Gartner’s 2027+ forecasts: energy shifts, 10 billion AI agents, disposable apps and rising AI costs

The useful part

Gartner's 2027+ predictions: robots everywhere, disposable apps and rising AI costs. These predictions span three categories: robots everywhere, cost to value and unknown unknowns. As energy becomes a strategic, software-defined asset, organisations will need new capabilities to optimise production, storage and consumption.

How it works

• Gartner recommends enterprises invest in energy management platforms, integrate energy and operational data, and build governance and infrastructure to participate in emerging energy markets.
• Agentic AI will significantly increase demand for public services by enabling autonomous agents to identify opportunities, determine eligibility and submit requests on behalf of users with minimal human effort.
• Gartner also predicts that by 2030, 80 per cent of front-line workers employed by international companies will be assisted by physical AI systems.
• Many industries are already using physical AI to improve safety, automate repetitive and hazardous work, and gain operational insights.
• Gartner recommends organisations take a strategic, safety-first approach by investing in scalable platforms, robust governance frameworks and the skills needed to deploy and manage physical AI systems...

What to take from it

Gartner recommends organisations establish risk-based governance frameworks, monitor business-created applications through automated registries, and update records retention policies to address applications and agents. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. This surge in applications, claims and transactions will put pressure on government systems and require stronger approaches to identity, trust and accountability.

Example or evidence

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• Physical AI is extending AI into the physical world through technologies such as robots, drones, autonomous vehicles and other embodied systems that sense, interact with and influence their surroundings.
• By 2030, 80 per cent of organisations with public-facing AI will have experienced a cost exhaustion attack creating excessive AI cost.

Details worth keeping

Gartner's 2027+ predictions: robots everywhere, disposable apps and rising AI costs Predicts 10 billion autonomous agents clogging public services, 80% of front-line workers aided by physical AI, and disposable apps reshaping software By BL Bengaluru Bureau Updated. As AI becomes more embedded in customer-facing applications, organisations will need to treat token consumption and AI usage patterns as both cost management and security concerns. Gartner recommends organisations make AI token costs a cybersecurity indicator, implement cost-focused security controls, and extend monitoring capabilities across all AI technologies.

Related coverage

• Geoactivegroup: Enterprise AI budgets are flowing in two directions at once, and only one of them builds an asset the buyer actually controls.
• Techcentral: Global spending on AI is expected to reach $2.7 trillion in 2026 – an increase of 49.5% compared to 2025, according to research and advisory firm Gartner.
• Forbes: AI is moving beyond chatbots. At IFA 2026, robots, smart binoculars and dive tech reveal how embodied AI is beginning to see, move and interact with reality.
• Businesstoday: Another crucial factor is the declining cost of AI inference. Goldman Sachs expects cheaper token processing to make increasingly complex AI applications economically viable.