Figures from Germany

Every 5th company already uses artificial intelligence

An increasing number of companies in Germany are using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies - especially the large ones. Within a year, the proportion rose from 12 to 20 percent, the Federal Statistical Office announced on Monday.

The use of AI was surveyed for the first time in 2021, when the share was 11 percent. The survey covers legal entities with at least ten employees.

Large companies with 250 or more employees use AI technologies much more frequently than medium-sized and small companies. Every second large company (48%) uses AI, but only just over one in four (28%) medium-sized companies with 50 to 249 employees. Among small companies with ten to 49 employees, the figure is only 17%. AI is used more frequently in all size categories compared to the previous year.

Text mining tools very widespread
Companies that use AI most frequently use technologies for analyzing written language or text mining (48%). This is followed by speech recognition (47%) and natural language generation (34%). These technologies are primarily used for marketing or sales (33%), for production or service processes (25%), for the organization of company administration processes or management (24%) and for accounting, controlling or financial management (24%).

Of the companies that have so far refrained from using AI, 18% have already considered using it. When asked about the reasons for not using AI, these companies primarily cited a lack of knowledge (71%), uncertainty about the legal consequences (58%) and concerns about data protection and privacy (53%).

Also frequently mentioned were difficulties with the availability or quality of data (45 percent), incompatibility with existing devices, software and systems (44 percent), excessive costs (28 percent) and ethical considerations (23 percent). 21% of these companies do not consider the use of artificial intelligence in their company to be sensible.