Artificial Intelligence Landscape in the European Union. A Comparative Study

This paper analyses and compares Artificial Intelligence (AI) national strategies of European Union (EU) Member States based on factors like education, investments, workforce upskilling and reskilling and country specific initiatives. The analysis expands into AI usage of EU enterprises based on Eurostat data. Using a mixed-methods approach, document and content analysis along with descriptive statistics, the study classifies EU countries into four clusters (leaders, followers, moderates, and laggards) based on AI usage rates of the European enterprises, showing significant differences for each cluster. The first cluster – the leaders in AI usage, such as Denmark, Sweden or Finland presented strong policies for early digital education, consistent investments, and comprehensive workforce training programs. In contrast, the countries from the fourth cluster – the laggards – with slower rates of AI usage, rely extensively on EU funding and seem to face infrastructural or regulatory barriers. The findings show significant disparities in the usage of AI by European enterprises. Large companies recorded the highest AI adoption while small and mid-size enterprises seem to be less prepared for this. The study also indicated limitations such as statistical analysis performed only for 2023 and 2024 data, limited criteria for comparing strategies, and reliance on Web of Science literature base. Also, the study provides additional recommendations for further research directions, advocating for more advanced quantitative analyses. Overall, this research highlights the need for coordinated EU-level policies aimed at ethical, inclusive, and cohesive AI development across all Member States.