AI and digital
The EU is adopting artificial intelligence faster than ever, but almost all the technology it uses is designed elsewhere.
Between two giants
The gap is not in using AI. It is in making it.
The United States spends 3.4% of its GDP on research. China spends 2.7%, and rising. The EU has hovered around 2% for a decade, reaching 2.1% in 2024. Almost all of the difference lies in business investment: 2.7% of GDP in the US, 2.1% in China and 1.4% in the EU.
Europe invests less in research, and the gap lies in business
R&D expenditure, total and business, as % of GDP
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That investment shows up in what gets invented. In international AI patent applications, the US and China each file almost three times as many as the EU. Per person, the US patents four times more AI than the EU, while China and the EU are level.
In AI patents, the US and China are in another league
International (PCT) AI patent applications, by inventor country and priority year
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In the AI models that set the pace of the field, the distance is even wider. Since 2023, EU organisations have taken part in 18 notable models. US organisations, in 250. Chinese ones, in 120.
The AI models that set the pace are built in the US and China
Notable AI models released each year, by country of the developing organisations
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Is Europe losing, or choosing?
The usual story says Europe moves slower because it prefers to protect. The data adds nuance.
In 2025, Eurostat asked people who do not use generative AI why not. 64% said they do not need it. Only 7% mentioned privacy or security. In Spain the reasons shift: not knowing how to use it (28%) or not knowing it existed (25%) weigh more. It looks less like a cautious choice and more like a knowledge gap.
Europeans who skip generative AI are not being cautious: they say they don't need it
Reasons for not using generative AI tools, as % of those who did not use them in the last 3 months (aged 16-74)
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Where there is a deeper choice is in how the internet is governed. China adopts technology under state filtering and censorship. The EU as a whole protects online freedom more than the United States, which has slipped since 2023. There are differences within the Union too: the chart shows the most controlled member state each year.
China adopts technology under state control. Europe takes another path
Extent to which the government filters the internet and censors social media in practice (higher = less control)
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One more decision sets Europe apart: most of its notable models are released with open weights that anyone can download and adapt. But with so few models, it is more of a signal than a strategy.
Is Europe betting on open AI?
Notable AI models since 2023 by release type, as % of each bloc's total
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Europe from within
Talking about Europe as a whole hides huge distances between its countries.
In Denmark, 42% of enterprises already use some AI technology. In Romania, 5%. The EU average has grown 2.6 times since 2021, to 20%, and Spain sits right on the average.
Two AI Europes: in Denmark more than four in ten firms use it; in Romania, one in twenty
Enterprises using at least one AI technology, as % of all enterprises (10+ employees, excl. financial sector)
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Within each country, AI clusters around the capital. It happens in almost every country that publishes regional data. In Spain, the Madrid region (27%) is eight times Melilla (3.5%).
AI clusters around capitals: the capital region leads in almost every country with regional data
Enterprises using at least one AI technology, by region, as % of all enterprises (10+ employees)
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Among people, the pattern repeats. One in three Europeans used generative AI in 2025. Among 16 to 24 year olds, almost two in three. Spain is above average, at 38%.
One in three Europeans already uses generative AI: nearly half in Denmark, fewer than one in five in Italy or Romania
People who used generative AI tools in the last 3 months, as % of the population
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Digital skills are the foundation, and there the EU is far from its goal: 60% of people have at least basic skills, against the 80% it has set for 2030.
Europe falls far short of its 2030 digital skills target
People with basic or above basic digital skills, as % of the population aged 16-74
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Notes on this theme
- How to comply with the AI Act: obligations, costs and the political battle over regulating AIA practical guide to the European AI law after its 2026 reform: what it requires of each company, in what order to act, the problems it is causing, what has already happened in practice and why the UN, Washington and Beijing see it so differently.
- The AI Act and business: legal uncertainty is now the second barrier to AIEurope chose to be first to regulate artificial intelligence. Among companies that consider using it but do not, 54% now say the legal consequences are unclear, up from 46% in 2023.
Other themes
- Trade and dependenciesFor decades the EU was the world's largest trading power. China has overtaken it, and Europe increasingly depends on others to buy and to sell.
- Productivity and growthThe EU weighs as much in the world economy as the United States, but it produces less per hour and much less per person. The question is how much of that gap is lagging behind and how much is choice.
- Freedoms, well-being and climateEurope lives longer, pollutes less and protects freedoms more than the United States or China. But those advantages are not equal across its countries, and some are eroding.
- HealthThe EU spends far less on health than the US, and people live longer. Most of it is paid with public money, but each country differs in how many doctors it has and how much patients pay themselves.
- Money and paymentsThe euro area holds more cash relative to its economy than the US and China, but uses it less and less to pay. Cards are filling the gap, largely through non-European networks. The digital euro is the EU's bet to keep public money present in electronic payments.
- Housing and the cost of livingHousing has risen less in the euro area than in the US, and so have rents. Almost seven in ten Europeans live in a home they own, but those renting at market prices bear far higher costs, and the gaps between countries in cost and space are huge.
- EnergyThe EU uses less than half as much energy per person as the US, and China has now overtaken it. Its electricity relies far less on fossil fuels, but renewables cover only a quarter of all its energy, and industry pays considerably more for power than before the 2022 crisis.