A new study by HubSpot has found that while AI adoption among Singapore businesses has crossed into mainstream daily use, most are struggling to advance beyond basic applications into more sophisticated territory such as autonomous AI agents.

The research, which surveyed more than 700 Singapore business leaders, found that nearly two-thirds (64%) are applying AI consistently across daily workflows. However, only 18% have deployed fully autonomous AI agents capable of making decisions and executing tasks end-to-end.

Data gaps are the core obstacle

The study points to a structural challenge rather than a lack of ambition. Businesses that have progressed furthest in AI adoption are encountering more pronounced barriers, not fewer. Data quality and integration challenges (37%) rank among the top two obstacles to scaling AI, just behind trust and reliability concerns (43%).

Among organisations already using fully autonomous agents, data integration challenges climb to 41%, legacy system limitations to 42%, and skills gaps to 39%. The findings suggest the bottleneck has shifted from access to tools to the ability to operationalise them reliably across the business.

“The key challenge among Singapore businesses is no longer whether they are using AI. It is whether they have the knowledge of customers, market trends, and operations needed to scale the business reliably,” said Megan Hughes, Managing Director and Vice President, JAPAC, HubSpot.

Agentic AI appetite remains strong

Despite foundational challenges, interest in agentic AI is high. More than two in five leaders (43%) expect AI agents to become highly important to their operations within the next 12 to 24 months, and 28% are already investing. A further 30% say clearly demonstrated business results would most accelerate their willingness to invest further.

Leaders identified accuracy and reliability (66%), system integration (56%), governance (53%), and access to relevant business context and data (48%) as the most critical factors for agents to operate effectively.

HubSpot’s platform response

In response to these findings, HubSpot is positioning its agentic customer platform to unify customer data and business knowledge, enabling both teams and AI agents to act on shared context. At its Spring Spotlight 2026, the company announced new and updated products spanning marketing, sales, and customer support — including an AI-powered prospecting agent, an answer engine optimisation tool, and an updated customer service agent capable of resolving up to 70% of conversations autonomously.

The research was conducted by Lonergan Research, surveying 736 business leaders in Singapore organisations with 50 or more employees between February and March 2026.