BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 29. In 2024, 13.5% of enterprises in the European Union with 10 or more employees reported using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, marking a notable 5.5 percentage point increase from 8.0% in 2023, Trend reports.
This surge in AI adoption reflects a growing trend among EU businesses to harness cutting-edge technologies for better operational efficiency.
However, in the Balkan region, the uptake of AI technologies remains relatively low compared to the EU average. According to the data provided by Eurostat, among the Balkan countries, Bulgaria recorded the highest percentage of businesses using AI at 6.5%, still far behind the EU leaders like Denmark, Sweden, and Belgium, which boast adoption rates of 27.6%, 25.1%, and 24.7%, respectively. Other countries in the region, such as Romania, showed even slower progress, with only 3.1% of enterprises using AI technologies.
While all EU countries, including those in the Balkans, experienced an increase in the adoption of AI technologies, the growth rates varied significantly. Bulgaria saw a modest rise of 1.6 percentage points, while Romania’s increase was even smaller at 1.6 pp. In contrast, countries such as Sweden, Denmark, and Belgium saw large jumps in adoption rates, with Sweden’s increase reaching a remarkable 14.7 pp.
Enterprises in the EU are increasingly turning to AI to improve their operations, with text mining (the analysis of written language) emerging as the most widely adopted AI technology, used by 6.9% of businesses. Additionally, natural language generation (used by 5.4% of enterprises) and speech recognition (used by 4.8%) are becoming increasingly popular as companies look to automate tasks related to language processing.