Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a key driver of the modern economy, offering businesses better decision-making, more efficient production, and cleaner energy. The latest Eurostat data shows that in 2025, as many as 19.95% of enterprises in the European Union (employing at least 10 people) were already using at least one AI technology. This marks a sharp increase of 6.47 percentage points compared with the previous year.

Leaders and laggards: Poland at the very bottom

AI implementation in Europe is progressing at a very uneven pace. The Scandinavian countries are leading the digital transformation: Denmark (42.03%), Finland (37.82%), and Sweden (35.04%). At the opposite end is Poland, where this indicator stands at only 8.36%, placing our country among the EU states with the lowest level of AI adoption, alongside Romania (5.21%) and Bulgaria (8.55%).

The divide by company size is equally pronounced. While more than half (55.03%) of large enterprises already use AI, for small companies the figure is only 17%. This difference results from the complexity of technology implementation, investment costs, and economies of scale that favor larger players.

How are companies using AI?

EU enterprises are most eager to use technologies that analyze written language, i.e., text mining (11.75%). The generation of images, audio, and video is also highly popular (9.55%), as is natural language technology (8.76%). In terms of business objectives, AI most often supports:

• Marketing and sales (34.70% of companies using AI).

• Organization of administrative processes and management (31.05%).

• ICT security, which is a priority especially for large corporations (47.51%).

The sector that absolutely dominates in the use of these solutions is information and communication (62.52%), while the lowest level of engagement is seen in construction (10.79%).

Barriers blocking development

Despite the benefits, many companies still hold back from implementing AI. Among enterprises that considered this option but ultimately abandoned it, the most common barrier was a lack of adequate specialist knowledge (70.89%). Companies also fear a lack of clarity regarding legal consequences (52.52%) as well as privacy and data protection breaches (48.83%).

Vision 2030: Digital Decade

The European Union has set ambitious goals under the “Digital Decade” program. By 2030, as many as 75% of companies in the EU should be using cloud computing, Big Data, or artificial intelligence. To achieve this, the European Commission plans to strengthen the continent’s competitiveness by ensuring access to computing power for startups and supporting innovation in the public and industrial sectors. For countries such as Poland, the distance to cover over the next five years remains enormous.

Source: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Use_of_artificial_intelligence_in_enterprises