AI take-up in Portugal low compared to EU average – but gaining traction

Portugal continues to be slow on the uptake of artificial intelligence when it comes to the country’s companies compared to the EU Member-State average, even though it has grown since 2021.

Overall, the number of companies in the European Union that have adopted AI tools has grown. According to data for this year on AI adoption rates, 20% of companies with 10 or more employees are already using AI in their processes with the rate up 6.5%.

According to Eurostat – Statistics Portugal, 11.5% of Portugal’s companies use AI technologies as of this year, an increase of 2.9% compared to 2024.

Among these enterprises, the most common application is written language analysis, used by 59.4%, followed by pictures, video, sound/audio generation (50.9%) and written, spoken language or programming codes generation (45.6%).

Regarding the areas of application of these technologies, the organisation of business administration processes or management (40.8%) and marketing or sales (36.9%) stand out. The adoption of AI reflects a growing trend towards digitalisation, accompanied by other relevant indicators:

98.8% of enterprises and 51.1% of persons employed have access to the Internet for business purposes (+0.8 p.p. and +0.6 p.p. compared to 2024, respectively);

62.9% of enterprises have their own website or the enterprise group to which they belong (+0.5 p.p. compared to 2024) and 63.8% of enterprises use social media (+2.7 p.p. compared to 2023);

53.7% of enterprises use business software (+1.1 p.p. compared to 2023);

• 45.0% of enterprises perform data analytics (+6.4 p.p. compared to 2023);
38.7% of enterprises purchase cloud computing services (+1.2 p.p. compared to 2023);

• 30.5% of enterprises use ICT systems or solutions for environmental purposes, and 11.9% monitor and quantify their impact.

AI adoption in European companies is growing steadily, with about 13.5% of EU businesses using AI in 2024, but with significant variation by country and company size, led by Nordic nations like Denmark (around 28%) and lagging in Eastern Europe, while large firms (41%) adopt much faster than small ones (11%). Adoption is highest in Information & Communication sectors, using text analysis and language generation most, but overall rates are still lower than in the US.

The countries that most lag in terms of take-up are Romania (3%), Poland (6%) and Bulgaria (6.5%)

Despite Portugal lagging behind the EU average, AI is gaining rapid traction across Portugal, with over 600,000 companies now using the technology—an average of 12 new adopters per hour in 2024. According to Amazon Web Services (AWS), this represents 41% of all Portuguese businesses, up from 35% in 2023, reflecting an AI adoption growth rate of 17%.

While startups are leading the charge, integrating AI into their core strategies and products, large companies and SMEs remain cautious, often limiting use to efficiency gains and process automation. In contrast, 62% of startups have adopted AI, with 35% developing AI-based offerings and 55% embedding AI into their strategy.

Investment is also rising. Portuguese companies increased their AI spending by 24% in 2024, surpassing the European average of 22%. AWS estimates that AI will account for 16% of IT budgets in Portugal by 2028.

The benefits are clear: companies report higher productivity, automation of routine tasks, and notably, revenue growth. However, adoption still faces hurdles, including digital skills shortages, cost perceptions, and regulatory uncertainty.

Cloud-based AI contributed over US$647 million to Portugal’s GDP in 2023 alone—and will contribute an estimated US$434Bn across Europe by 2030—Portugal is well-positioned to become a leader in the AI economy if it continues to scale adoption intelligently.