Also: How to build better AI agents for your business - without creating trust issues

According to IDC, by 2026, 40% of all Global 2000 job roles will involve working with AI agents, redefining long-held traditional entry, mid, and senior level positions. But the journey will not be smooth. By 2027, companies that do not prioritize high-quality, AI-ready data will struggle to scale generative AI and agentic solutions, resulting in a 15% loss in productivity. While 2025 was the year of pilot experiments and small production deployments of agentic AI, 2026 is shaping up to be the year of scaling agentic AI. And to scale agentic AI, according to IDC's forecast, companies will need trustworthy, accessible, and quality data.

Scaling agentic AI adoption in business requires a strong data foundation, according to McKinsey research. Businesses can create high-impact workflows by using agents, but to do so, they must modernize their data architecture, improve data quality, and advance their operating models.

McKinsey found that nearly two-thirds of enterprises worldwide have experimented with agents, but fewer than 10% have scaled them to deliver measurable value. The biggest obstacle to scaling agent adoption is poor data -- eight in ten companies cite data limitations as a roadblock to scaling agentic AI.