CSB-002: Cost Outranks Safety Nearly Three to One

Asked what holds back AI agent adoption, 525 organizations put cost (68%), technical complexity (66%), employee resistance (61%) and data privacy (59%) at the top. Reliability and safety concerns rank sixth of seven, at 25% of the 471 respondents tabulated for that option. They peak at 29% among the largest firms and, among industries with N≥30, are highest in telecommunications (36%), healthcare (35%), and financial services (31%). Cost remains substantially more frequently cited in every company-size band and in those three sectors. We expect safety tooling to gain budget priority as production exposure increases.