AI has been quite popular and many have experimented with its use. And, there is often the sense that companies or individuals that do not adopt AI will be left behind. Yet, many large companies are moving relatively slowly with AI.
This is illustrated by the February 20, 2025 Wall Street Journal article “AI Agents Struggle to Gain Traction” by Belle Lin. The article discusses how AI agents are currently slow to be adopted. For clarification purposes, I’ll provide a definition of AI agents taken from an IBM web page. It says “An artificial intelligence (AI) agent refers to a system or program that is capable of autonomously performing tasks on behalf of a user or another system by designing its workflow and utilizing available tools.” This IBM web page also points out that these agents can have various uses “from software design and IT automation to code generation tools and conversational assistants.”
Regarding AI agents, the Wall Street Journal article points out that “businesses don’t necessarily trust them, and haven’t yet started using the technology in a widespread way. That is according to attendees last week at the Wall Street Journal’s CIO Network Summit in Menlo Park, which attracts the country’s top information technology leaders.” While more than half experimented with AI agents, ‘21% said they aren’t using them at all. And, their most pressing concern around the technology is a lack of reliability.”
According to the article, vendors are encouraging companies to move forward with the technology. “’Accept that it is imperfect,’ Bret Taylor, co-founder and CEO of the agentic AI startup Sierra and chairman of OpenAI, said at the summit. ‘Rather than say ‘Will AI do something wrong’, say ‘When it does something wrong, what are the operational mitigations that we’ve put in place to deal with it.’’”
However, the article says, “Not all business technology leaders are ready to take on that risk.” Furthermore, the article adds, “Seventy-five percent of summit attendees polled said they believe AI is currently driving a small amount of value for their investment, but not enough.”
As I see it, this viewpoint towards AI is justified. There are good reasons why companies would be reluctant to use a system with imperfections that require operational mitigations. Granted, companies often have operational mitigations in place for various types of possible mishaps that could affect their business. But, today’s AI can have a relatively higher likelihood of going wrong. And, depending on the circumstances, the consequences of these AI imperfections can be severe.
On a more positive note, however, AI technology continues to move forward. If more of these imperfections are eliminated as technology advances, corporate users can become more willing to adopt the systems. And, AI continues to be an area where companies are experimenting and evaluating how they might benefit from increasing its use. As a new technology, AI offers potential, but there is still room for caution.
