A new report from KPMG reveals a trend in AI agent implementation that HR leaders should pay attention to: While organizations are moving briskly from experimentation to piloting AI agents, full deployment has stalled.
AI agents are expected to become a core part of every enterprise technology system in the near future. Global HR tech analyst Josh Bersin has forecast that these agents will soon be introduced and integrated across all HR platforms. “It’s a huge transition in the market,” Bersin has said. “All AI systems are going to start talking to each other, and you’ll be able to conduct transitions in core systems and across systems.”
Workday, Oracle, IBM, Dayforce and other HR tech giants have announced agentic AI capabilities for their customers. The critical topic also will be center stage this fall at the HR Tech conference, which IBM CHRO and 2024 HR Executive of the Year Nickle LaMoreaux will kick off in a keynote titled “HR Agents: Myths, Mayhem and Monumental Moments.”
Although a bottleneck in fully deploying AI agents may seem discouraging, KPMG researchers suggest that the widening gap between pilot projects and full implementation creates valuable opportunities for HR departments.
Read more | AI agents and HR: How the near future might look
The findings on the pace of AI agent implementation come from a survey of 130 U.S.-based C-suite and business leaders at organizations with $1 billion or more in annual revenue. The data shows three distinct stages in the AI agent lifecycle:
Experimentation (35% of organizations)
This initial phase involves testing AI agents in controlled environments, running proof-of-concepts and evaluating potential use cases without committing to full implementation.
Piloting (65% of organizations)
This middle phase involves implementing AI agents in limited, real-world settings with selected teams or departments. These are working implementations but limited in scope and often closely monitored.
Deployment (11% of organizations)
This final phase represents the full-scale implementation where AI agents are:
- Operating in production environments
- Serving the broader organization
- Integrated into standard workflows
- Supporting business operations at scale
- No longer considered experimental
Read more: How HR can tackle 3 top AI-related tensions in the workplace
AI agent implementation—impact on HR leaders
The report shows promising adoption in key people-focused areas. Recruiting, in particular, demonstrates strong current usage and high future implementation plans, indicating that talent acquisition is becoming a prime target for AI enhancement.
Meanwhile, increases in usage are rising highest in the category of administrative duties, more than doubling since Q4 2024—a transformation that could significantly reduce HR’s administrative burden.
Perhaps most relevant for HR leaders is the notable surge in call center AI agent implementation, which has risen from 16% to 61% since the end of 2024. This shift suggests growing comfort with AI handling direct stakeholder interactions—a pattern that could soon extend to employee service centers and HR helpdesks.
“Agents are increasingly recognized as essential assets that need to be integrated into our workforce ecosystem,” said John Doel, principal, human capital advisory at KPMG.
He explains that as employees learn new skills to work with AI and organizations build the ability to manage these tools, a hybrid digital workforce will take shape—unlocking unprecedented value from generative AI and agents.
Opportunities and challenges for HR departments
Overall, surveyed organizations plan to increase their generative AI investments (not limited to agents) by 28% year-over-year—from $89 million to $114 million—signaling strong executive confidence despite implementation hurdles.
Steve Chase, vice chair of AI and digital innovation at KPMG, emphasizes that this isn’t just a commitment to a technological shift: “AI is an enterprise transformation requiring rewritten business processes, disrupted offerings and cultural change.”
This perspective underscores the critical role HR plays in managing the human elements of this transition. It also presents a prime opportunity for CHROs to secure resources for people-centric AI initiatives while addressing the cultural and trust factors contributing to the deployment bottleneck.
The report also highlights significant concerns that fall squarely within HR’s domain. While 93% of C-suite leaders confirm that generative AI—including agents—has enhanced their competitive position, 35% cite a lack of “personal trust” in the technology as a major challenge. This trust deficit represents a key area where HR leaders can drive adoption through thoughtful change management and training initiatives.
Based on the report’s findings, HR leaders should prioritize building employee trust, developing AI governance frameworks that address ethical concerns and improving organizational data quality. These efforts appear essential to successfully transition AI initiatives from promising pilots to transformative agent implementations.
“As agents move into workflows, trust is back at the center of the AI conversation,” says Chase. “There is no agent-powered future without a strong foundation of trust—grounded in governance, data integrity and responsible use. If you want to scale with confidence, trust has to come first.”
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