“Outside of work, I can move quickly…that flexibility gives me a real advantage in staying ahead of the curve.” This is what David Blank, a Senior Business Systems Analyst in the automotive industry, told me about his journey of adopting AI agents for personal projects versus the tools he's allowed to use at work.
People like Blank are experiencing the difference between the ways that companies with and without agents can operate. They can see how it changes processes, speeds up certain activities, and can be a useful thought partner. Some companies adopting these tools are outpacing those that aren't. Sixty-four percent of businesses surveyed said AI is enabling their innovation, according to McKinsey's The State of AI In 2025 report. Thirty-nine percent reported measurable revenue gains at the enterprise level. There are various reasons why some individuals and businesses aren't adopting these tools, but those that are feel like it's supercharging their projects and businesses.
AI Agents Have Advanced Significantly
A year ago, many agents were much more brittle. If you didn't have a well-defined workflow, the agents would fail or produce output that wasn't useful. In June 2025, Gartner predicted that 40% of agentic AI projects would be canceled by the end of 2027. However, that prediction was before more autonomous agents and better models were released. Now with agents like Claude Code, OpenClaw, and Manus producing better output and making task completion decisions, it is possible agents will have a higher success rate by the end of 2027 than Gartner predicted.
Now agents can browse the web, manage files, send emails, write and run code, create slides, do multi-step research, and more. When paired with a clear thinker who understands what success looks like, they collapse hours of work into minutes, including work that an individual may not have had time for.
These Businesses Are Already Using AI Agents To Outpace Competitors
Dan Peguine, an entrepreneur focused on building and advising AI projects, is helping transform his parents' tea business with OpenClaw. After reaching out to him on X, he agreed to share the story of his parents' business. The business has two store locations, an online shop, and about 15 employees. His father is 67 and considering retirement but doesn't want to sell or shut down the business. Peguine decided to help his dad focus on what they love, while automating tedious tasks. He set up OpenClaw to manage ordering, inventory, vendor emails, and similar tasks. Peguine estimates it will save $50,000 a year and give them back two to three days every month to enjoy retirement.
It's not a personal AI assistant. It's just AI as people imagined. It's an entity that helps your life become much, much better.
Initially, Eros Marcello, founder of Ethereal Computing, was skeptical of the hype around AI agents and the concept of an “AI employee.” However, when he started using OpenClaw, “[it] started surfacing patterns across disparate datasets that influenced product choices with absolutely no explicit instruction to do so.” He said that's when it stopped being just a tool.
Many businesses find that when used correctly with the right team, AI agents help them move more quickly.
The Real Risks Of AI Agents And One Framework To Manage Them
The rewards of using agents are real, but so are the risks. They can lead to data leakage, unintended actions like prompt injection attacks, and more. This week, Summer Yue, Meta's Head of AI Safety and Alignment, shared publicly on X, that she accidentally deleted her entire personal inbox with OpenClaw. In business, the potential for disaster and financial impact are even bigger with agents.
Brian Gallagher, CEO of LEMA Logic, uses Claude Code as an agent to accelerate his business. While it's more secure than OpenClaw, Gallagher said in conversation, “security is most definitely a major concern.” He added, “we still don't allow any fully autonomous operations, we have a human in the loop for all processes, even if it's just a final approval before anything goes out.”
There are key ways to protect you and your organization from security risks with agents. Nathan Baschez, founder of Lex, an AI-native writing and editing platform, feels Claude Code helps him move 15-20 times faster, but adheres to key security rules for his startup. Baschez shared the “Lethal Trifecta” framework from software developer Simon Willison. It states that an agent becomes dangerous when it has access to private data, processes untrusted external content, and can communicate outward. Removing any one of those three risks significantly drops the overall risk. He ensures his agents never have all three together.
The AI Agents Gap Is Compounding And Late Adopters Feel It
Despite the risks of using agents, many businesses are navigating them to outpace competitors. Some see the risk of falling behind as greater than the risks of using agents.
A lot of organizations haven't really gotten there in terms of having a good understanding of what throughput is possible now. It's a challenge I don't think many big companies have fully grappled with.
A competitor that moves faster or takes on work your team doesn't have capacity for will compound that advantage over time. The tea shop with two stores and a 67-year-old owner now operates with capabilities that most enterprises haven't figured out how to unlock.
The agentic AI gap is here and widening between businesses adopting AI agents, and those that aren't.