• Spanish SMEs lead Europe in AI adoption, accounting for 9.3% of the total

• Some 9.3% of Spanish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have adopted artificial intelligence (AI), above the European average of 8%, and one in five ‘junior’ jobs in the country already require skills in this technology, according to a study by Google and INCO

The report ‘Europe at Work in the Age of Generative AI’, presented this Tuesday by representatives of INCO and Google, points out that “Spanish SMEs lead Europe in AI adoption,” with a rate of 9.3% that exceeds the average of 8% in the European Union, which shows their “strong drive for digitalization.”

However, at the European level, three out of four SMEs face difficulties in finding talent with artificial intelligence skills, reflecting that “trained talent is not growing at the same rate as demand.”

In addition, 420,000 entry-level jobs in the country already require AI skills. Compared to the two million job openings analyzed in the study, this represents 22%, a figure two percentage points below the European average but ahead of countries like Italy and Poland.

In Europe, where the authors analyzed 31 million job listings, there are 7.4 million jobs requiring this type of skill, implying one in four entry-level positions, a figure that has doubled in just two years.

AI is transforming what job positions require, and ‘junior’ workers are “the most exposed”: “Skills that they used to learn on the job during their first few years” are now “already handled by artificial intelligence,” meaning that “when someone lands their first position today, they are required to have a completely different starting point compared to just a few years ago,” they emphasized.

In this regard, more than half of young Europeans are optimistic about the impact of AI on employment, but only 13% feel prepared to work with this technology, the study notes.

AN IMPACT ON GDP OF 120 BILLION IF ITS USE BECOMES WIDESPREAD

For his part, Google’s chief economist highlights that the “prize” of a widespread adoption of AI in Spain would be a contribution of up to 120 billion euros to GDP, which is equivalent to an additional 8%, according to data from the report ‘The Economic Opportunity of AI in Spain’, prepared by Implement Consulting Group at Google’s request.

Curto indicates that AI is being adopted at a “very high” rate, “much faster” than other past technologies, and that this is “the main challenge” to be faced, but warns that this adoption is taking place “unevenly.”

“Most of our jobs are going to be transformed by AI,” but “historically, technology is a net job creator” and “does not automate jobs per se,” but rather tasks, he qualified.

Thus, “it is very rare for a job to disappear due to automation,” he explains at an event where the ‘NewFutures: AI’ training initiative was also presented.

Source: Lefebvre