Forrester predicts that by decade's end, the rush toward agentic AI will grow so chaotic that CIOs will be forced into a new role as enforcer of order.

In a recent research note, the analyst warned that the promise of line-of-business departments building and deploying their own AI agents will fade as agent systems sprawl across the organization, increasingly misaligned with business needs.

Forrester said CIOS would end up "governing the enterprise AI-powered operating system" rather than running the tech. This is because the proliferation of AI agent systems, built into application software and cloud infrastructure, could lead to “fragmented adoption, weak data foundations, unclear decision-rights, or incomplete process design."

"In 2030, these errors will create systematic failure at scale.…