The Aporia · AI deployment in businesses outpaces trust, study finds

AI deployment in businesses outpaces trust, study finds

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Capelouto, J. (2026, September 6). AI deployment in businesses outpaces trust, study finds. Semafor. https://www.semafor.com/article/09/02/2026/deployment-of-ai-in-businesses-outpaces-trust-study-finds

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Quick Summary

A study commissioned by SAS found that 90% of executives from various countries and industries have implemented AI agents in their organizations, but only 66% trust these agentic AI systems to make decisions. The survey suggests a growing gap between AI deployment and trust, with more businesses adopting AI-powered tools than understanding how they work. The main reason for overriding AI decisions is a lack of explanation for how the system arrived at its conclusions, cited by respondents more frequently than incorrect outputs. This discrepancy highlights concerns about accountability and transparency in AI decision-making.

Written by AI on 2026-09-07, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

About 2,700 "decision-makers" across 28 countries were surveyed by SAS, a software company. Nearly 90% said that artificial intelligence (AI) plays some decision-making role in their organizations. However, only 66% of respondents trusted AI that makes decisions on its own, known as agentic AI, while a slightly higher percentage of around 75%** trusted more general types of AI, such as those used for generating content. This gap between deployment and trust is attributed to the fact that users often don't understand how AI-powered tools work, with the top reason given for overriding an AI's decision being its failure to explain its reasoning, which was cited more than twice as frequently as simply rejecting the output because it was wrong.

Written for “Businesses and Artificial Intelligence” on 2026-11-01, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

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How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted

sentences that state something as happening or true

Uncertain

0 of 4 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")

Leaning

not political

takes no side on a contested political question

Publisher signals

60/100

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articles that frame the event the way this one does

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Publisher

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Running correction rate · 1 correction(s)

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J.D. Capelouto

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Topics

SAS

Subjects

SAS ORG · 1×

Narrative

Businesses are rapidly rolling out AI-powered tools, but they’re not going to take off unless people actually know how they work: The top reason survey respondents gave for overriding an AI’s decisions was insufficient explanation of how it reached its answer — cited more than twice as often as the output simply being wrong.

framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-07

2026-09-07 · Semafor

AI deployment in businesses outpaces trust, study finds · assertive framing

Claims (4 extracted, 0 hedged)

Executives’ confidence in AI in the workplace falls as the technology gains autonomy. asserted

technology → fall → autonomy

In a new survey commissioned by software company SAS of 2,700 “decision-makers” across 28 countries, nearly 90% of respondents said agents play some decision-making role in their organizations. asserted

agents → commission → organizations

But only 66% said they trust agentic AI, compared to three-quarters who trust generative AI more broadly, showing that the deployment of AI in businesses is outpacing trust in it. asserted

deployment → say → it

output → power → answer