Home

Blog

From Fear of Falling Behind to Fear of Losing Control: What 1,001 IT Leaders Say About AI Agents

AI Governance & Security

Thought Leadership

If an AI agent exposes data, violates policy, or harms a customer, who takes the fall? IT leaders told us it’s them.

Dana Hall

Senior Content Manager

Oct 13, 2026

We surveyed 1,001 US IT decision-makers at the VP level and above. Of those, 74% said IT leadership would be held accountable if an AI agent caused such harm. Yet, more than three in five said most of the AI agents in use at their organization weren’t formally approved by IT.That’s the issue at the center of our new report, “AI Challenges Threatening IT Leader Success.” Last year, IT leaders were afraid of falling behind on AI; now their fear is that adoption is outpacing governance, and IT owns the risk of AI agents it often didn’t approve and can’t fully observe.

Adoption is moving faster than governance

Ninety-two percent of IT leaders expect their organization to adopt digital coworkers in the next 18 months. Meanwhile, 64% expect unapproved AI agent activity to increase over the next 12 months.

Leaders expect something to go wrong

Sixty-two percent said they’d bet an AI agent will cause a public security or compliance incident at their organization within the next 18 months.

The career stakes are high. Nearly one in four said they’d expect to resign or be removed after a major incident. More than a third said they’ve often lost sleep over AI agent activity in the past 90 days.

This isn’t an anti-AI story

IT leaders understand the importance of AI, with 95% saying that, with the right governance and controls in place, digital coworkers could deliver significant productivity gains for their organization. Our research shows that leaders want the visibility, auditability, and accountability to run AI agents with confidence.