The Race for ROI: How Agentic AI Can Drive Productivity in Belgium

Agentic AI has the potential to raise productivity for businesses in Belgium. Some are already adopting the technology, but without a clear strategy and the right partnerships, the journey may stall. For me the question isn’t whether Belgian businesses should invest in Agentic AI, but how they can do it in a way to unlock ROI rapidly and secure a competitive edge.

As the initial frenzy around Generative AI settles, the focus is shifting to Agentic AI, capable of making autonomous decisions. Gartner estimates that by 2028, 33% of enterprise software will include Agentic AI, with 15% of day-to-day work decisions made autonomously.

This marks a pivotal leap forward in productivity, particularly vital for Belgium, where growth has stalled. Over the past decade, labor productivity has risen by just 0.3% annually, far below the OECD regional average of 0.9%, leaving organizations struggling to compete. For Belgian companies, the real question isn’t whether to invest in Agentic AI, but how to implement it effectively to unlock the greatest productivity gains and create the most value.  

The ROI Opportunity for Belgian Businesses

At IBM, we’ve seen Agentic AI in action, achieving $3.5 billion in measurable productivity gains over two years, by deploying AI agents across 500 workflows. Our “The Race for ROI” report, surveying over 3,500 senior leaders across EMEA, reinforces this: 66% report significant productivity gains from AI and 92% are confident AI agents will deliver ROI within two years.

Belgium is no exception. We see growing adoption of AI in industries like logistics, financial services, and retail. These sectors are already leveraging AI to enhance decision-making, improve efficiency, and elevate customer experiences.  The benefits are undeniable: AI agents don’t just automate repetitive tasks; they empower human workers, helping them make smarter decisions, faster.
 

A Roadmap for Scaling Agentic AI

Scaling Agentic AI is not without challenges.  

When our teams speak to Belgian business leaders, common obstacles emerge that business should tackle:  

• Prepare your data: Ensure your data is clean, accurate, and accessible. Data fuels AI, and without trusted, company-specific data, agentic AI will struggle to deliver. 
• Orchestrate intelligently: Make sure the right data reaches the right agents at the right time to solve complex tasks. 
• Adopt an open, hybrid approach: Use a unified system to manage both both custom-built AI agents and and third-party tools. 
• Integrate deeply: Connect agents seamlessly across workflows, applications, and data sources to maximize impact. 

Join Top Belgian Business and IT Leaders on Dec 9

To explore how Agentic AI can drive productivity for your company, join us on December 9 at our IBM Put AI to Work event. We would be delighted to welcome you – REGISTER HERE. 

To learn more about how IBM's AI agents can integrate with your existing data and applications and help you orchestrate AI across your business, visit IBM watsonx Orchestrate. 

 

Lessons Learned by IBM as “Client Zero”  As client zero, IBM has put its highly orchestrated, AI approach to work within its own organization. Examples include:

AskHR, a conversational AI solution which automates more than 80 common HR processes and answers 94% of common employee HR inquiries in minutes without human intervention.   Using AI digital assistants for customer care that now resolve 70% of customer support inquiries, accelerating time to resolution by as much as 26% and boosting customer satisfaction.   AskIT,  a self-service system created using AI and natural language processing (NLP) capabilities to surface resolutions to critical support topics, can address 80% of IBM’s top IT issues.