AI Agents: The New Default Business Infrastructure
The concept of AI agents has revolutionized enterprise software over the past two years. By 2026, Gartner expects 40% of enterprise applications to carry task-specific agents that plan, act, and course-correct on their own, up from under 5% a year earlier.
This significant jump is not due to better-looking software but rather the advancement in large language models that can call tools, hold context across multiple steps, and fix mistakes mid-task. AI agents are software built to finish work, not just answer questions about it.
Companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and Indian startups have invested heavily in this shift through 2025 and 2026. Salesforce's Agentforce has played a significant role in pushing customer-service agent adoption from 39% to 66% in one year, according to the company's 2026 data.