Conclusion
This report paints a clear picture of Europe's AI landscape in 2024. The pace of change is rapid, with adoption growing 27% in twelve months and nearly half of European businesses now using AI (42%). Yet our research reveals a crucial challenge: while startups are pushing boundaries with AI-driven innovation, many larger enterprises remain focused on basic efficiency gains, creating a two-tier system that could limit Europe's economic potential.
This two-tiered model describes a scenario where AI is adopted broadly across businesses but in many businesses remains concentrated in basic applications, such as automation or chatbots, without advancing to transformative use cases. This would create a stratified ecosystem of AI use, presenting evident risks to Europe's economic and innovation landscape.
Limiting AI to its more basic use-cases restricts economic potential, as businesses miss opportunities for transformative innovation and fail to compete globally with regions like the U.S. and China. This dynamic risks deepening inequalities between large enterprises and SMEs that struggle to secure financing for AI, as well as between tech and non-tech sectors, resulting in an uneven and fragmented innovation landscape.
Two-tiered adoption between large businesses stuck at basic levels and startups who are ready to fully integrate AI also stalls digital transformation, fostering resistance to deeper organisational change and limiting integration of AI into workflows. It stifles talent development by concentrating AI expertise within fewer advanced companies and hindering workforce adaptation to advanced AI skills. Finally, it undermines Europe’s long-term AI leadership and innovation, weakening its position as a global AI hub, and risking the erosion of its competitive edge in innovation and investment.
The barriers to deeper adoption are significant but solvable. Regulatory complexity, skills shortages, and investment constraints all need addressing. The examples highlighted throughout this report – from predictive maintenance in manufacturing to AI-optimised agriculture – show what's possible when these barriers are overcome. In alignment with Europe's ambitions to enhance competitiveness during the Digital Decade, a clear path forward emerges. Through the three-point plan set out in this report, Europe can foster an innovative and business-friendly landscape.
Europe has the foundations for success: strong research capabilities, robust institutions, and growing public support for AI adoption. With coordinated action to address the challenges identified in this report, it can turn these advantages into lasting economic benefits.