Enterprises are becoming swamped with agentic AI solutions, according to new research from Gartner, prompting projections of a looming “market correction” and period of consolidation by large providers.
Agentic AI has emerged as the big industry trend across 2025, with a host of major providers such as Salesforce, Microsoft, and AWS all launching dedicated services and tools.
These solutions differ from ‘traditional’ generative AI tools, such as assistants or copilots, by providing enterprises with automated ‘agents’ capable of carrying out tasks on behalf of workers, rather than in a support capacity.
Investment on this front has surged over the last year, with research from Salesforce showing that enterprises are now ramping up funding for agentic AI development.
Gartner’s study pours cold water on the current state of the industry, however, noting that the “mass proliferation” of agentic tools “far exceeds the present demand”.
Simply put, the industry is awash with options and is becoming unsustainable.
This not only raises questions about a dotcom bubble-style event in the near future, according to Gartner, but also presents an opportunity for bigger providers to swallow up larger portions of the market in the long-term.
“While we see early signs of market correction and consolidation, product leaders should recognize this as a regular part of the product life cycle, not a sign of inevitable economic crisis,” said Will Sommer, senior director analyst at Gartner.
“Over the longer term, consolidation will enable industry leaders to develop agentic products that meet the technical and business requirements of customers who are presently struggling to adopt AI agents.”
Warnings about a looming “market correction” have been gaining traction in recent weeks. Earlier this month, the Bank of England (BoE) also claimed waning enthusiasm for the technology combined with a surplus of options could create an “AI bubble”.
From agentic AI hype to real world impact
A key factor behind the current state of the industry is the hype surrounding agentic AI, Gartner suggested.
With many options currently offering much of the same for users, “undifferentiated AI companies” will likely be the big losers in the wake of a pending market correction.
Larger industry players have been making moves to counter these concerns though, snapping up smaller AI firms to bolster broader portfolios.
“Large tech companies have already been acquiring smaller, specialized AI firms, signaling the start of the market correction phase,” Gartner noted. “With this consolidation will come benefits of scale and vertical integration.”
All hype, no substance?
This isn’t the first time Gartner has issued a warning over the current state of the burgeoning agentic AI space.
Earlier this year, the consultancy warned that a concerning portion of solutions available on the market were essentially “repackaged” chatbots and robotic process automation (RPA) tools.
The consultancy described this trend as “agent washing”, whereby providers keen to jump on that bandwagon tweak existing solutions suites to attract enterprise customers.
Indeed, just 130 ‘real’ agentic AI products were identified on the market by Gartner, despite claims by thousands of vendors offering tools of this kind.
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