AI agent adoption and budgets will rise significantly in 2026, despite challenges

ZDNET summarizes Salesforce/MuleSoft/Deloitte Digital’s 2026 Connectivity Benchmark Report: enterprises average about 957 applications (1,057 for agentic leaders) yet only 27% are connected, making data integration the top AI hurdle (82%). Agent adoption is widespread (89% of teams), rising from 12 to a projected 20 agents per organization, with IT leaders planning to spend ~19% of IT budgets on agents while adopting A2A and MCP protocols. Despite strong productivity gains, most organizations face roadblocks—data quality, legacy/incompatible systems, integration silos, skills gaps, and risk/compliance/security—with many worried about meeting implementation goals. The report stresses API-driven architectures and end-to-end integration as critical to unlocking value from AI agents.