Gartner’s report found that organisations need to invest in a workforce that can lead the transition to autonomous capabilities.
Over the course of the last year, there have been a range of high-profile layoffs as a result of the continued investment into AI and its capabilities.
Recently, Cloudflare announced plans to cut 20pc of its workforce after AI usage at the company grew by 600pc in three months and in April, social media and tech platform Meta told staff that it will be laying off 10pc of its workforce, roughly 8,000 employees, reportedly as a means of mitigating the costs of heavy AI spending. Similarly, Snap is laying off 16pc of its workforce to cut costs and focus on AI.
Gartner surveyed 350 globally dispersed business executives in the third quarter of 2025, to better understand the state of autonomous business at enterprises. Qualifying organisations reported enterprise-wide annual revenue of at least $1bn or the equivalent, and had been piloting or had already deployed either an AI agent, intelligent automation or autonomous technologies.
Of the organisations taking part in the piloting or deployment of autonomous business capabilities, roughly 80pc admitted to reducing their workforce. Gartner’s research found that these reductions do not appear to translate to a return on investment (ROI) for the organisations making the changes.
