The study is based on an independent survey of 2,527 senior decision makers across 10 countries and six industries and reflects industry conditions across the enterprise market broadly. It challenges the prevailing narrative that enterprises are stuck in pilot phases, finding instead that, in customer communications, 62% already have AI agents live in production but are encountering systemic failures after deployment. At the same time, 98% of enterprises report increasing investment in AI communications in 2026.

While industry discourse has focused on getting AI into production, the research shows that deployment is no longer the primary barrier in customer communications. The challenge has shifted to maintaining performance, reliability and control once AI is live.

"The industry has assumed that better governance leads to better outcomes. But that's not enough: If governance was the fix, the most mature teams would roll back less, not more. Our data points to a deeper issue. Engineering teams are spending most of their time building and maintaining safety systems, a lot of which their communications infrastructure should be providing, instead of focusing on improving the customer experience. That's the guardrail tax that slows organizations down," said Daniel Morris, CPO at Sinch.

Rollback rates reach 81% among organizations with the most mature governance frameworks, higher than the overall average, suggesting better monitoring allows them to identify failures other organizations are missing. Meanwhile, Sinch research found enterprises invest more in trust, security and compliance (76%) than in AI development itself (63%), making this the number one investment category in AI programs.

"The most advanced organizations aren't failing less; they're seeing failures sooner. Higher rollback rates reflect better monitoring and control, not weaker performance," said Daniel Morris, CPO at Sinch. 

The data shows that governance investment alone is not solving the problem. Communications infrastructure satisfaction stands out as the strongest predictor of successful AI deployment, stronger than both investment levels and guardrail maturity and 87% of organizations rate high-performance infrastructure as essential or very important.

Still, most organizations say their current provider falls short in at least one meaningful area. More than half of enterprises are building custom infrastructure to manage cross channel context, and 86% have evaluated or are actively evaluating new communications providers.

Summary of findings

•     62% of enterprises already have AI agents live in production

•       74% have rolled back or shut down a deployed AI agent

•     81% rollback rate among organizations with mature governance frameworks

•       75% report investment in trust, security and compliance, higher than AI development itself (63%).

•       84% of AI engineering teams spend at least half their time on safety infrastructure

•       98% are increasing AI investment in 2026

•       55% have to build custom infrastructure for cross channel context

•       86% have evaluated or are considering new communications providers

An early access version of The AI Production Paradox is available here. Full findings including regional and industry breakdowns will be released in Q2 2026.

Methodology

The study was conducted between January and February 2026 by Sinch in collaboration with an independent research institute. A total of 2,527 senior decision makers participated across the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil, Germany, France, India, Singapore, Mexico and Canada. Respondents were recruited through an independent third-party panel and were not identified by vendor relationship. Respondents represented large enterprises, with 68% from organizations with 1,000 to 4,999 employees and 32% from organizations with more than 5,000 employees. Participants were senior roles including C-suite executives, VP level executives and directors or managers.

The industries represented included financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, technology, retail and professional services, with financial services and healthcare as the largest segments.