Why EU business AI adoption is rising and still not catching up

▤ Summary

Eurostat reports that 20% of EU enterprises with at least ten employees used AI in 2025, up from 13.5% the year before, but adoption is highly uneven across countries (e.g., Denmark ~42% vs Romania ~5%). The piece argues the main barriers are structural: a large transatlantic venture-capital gap, dominance of US cloud providers, and a pervasive skills shortage in SMEs. It says the AI Act and regulatory uncertainty matter but are not the primary cause, and notes EU proposals to reduce SME compliance burden. The article highlights European successes (Siemens, SAP, Mistral) while warning that without deeper capital, skills, and cloud infrastructure integration the single market will remain split on AI adoption.

▦ Linked Companies

Mistral AI

$10M to $25M