New Survey from Collibra by The Harris Poll Found 86% of Tech Decision Makers Are Confident Agentic AI Will Drive ROI

Collibra Identified that Fewer Than 50% of Tech Decision-Makers Are Establishing AI Governance Policies, Which is Concerning

NEW YORK and BRUSSELS, Oct. 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Collibra, the leader in unified governance for data and AI, today announced the results of a Harris Poll survey of more than 300 U.S. adults ages 21+ who are employed full-time as data management, privacy and/or AI decision makers at their current companies ["decision-makers" throughout] and found 86% of decision-makers are confident that agentic AI will drive adequate return on investment [ROI] for their organization, with similar proportions who are confident in the innovation [85%] and governance [84%] of their organization's agentic AI. Additionally, nine in ten technology leaders [91%] said that their organization is developing or rolling out agentic AI, yet most are in the earlier stages of development. 

"Agentic AI is what's next across our industry, and I predict that my role will be absorbed by the Chief AI Officer by this time next year," said Stijn Christiaens, Chief Data Citizen of Collibra. "While AI is still a developing technology, the impacts as well as the attention and budgets being allocated is nothing like we have ever seen."

According to Gartner, 33% of enterprise software applications will include agentic AI and will increase productivity while also fueling human agency. This aggressive prediction reflects the reality already unfolding across industries, particularly in technology. The pace of change is heavily concentrated in software development; in fact, Gartner predicts that by 2028, 75% of enterprise software engineers will use AI code assistants. This rapid adoption by the IT and software sectors directly validates the belief of decision-makers worldwide. Notably, the new Collibra survey supported these findings with three in four decision makers [75%] saying that IT and software is the industry leading the charge on successfully implementing agentic AI – the only industry to garner a majority vote.

When asked about implementation methods, many reported relying on existing technology from other companies via third-party partnerships [58%] or M&As [44%], while nearly half [49%] of tech decision makers are building internally, and about three in ten [31%] are in early development or planning stages only.

Additionally, our survey found that fewer than half of tech decision-makers said their organization is establishing formal AI governance policies and frameworks [48%] or providing governance and compliance training to employees [47%], which is concerning. However, on a positive note, organizations are prioritizing risk mitigation and governance for AI. Notably, three in five [60%] tech decision-makers are monitoring AI systems for bias, fairness, and transparency, while more than half [52%] are conducting regular AI risk assessments and audits, and another 83% are confident that the unstructured data their organization uses for AI agents is governed and reliable.

"Agentic AI will transform how we interact with technology," added Christiaens. "As we move forward as an industry, we must take a deliberate approach that places trust at the center and build a robust governance framework for innovation and responsible implementation."

For more information and resources on Collibra's product offerings, please visit collibra.com.

Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Collibra from September 19-25, 2025, among 304 U.S. adults aged 21+ who are employed full-time, as data management, privacy, and/or Artificial Intelligence (AI) decision-makers (director level or higher) at their current company. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the full sample data is accurate to within +/- 5.7 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact the press contact below.

About Collibra
Collibra helps our customers accelerate data and AI use cases — without the risk. Our powerful, unified platform brings flexible governance and continuous quality with automated visibility, control and traceability to the world's leading brands. Collibra unifies governance for data and AI for every user, every use case and across every source so that everyone in the organization can trust, comply and consume their data at scale. This is Data Confidence™. To learn more, visit collibra.com and follow us on LinkedIn, X, Facebook and Instagram.

SOURCE Collibra