One in five (20%) of German businesses currently use artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, an 8 percentage point increase on last year, new data from Destatis has indicated.
Last year, one in eight (12%) German firms were using AI technology, which itself was a marginal increase on the previous year (11%).
Larger businesses
Destatis’ data indicated that larger firms, which boast 250 or more employees, are significantly more likely to use AI, with 48% of them adopting artificial intelligence technologies, while just 28% of medium-sized companies (with between 50 and 249 employees) and 17% of small companies (10-49 employees) use AI.
Analysing text is the most common use of AI among German companies, with 48% using the technology for this purpose, followed by speech recognition (47%), and natural language generation (34%).
AI technology is primarily applied in marketing and sales (33%), production or service processes (25%), business administration or management (24%), and accounting or financial management (24%), according to the Destatis data.
Among the German companies that do not currently use AI, the main barrier cited was a lack of knowledge, with seven in ten (71%) companies citing this as a hurdle. Other barriers noted included uncertainty about legal consequences (58%), data privacy concerns (53%), difficulties with data quality or availability (45%), and concerns about system compatibility (44%).
Additionally, 21% of companies do not believe AI would be useful for their operations. Read more here.
Productivity improvements
A recent study by the ifo Institute revealed that around 70% of German companies anticipate productivity improvements from artificial intelligence (AI). Over the next five years, these businesses expect average productivity increases ranging from 8% to 16%.
According to the findings service providers anticipate the highest productivity gains from artificial intelligence, projecting increases of 10.2% to 20.9%. The trade sector expects a boost ranging from 9.1% to 23%, while the manufacturing industry predicts improvements of 7.8% to 17.3%.
