You can use digital process automation (DPA) solutions to address basic case management and long-running process requirements, reduce process development time for professional and citizen developers, and provide a platform to build and integrate diverse intelligent automation endpoints. But to realize these benefits, you’ll first have to select from a diverse set of vendors that vary by size, type of offering, geography, and use case differentiation. Automation leaders should use this report to understand the value they can expect from a DPA vendor, learn how vendors differ, and investigate options based on size and market focus.

This report analyzes the market momentum across four AI agent deployment paths: custom-built agents (leveraging proprietary private models), targeted agentic systems, edge agents, and SaaS/horizontal AI agents. To guide decision-making, we provide 11 criteria to help buyers navigate these options and select the architecture best suited to their operational needs. Recognizing that most enterprises will move to a hybrid landscape, this report provides technical and organizational recommendations for required agentic control and orchestration.

Most enterprises are chasing agentic AI; almost none have caught it. Forrester’s report, “The State Of Agentic AI, 2026,” digs into why investment isn’t turning into scale, why orchestration and governance lag ambition, and what separates the companies pulling ahead.

Agentic AI has reached technical viability in 2026, but most enterprises remain stuck between promise and payoff. Long-horizon agents are no longer theoretical, and technology providers are rapidly reshaping platforms, pricing, and services around autonomous, multiagent systems. Yet expanding investment has not translated into scale because companies lack orchestration maturity, executable governance, and disciplined nonhuman identity. This report explains why the chase-catch gap persists and outlines how leaders can close it through orchestration, control, and agent-native design.

This report summarizes 37 digital process automation (DPA) customer interviews from “The Forrester Wave™: Digital Process Automation Software, Q3 2025.” References for the 2025 DPA Forrester Wave not only had praise for technical advances but also faced challenges resulting from legacy technical issues, confusing vendor statements, and vendor positioning. This report draws insights from these companies’ experiences with 14 vendor solutions.

In the process of researching “The Forrester Wave™: Digital Process Automation Software, Q3 2025,” we asked 14 digital process automation (DPA) providers about the future of the market. Our questions centered on noteworthy trends, competitive pressures, buyer challenges, and disruptive forces. They describe a market that has undergone transformation, moving from a focus on rule-based component-specific automation to integrated goal-driven orchestration. This report summarizes these views.

With the widespread adoption of AI agents on the horizon, employees will soon have coworkers whose capabilities equal or exceed their own. This shift requires enterprises to rethink how roles will change and what new skills employees will need to succeed. Attend this peer discussion to explore the five agent experience (AX) requirements that will evolve as AI agents become more autonomous. This conversation, hosted by Craig Le Clair, VP and principal analyst, and David Brodeur-Johnson, principal analyst, will include open discussion with participants, so please bring your questions and experiences to share with the group. Questions for discussion:How do we see the role of AI agents evolving? Could they eventually sit at the center of workflows and take on the role humans currently play as primary orchestrators? What is the progression or maturity path for AI agents, and what signals might help us understand where they’re headed? What approaches can we share for shaping a workforce skills roadmap? What might this look like, specifically for customer service and application development teams? Peer discussions are available exclusively to Forrester Decisions VIP Leaders and Leader license holders for their own participation.

The convergence and overlap of software development platforms have blurred traditional boundaries, making it difficult for firms to distinguish between tools once meant for specific roles or tasks. While this overlap gives buyers power and flexibility, it also creates confusion, as different platforms can support creating general business apps and process orchestration. Understanding the five primary types of software development platforms — agentic software development, app generation (AppGen), digital process automation (DPA), adaptive process orchestration (APO), and AI — helps enterprise leaders align tools with their software development goals.

Forrester has well documented current and impending skills gaps related to agentic AI. The harder question is, What can enterprises do about it? This report outlines a skills prioritization approach that starts by separating today’s necessary skills into groups of those that are declining in importance, those that should be terminated or outsourced, those that need to incubate, and those that are essential for the future.

Forrester used an assessment process to identify high-value, low-risk AI agent use cases across various verticals to help business and technology leaders focus their AI agent efforts on what matters most. This report contains business-value-, risk-, extensibility-, and complexity-ranked use cases for healthcare, financial services, insurance, manufacturing, and retail. It details Forrester’s 12-point use case evaluation model to better identify and select high-value, low-risk AI agent use cases.