IW Study: 40 Percent of the German Economy Uses Artificial Intelligence

Widespread Adoption in the Mid-Market

The sharp rise in usage figures is attributable, according to the IW study, to a distinct German strategy. Instead of investing billions in developing entirely new, fundamental language models, German companies are focusing on application and specialization. They take globally available base models and adapt them to their specialized processes using their own industry data.

According to the study, AI skills are no longer required only from specialized IT experts. The technology has long since arrived in the specialist departments – from production to logistics to quality management. Dealing with AI is developing into a new basic and cross-disciplinary skill across all sectors, the study states further. The study's authors also emphasize that the use of AI in companies has long since moved beyond the experimental stage.

Specialization Instead of Proprietary Foundation Models

For the transformation in the labor market, the researchers also evaluated around 55 million online job postings over the period from 2019 to 2025. In industry, the share of job postings with AI requirements at the skilled-worker level rose from 10 percent in 2019 and 2022 to 17 percent in 2025.

Among companies that have not yet deployed AI, skepticism about concrete benefits predominates. The main reasons cited by non-adopters are a lack of relevance to their own business model (61 percent) and data protection concerns (29 percent). Data protection and a perceived lack of practical added value thus remain the biggest barriers.

Barriers Among Non-Users

The industry association eco and IW Consult interpret the figures as evidence that AI has arrived across the breadth of the German economy. The study also points to the question of where the greatest obstacles lie. The article's lead-in formulations read: "Vom Büro bis zur Werkshalle: KI krempelt den deutschen Mittelstand um – Warum sich selbst kleine Betriebe plötzlich auf smarte Technik einlassen."

Overall, the survey paints a picture of widespread – though not yet universal – adoption of AI in the German economy. While four out of ten companies already use the technology productively, for the remaining 60 percent the path to adoption remains tied to open legal, organizational, and economic questions.