The AI Agent Arms Race: Latest OutSystems AI Study Reveals 93% of Software Executives Plan to Introduce Custom AI Agents Within Their Organizations

AI-powered app development leader reports growing adoption of agentic AI, signaling shifts in workforce skills and software development dynamics

SINGAPORE, July 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- New research from OutSystems, a leading AI-powered low-code development platform, points to an increasing trend in agentic AI prioritization among software executives, with 93% of organizations already developing—or planning to develop—their own custom AI agents. The report, Navigating Agentic AI & Generative AI in Software Development: Human-Agent Collaboration is Here, was completed in collaboration with CIO Dive and KPMG, exploring the widespread use of AI across the SDLC in businesses around the world.

Today's IT leaders are under immense pressure to deliver measurable business value while managing constrained resources and aligning technology investments with long-term strategic goals. The introduction of agentic AI helps address these demands by tackling challenges that traditional technology approaches can often exacerbate: fragmented tools, and limited ability to leverage data siloed across the organization and integrate its existing systems. With agentic AI, leaders can automate large-scale processes, create hyper-personalized digital experiences, and drive innovation with agility. Capable of enabling seamless enterprise-wide data access and upholding rigorous standards for compliance, security, and governance, agentic AI is poised to transform business processes and experiences and help organizations embrace an AI-first future.

"The software development lifecycle is undergoing a significant transformation as organizations increase AI investments to maintain their competitive edge. Blending AI with development tools enables IT leaders to manage this shift effectively and securely," said Woodson Martin, CEO of OutSystems. "In a near future, AI agents acting as highly specialized teams will continuously monitor business needs, identify opportunities, and proactively refine software solutions, allowing developers and business leaders to play a more creative role and focus on strategic priorities. This report underscores how AI advancements are reshaping traditional roles and unlocking opportunities for innovation and collaboration between humans and technology."

The OutSystems report, which includes survey responses from 550 global software executives, examines how AI adoption is transforming software development processes, with measurable impacts. More than two thirds of respondents reported increased developer productivity, and improved software quality through fewer bugs. 62 percent of respondents also reported improved scalability of development efforts, and 60 percent pointed to gains in enhanced testing and quality assurance (QA) efficiency. With AI acting as the catalyst for a reimagined software development process, these advancements go beyond efficiency gains. They're empowering developers to shift their focus from repetitive tasks to crafting unique solutions in partnership with business leaders and solving more complex user challenges, leading to the creation of new roles and improved innovative agility and scalability.

The report also found that increases in and experimentation with agentic AI over the next 24 months will spur workforce transformation and innovation throughout the organization. The majority of software executives (69%), anticipate AI will introduce new, more specialized roles (e.g., oversight, governance, prompt engineering, agent architect, and agent orchestration) to accommodate the evolving role AI will play within organizations. More than three out of five respondents (63%) also feel that AI will require substantial upskilling or reskilling within existing development teams.

Additional key findings from the report include:

• A growing shift toward AI-driven autonomy: Custom AI agents are becoming central to the shift toward more autonomous, AI-driven operations. Nearly half of software executives (46%) report that their organizations are already integrating agentic AI into applications and workflows, with another 28% of respondents actively piloting such solutions.
• Customer service use cases top agent development efforts: Almost half of respondents (49%) are planning to adopt AI agents for customer support to autonomously handle inquiries and support tasks, underscoring a drive to improve customer experience and scale support efficiently. At this time, fewer executives are prioritizing agent-augmented applications in areas like product development (38%), sales and marketing (32%), supply chain management (28%), human resources (24%), or finance and accounting (23%).
• Investments in AI to achieve critical business outcomes are increasing: Primary drivers for AI adoption—expressed by more than half of respondents— include improving the customer experience (56%), automating routine and repetitive development tasks (55%), expediting software development timelines (54%), and accelerating digital transformation (53%).
• AI-driven automation introduces new governance, security, and scaling challenges: While AI-powered automation unlocks significant potential, its broader adoption has introduced significant governance, security, and compliance risks. More than three out of five software executives cite these challenges (64%) alongside concerns over the transparency and reliability of AI-generated decisions (64%).
  • At the same time, the rapid proliferation of AI tools has created new fragmentation and oversight issues, with 44% of software executives identifying increasing technical debt and AI sprawl as critical risks. Addressing these scaling challenges will be essential to realizing AI's full potential in a responsible way.

"A lot of organizations started with pilots a year ago or even prior to that, but now they're starting to see real efficiency gains in areas like code generation and application testing," says Michael Harper, Managing Director at KPMG LLP. "Those activities are giving organizations more confidence in using these tools and helping them to move forward."

Visit the dedicated page to view the full report and learn more about OutSystems

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The research surveyed 550 software executives around the world whose companies span IT consultancy services, manufacturing, banking, financial services and insurance among others. The primary objective of the survey was to gather insights on AI and agentic AI adoption in the software development lifecycle from IT leaders. This survey was conducted between April 25, 2025 and May 5, 2025 across the U.S., U.K., Japan, France, Canada, Australia, India and Germany.

About OutSystems 

OutSystems is a leading AI-powered low-code development platform, empowering IT leaders with a better way to build the software that matters most. The OutSystems platform helps companies develop, deploy, and maintain mission-critical applications by unifying and automating the entire software lifecycle. With OutSystems, organizations leverage gen AI to deliver software instantaneously, adapt faster to changing requirements, and reduce technical debt by building on a future-proof platform. Helping customers achieve their business goals by addressing key strategic initiatives, OutSystems delivers production software up to 10x faster than traditional development. Recognized as a leader by analysts, IT executives, business leaders, and developers around the world, global brands trust OutSystems to tackle their impossible projects and turn their big ideas into software that moves their business, people, and the world forward. Founded in 2001, the company's network spans more than 800,000 community members, over 500 partners, and active customers in 75+ countries across 21 industries. Learn more at www.outsystems.com.

SOURCE OutSystems