Gartner published survey findings on how enterprise AI plans outrun IT budgets and governance. IT budgets are projected to grow only marginally once inflation is counted. Spending on AI agents is the fastest-growing investment area. Deployment of those agents is set to roughly double within a year. Most enterprises have no plans for rules on who owns technology costs and solutions. Over half of CIOs face pressure to cut costs through AI, yet about half expect total ownership costs to rise. Only a small share report significant value from AI tools so far. Gartner advises curated internal tool marketplaces, killing stalled projects and a 90-day value test. It also recommends CFO partnership on AI economics and redesigning work before hiring. Hiring demand is highest in data and analytics and in cybersecurity.

• IT budgets up 3.7% in 2027
• agentic AI funding up 31.8%
• 37% have deployed AI agents
• 73% have no cost-ownership rules