The EU AI Adoption Gap: Why Small Firms Trail Large Firms

The average hides a thirty-eight point split.

In twenty twenty-five, seventeen point zero zero percent of small EU enterprises used AI against fifty-five point zero three percent of large firms.

That gap flags uneven access to a possible productivity upside.

It does not prove AI has already harmed anyone or that the law caused the difference.

Among EU enterprises that had considered AI but did not use it, seventy point eight nine percent cited a lack of relevant expertise, their reported reason, not a skills test.

Legal uncertainty was cited by fifty-two point five two percent and privacy concerns by forty-eight point eight three percent.

So skills came first in this list, not in every firm's decision.

Here's the inversion.

If regulation were the whole story, legal uncertainty would lead the barrier list.

It doesn't.

But that does not acquit the rules.

The survey ranks reported obstacles, while small teams can face overlapping gaps in expertise, legal help, and privacy confidence.