ANZ firms ramp up AI agent adoption to stay competitive in 2025

Australian and New Zealand organisations are significantly increasing investments in AI agents, with the majority considering such technology essential for maintaining competitiveness, according to new findings from Cloudera's "The Future of Enterprise AI Agents" survey.

The survey, which polled nearly 1,500 enterprise IT leaders from 14 countries, highlights that 97% of Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) respondents plan to expand their use of AI agents over the next year.

Of this, 91% see investment in agentic AI as crucial for remaining competitive in their respective markets.

The research shows that prior investment in generative AI has played a substantial role in preparing ANZ enterprises for the adoption of agentic AI, with 89% indicating that their experience with generative AI has positioned them well for this technology shift.

AI agents are increasingly being implemented to support a range of business processes.

Popular applications among enterprises globally include performance optimisation bots (66%), security monitoring agents (63%), and development assistants (62%). In ANZ, sector-specific uses are also emerging, reflecting trends within finance, healthcare, telecommunications, manufacturing, and retail.

The report identifies several challenges related to the technology. Across ANZ, concerns about AI bias (69%), data privacy (54%), and lack of expertise (38%) persist among organisations as they work towards broader deployment of agentic AI.

These concerns are echoed globally, where data privacy (53%), integration with legacy systems (40%), and high implementation costs (39%) are identified as the primary obstacles to adoption.

Australian and New Zealand Regional Vice President at Cloudera, Keir Garrett, commented on the survey findings: "AI Agents have the potential to transform the operational landscape of ANZ organisations. Their ability to think, act and adapt at speed doesn't just make processes better, they open up endless opportunities for innovation, smarter data-driven decisions and achieving faster results. But of course, we need guardrails in place."

"At Cloudera, we believe that trusted AI starts with trusted data. Our tools help ANZ organisations deploy AI models right where their data lives, keeping data privacy intact and ensuring they stay competitive in today's fast-paced market."

Cloudera's research also details how enterprises are integrating AI agents into existing infrastructures.

Approximately 66% of organisations report building agents on enterprise AI infrastructure platforms, while 60% use agentic capabilities embedded within core applications. This approach indicates a preference for scalable and secure deployments that operate close to organisational data.

Adoption is accelerating, with 57% of enterprise IT leaders globally having implemented AI agents within the past two years. Of these, 21% did so within the last year. The report suggests that organisations often begin with contained, high-impact projects—such as internal IT support agents—before expanding further, as such use cases provide fast returns and build confidence for more extensive deployments.

The benefits of agentic AI go beyond automation, with organisations reporting improvements in operational agility, cost efficiency, and customer engagement. According to Abhas Ricky, Chief Strategy Officer at Cloudera: "AI agents have moved beyond experimentation—they're now delivering real automation, efficiency, and business results."

"We're seeing enterprises run hundreds of models in production, all demanding high-fidelity, well-managed data to drive better outcomes. In 2025, agentic AI is taking centre stage, building on the momentum of generative AI but with even greater operational impact."

"Cloudera is enabling this transformation through a robust Enterprise AI Ecosystem, helping global organisations design secure, scalable, and integrated AI workflows that turn data into action."

Industry-specific applications for AI agents in ANZ reflect varied priorities across sectors. In finance and insurance, fraud detection (41%), risk assessment (59%), and portfolio management (41%) are prominent.

The manufacturing sector is focusing on process automation (39%), quality control (48%), and inventory management (42%). Healthcare organisations are using AI agents mainly for appointment scheduling (48%), diagnostic assistance (52%), and care coordination (43%). In telecommunications, deployments span customer experience (50%), infrastructure maintenance (50%), performance monitoring (50%), and security monitoring (50%).

Gartner has identified Agentic AI as a key technology trend for 2025, suggesting that advances in this area will enable organisations to augment and offload human work, supporting even greater productivity and operational flexibility.