What happened
The European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) published a quantitative report mapping AI adoption across the 10 strategic sectors of the EU's Apply AI Strategy, using Eurostat's ICT enterprise survey (2021-2025) and a newly developed methodology. Headline finding: "The share of firms using AI in EU strategic sectors grew from 7% in 2021 to 18% in 2025"; across the wider EU economy, adoption rose from 8% to 20%. The report finds adoption is uneven — media (38%), energy (34%), and electronic communications (30%) lead, while mobility, tourism and agri-food lag — and that the surge has largely been driven by accessible, low-cost generative AI used for marketing and sales rather than integration into core business processes, where the greatest productivity gains lie. Energy uptake grew from 18% to 34% and electronics from 12% to 30%.
Why it matters
This is authoritative, methodology-transparent data for EU policy and investment decisions on AI — it quantifies which strategic sectors are adopting AI vs. merely using off-the-shelf tools, and signals where the biggest unrealised productivity gains sit.
Action needed
Benchmark your sector's adoption against the EU strategic-sector figures and identify whether your AI spend is going into core production processes or only into ready-to-use marketing/sales tools.