Eurostat: 20% of EU Companies Now Use AI, But Growth Rates Remain Slow

Eurostat published data in December on the spread of artificial intelligence in European business. On another continent, such a report would have become the main news on economic websites and in business media. They reported that twenty percent of European companies with a minimum of ten employees have already implemented AI in some part of their operations. This is significant growth from 13.5 percent a year earlier.

Is This Impressive Progress?

At first glance, the figure looks good. A gain of six and a half percentage points per year appears to be rapid and confident progress. If the trend continues, in a few years almost every European business will use artificial intelligence in one way or another.

But the global context complicates the picture: in the USA, this indicator has already exceeded 30 percent, and in some Asian countries it is even higher. Eurostat data covers all 27 EU member states. Distribution is extremely uneven: tech-savvy countries like the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Belgium outpace Eastern European countries by a factor of two to three.

Most companies use AI in basic operations — data analytics, document workflow automation, routine administrative tasks. More advanced applications, such as generative AI, personalization, autonomous decision-making systems — for now remain rare.

What Stands in the Way of Scaling

The reasons for European business lagging behind in AI are well documented and known to experts:

• Acute shortage of specialists: demand for AI engineers and data scientists far exceeds available supply
• Unfavorable investment climate: venture capitalists and funds still prefer to finance startups in the USA
• Strict regulation: the new EU AI Act complicates and freezes implementation for many companies and startups
• High financial barriers: medium and small businesses simply cannot afford to invest in transitioning to AI systems
• Deep cultural conservatism in traditional industries — energy, heavy industry, agriculture, logistics

Historically, Europe is known for fundamental research and academic science, but the commercialization of innovations has always been problematic. Huge amounts of first-class AI research conducted in European universities simply do not transform into practical startups, companies, and competitive products. European corporations fear violating complex and multi-layered legislation, preferring a cautious, conservative approach — or shelving implementation indefinitely.

What This Means for the European Economy

If Europe does not accelerate the pace of AI development and implementation, it risks being excluded from the global market that shapes the future. Already today it is clear that major innovations and leaders are concentrated in the USA (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta) and Asia (Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, dozens of local startups). The European ecosystem is slowly turning into a mere consumer of American and Asian software instead of creating its own competitive technologies and platforms.

Current growth rates — 6.5 percentage points per year — are mathematically insufficient to close the growing gap with the USA and Asia. European policymakers and businesses need to urgently and radically rethink their strategy: simplify and accelerate regulation for innovative business, launch large-scale national IT workforce retraining programs, and deliberately direct public investment into AI infrastructure and education.

Otherwise, the beautiful rhetoric about "European digital sovereignty" will remain nothing more than an empty phrase.

*Meta has been recognized as an extremist organization and is banned in Russia.