AI Agents are delivering real ROI — Here's what 1,100 developers and CTOs reveal about scaling them

Presented by DigitalOceanFrom refactoring codebases to debugging production code, AI agents are already proving their value. But scaling them in production remains the exception, not the rule. In DigitalOcean’s 2026 Currents research report, based on a survey of more than 1,100 developers, CTOs, and founders, 67% of organizations using agents report productivity gains. Meanwhile, 60% of respondents say applications and agents represent the greatest long-term value in the AI stack. Yet, only 10% are scaling agents in production. The top blocker? Forty-nine percent cite the high cost of inference. It's not just the price of a single API call. It's the compounding cost as agents chain tasks and run autonomously. Nearly half of respondents now spend 76–100% of their AI budget on inference alon