1000+ executives reveal AI agents are failing
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Data fragmentation kills 70% of deployments while employees report being "too busy to learn tools that save time" because executives provide AI without training time.
Super Intelligent audits show 52% agent readiness, data fragmentation #1 blocker. Employees "too busy to learn time-saving tools." Internal support bots drive adoption.
Data fragmentation blocks 70% of agent deployments
Data remains the universal nightmare—fragmented, unstructured, and inaccessible even in organizations that spent years organizing it. Over 70% report critical data trapped in silos with strict access barriers, particularly in finance and regulated industries where different datasets are walled off between departments. Even companies scoring high on agent readiness struggle with data compatibility and usability issues that make context engineering impossible.
The "too busy to learn the thing that saves time" paradox emerged in over half of audits—employees believe AI tools could help but lack bandwidth to learn them because executives provide tools without mandated learning time. Shadow AI usage explodes from policy confusion, with employees using external tools not to break rules but because they don't know what rules exist. Documentation gaps kill 44% of automation attempts as workflows exist only in people's heads where agents can't access them.
Internal support bots unlock 10x ROI from single individuals
Organizations finding success discovered massive ROI from single employees who figured out AI workflows and transmitted them company-wide, generating millions in value from one person's innovation. Internal support bots emerged as the unexpected winner, getting skeptics onboard by unlocking knowledge trapped in organizational silos while providing psychological safety that reduced resistance to future AI deployments. Zero prior automation proved advantageous—companies that skipped RPA went straight to AI without unlearning legacy systems. Finance and back-office functions show first measurable ROI with documented processes enabling 3x faster pilots. The winning governance framework: "sandbox with guardrails" allowing experimentation within clear boundaries. Organizations with established AI governance scored 6.6% higher on agent readiness, proving governance creates safe experimentation space rather than blocking progress.
After conducting thousands of voice agent interviews with executives, Super Intelligent's data reveals a stark reality: enterprises average just 52.1% agent readiness with 58% stuck in "pilot purgatory" where endless experiments never scale. Data fragmentation remains the #1 blocker across 70% of organizations, while employees report being "too busy to learn the thing that saves time"—a paradox destroying AI adoption from within. Yet organizations that deployed internal support bots first saw 10x returns from single individuals whose AI workflows spread company-wide, proving the path to agent success runs through unglamorous data work, not flashy pilots.
