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Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have become significantly more digital and AI-savvy in recent years. This can be seen in the analysis of the Eurostat database by researchers at IfM Bonn.
Digital transformation is advancing in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Germany: More than a third of SMEs had a "high" to "very high" level of digital intensity in 2025. This means that they have implemented 7 or more of the 12 measures of the Digital Intensity Index, which covers e-commerce, ICT security and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, as well as the employment of specialists and ICT training for employees. SMEs in Germany are now in line with the EU average, but there is still a significant gap between them and large enterprises. The European leaders among SMEs with very high or high digital intensity are companies in Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands.
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing in particular has gained speed in small and medium-sized enterprises in recent years: One in four SMEs now uses AI, and more than half use paid IT services from the virtual cloud. This puts them above the EU average in both areas, but far behind Finland (78.6%), Italy (75.3%) and Malta (74.2%) in terms of the use of software and infrastructure from the digital ‘cloud’. In terms of the use of AI technologies, SMEs in Denmark (41%), Finland (36.4%) and Sweden (33.6%) are leading the way in Europe.
The gap remains in comparison with large companies, although SMEs in Germany have become significantly more active in the use of AI in particular (2023: 11%, 2025: 25%). 86% of large companies in Germany use paid IT services from the virtual cloud, and 57% use AI technologies.
https://www.ifm-bonn.org/statistiken/mittelstand-im-einzelnen/digitalisierung-de...
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