily, the analysis of tens of thousands of data points collected from 625 enterprise leaders of various experience levels and roles spanning industries, geographies, and company sizes helps to provide actionable insights into how to successfully navigate the road ahead.
DEMOGRAPHICS
The 2025 Agentic AI Maturity Index engaged 625 qualified respondents, each completing 61 questions across the five maturity indices. Respondents represented a cross-section of the enterprise landscape, ensuring results reflect the perspectives of those most actively shaping the future of AI. Participants come from 13 industries and are located across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, ranging from mid-sized organizations to global enterprises.
Participants were screened to verify they were qualified AI professionals actively engaged in strategy, development, or governance. Four primary professional groups were represented: AI/ML and data science, enterprise IT and architecture, governance, risk, and compliance experts, and business executives involved in AI initiatives. All respondents had over one year of AI experience, direct involvement in their organization’s AI projects, and familiarity with agentic AI.
METHODOLOGY
For each of these indices, the Agentic AI Futures Index will outline the findings across five facets of the research survey data:
- Response Distributions: Findings are presented as percentage breakdowns of how respondents answered each question, reflecting relative weights.
- Maturity Indices: Each question is scored on a 0–5 scale, offering a benchmark that represents the collective maturity of the responses.
- Key Takeaways: High-level highlights that serve as executive-ready insights for quick reference and decision-making.
- Strategic Insights: Deeper analysis that translates raw data into strategic insights and trends on the future of digital labor and AI maturity.
- Cross-tabs Analysis: Segments results by role, industry, region, etc. to surface nuanced perspectives or to create tailored strategies or messaging.
Collectively, these findings will enable enterprises to extract valuable, action-oriented insights and access their position with strategic maturity curves. In turn, helping organizations craft AI strategies, showcase solution leadership, benchmark progress against peers, and anticipate the technologies that will shape the next decade of innovation.
USE CASES
The survey indices offer powerful tools for both vendors and enterprise customers to maximize their impact, particularly when combined with expert advisory services. In addition, by purchasing rights to the analysis, data, or customized content, organizations can transform the findings into strategic assets—fueling growth initiatives, sharpening competitive positioning, and creating co-branded materials that amplify market presence.
- Market Validation & Alignment: Use the research to demonstrate credibility and leadership for your solutions.
- Thought Leadership & Marketing: Create co-branded assets and campaigns to drive market visibility, credibility, authority, and impact.
- Fuel AI-engine Optimization (AEO): LLMs devour industry research and conversational analysis from trusted platforms, improving the odds of your brand surfacing in GenAI answers.
- Market Engagement: Deliver distinctive, data-driven conversations with prospects and clients on shared challenges. Readouts for top prospects are one of the most effective prospecting and progression tactics.
- Competitive Differentiation: Customize data and analytical insights with cross-tabs to showcase how solutions align with customer, industry, and buyer priorities.
- Brand or Product Positioning: Leverage the indices as a framework for gauging and promoting current maturity& innovation, paired with the Agentic AI Innovation index.
Summary
What makes this survey unique is both its breadth and its depth. Unlike most AI market studies that stop at generative AI adoption or budget trends, the Agentic AI Futures Index is the first-of-its-kind, authoritative benchmark designed specifically for the age of agentic AI and digital labor.
It uniquely applies a rigorous maturity-index methodology across five dimensions – Adoption maturity, Trust & Governance, Reasoning & Decision Intelligence, Digital Labor Transformation, and Causal AI Innovation. With 625 qualified enterprise leaders across 13 industries, each screened for direct involvement in AI strategy, governance, or deployment, it delivers an unmatched view into how prepared organizations truly are for this next era of enterprise transformation.
In the weeks ahead, I’ll be previewing select insights here on my theCUBE Research portal and across LinkedIn, X, Substack, and Medium. Also, stay tuned for new episodes of The Next Frontiers of AI Podcast, where I will be unpacking the findings in partnership with industry pioneers and experts. Track or follow me on these properties to get the stream of data-driven insights to come.
Download a PDF overview of the Agentic AI Futures Index here.
If you’d like to explore the complete data and analysis in more depth, or leverage the survey to sharpen your solution strategy or market positioning, or any of the use cases outlined in this post, please reach out at scott@siliconangle.com or connect with me on LinkedIn.
