R Systems has published a new report titled 'Agentic AI 2026: A Mid-Market Playbook for Adoption and Scale', revealing that over 40 percent of enterprises are leapfrogging traditional AI adoption stages to accelerate their competitive positioning.
Key Findings
57 percent of organisations remain in the pilot stage of AI deployment
43 percent are leapfrogging directly to advanced agentic AI capabilities
64 percent of respondents report high trust in AI systems
Only 7 percent have agentic-specific governance policies in place
The Governance Gap
The report highlights a significant gap between AI adoption enthusiasm and governance readiness. While nearly two-thirds of enterprises express high trust in AI, fewer than one in ten have established policies specifically designed for agentic AI systems — autonomous agents that can take actions on behalf of users.
The race to adopt agentic AI is outpacing the frameworks needed to govern it responsibly. Organisations that invest in governance alongside capability will be the ones that achieve sustainable competitive advantage.
The findings suggest that mid-market organisations in particular face a critical window of opportunity to establish governance frameworks while scaling their AI capabilities, rather than retrofitting controls after deployment.
