Gartner predicts most companies will abandon AI copilots by 2028

Saturday 04 April 2026 - 12:50

By: Dakir Madiha

Gartner predicts most companies will abandon AI copilots by 2028

The era of AI copilots and intelligent advisors may be drawing to a close. Gartner predicts that by 2028, more than half of all enterprises will stop paying for assistive intelligence tools, including copilots and smart advisors, and redirect that spending toward agentic AI platforms capable of autonomously executing workflows and triggering actions within enterprise systems.

The forecast marks what the research firm describes as a fundamental shift in enterprise software: moving from tools that help humans work to platforms that perform tasks on their behalf, with delegated authority to deliver measurable outcomes.

Gartner's broader research points to rapid acceleration. Only 5 percent of enterprise applications incorporated AI agents in 2025, but the firm projects that figure will multiply eightfold to reach 40 percent by the end of 2026. By 2028, at least 15 percent of daily work decisions will be made autonomously by agentic AI, compared to zero in 2024. Gartner envisions a five-stage progression moving from embedded AI assistants to task-specific agents and collaborative systems, culminating in multi-application agent ecosystems by the end of the decade.

The firm also issued a sharp warning. It expects more than 40 percent of agentic AI projects to be cancelled by 2027 due to rising costs, unclear business value, or inadequate risk controls. Gartner estimates that only around 130 of the thousands of vendors claiming agentic AI capabilities are genuinely building agentic systems, with the rest engaged in what it calls "agent washing," relabeling existing chatbots and automation tools under new names.

In a separate but related warning issued in February, Gartner cautioned companies against cutting customer support teams to fund AI initiatives. The firm projects that by 2027, half of the enterprises that reduced customer service headcount because of AI will end up rehiring staff to perform similar functions, often under different job titles such as "Solutions Consultants" or "Trust Advisors."

A survey of 321 customer service leaders found that only 20 percent had actually reduced agent headcount due to AI, while the remainder maintained staffing levels while serving more customers. Gartner also forecasts that per-resolution costs for generative AI will exceed three dollars by 2030, a rate higher than many offshore human agents, challenging the assumption that AI-driven automation automatically reduces costs.

Rather than pursuing full automation, Gartner advises companies to use AI to expand support capacity and equip employees with better tools. Kathy Ross, senior research director in Gartner's Customer Service and Support division, said replacing humans entirely with AI agents "is not only unlikely, it is also undesirable," noting that AI frequently struggles with exceptions and high-stakes situations. As agentic AI reshapes how software is designed, marketed, and used, the firms most likely to succeed may be those that treat human oversight not as a constraint but as a strategic asset.