Industrial Research Unit · Straits Institute for Applied AI
Applied AI in Business Operations
56 entries on the record in business operations — 40 pieces of evidence of adoption, 12 deployments, 3 pieces of evidence of impact, 1 regulation. Each one is traced to a named source and dated. Maintained continuously by the Industrial Research Unit; the record was last updated 14 Sep 2026.
Entries
56
Countries
40
Most recent
10 Sep 2026
Kind
Country
Role
56 entries
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsCanada10 Sep 2026
Two-thirds of Canadian firms pilot agentic AI, yet 97% feel unready
SAP and Oxford Economics — 66% of Canadian organisations are piloting agentic AI, yet 97% admit they are not fully ready to deploy and govern it, SAP's Value of AI Report by Oxford Economics finds (2,600 business leaders in 13 countries, 200 in Canada). Among Canadian leaders, 70% either agreed or could not say whether they deploy AI agents faster than governance keeps pace, and 73% struggle with incomplete or inconsistent data.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsThailand10 Sep 2026
Thailand funds 55 AI and automation upgrades for local firms
Competitiveness Enhancement Fund for Target Industries, Thailand — Thailand's Competitiveness Enhancement Fund for Target Industries cleared 55 projects for AI in manufacturing, automation and digital technology, including 48 business transformation schemes worth 3.54 billion baht in investment against 1.663 billion baht of state backing. Seven workforce projects will train 10,180 workers. Ekniti Nitithanprasert chaired the subcommittee, linking industrial upgrades to digital transformation.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsNetherlands10 Sep 2026
A quarter of Benelux organisations run AI agents in production
Xebia — One in four Benelux organisations run AI agents in production, per Xebia's Data & AI Monitor 2026/2027 Benelux Edition (56 questions, 415 professionals, covering readiness, governance, sovereignty and trust) — part of a broader AI agents in the workplace shift across the Netherlands and Belgium. Assistant adoption climbs much higher, reaching 74%, yet faith in the technology hasn't caught up: merely 21% rank machine output alongside a human colleague's, while only 24% believe they can fully monitor what AI actually produces. Dependence on external vendors runs deep as well, with 81% describing themselves as reliant and 69% anxious about unsanctioned tool use spreading among staff.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsAustria9 Sep 2026
One in six Austrian employees uses AI at work in secret
Tieto Austria and TQS Research & Consulting — Employers stay in the dark: research from Tieto Austria and TQS Research & Consulting puts covert workplace AI adoption at 17% of Austria's workforce, drawn from 795 employed people among 1,000 polled. Company-sanctioned tools alone satisfy only 23% of staff, whereas distrust of outputs and absent policy push 42% to skip AI use at work entirely.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsAlbania8 Sep 2026
Only 1.8% of Albanian firms are using AI, minister says
Ministry of Economy and Innovation (Albania) — Economy and Innovation Minister Delina Ibrahimaj told Tirana's Second Innovation Forum that AI adoption covers just 1.8% of Albanian enterprises, or 9% counting firms able to use it as well as those already doing so. Productivity across Albanian businesses sits at roughly a third of the EU average, and small and medium firms — 99.8% of enterprises, about 80% of jobs and 75% of value added — lag furthest behind. Closing that gap, Ibrahimaj argued, is exactly what the technology could help do.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsFrance8 Sep 2026
France's Osez l'IA plan reaches 35,000 businesses in a year
Bpifrance and the Direction générale des Entreprises — Over 35,000 companies in France engaged Bpifrance's Osez l'IA programme in year one, aided by 615 AI Ambassadors across 20 regions and 13 sectors. AI adoption in French business trails Paris's 2030 goals: just 70 Diagnostics Data IA assessments have begun against a 1,000 target, toward full uptake at large firms, 80% at SMEs and mid-caps, and 50% at micro-enterprises — AI uptake among SMEs still short.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsEgypt7 Sep 2026
Egyptians who have heard of AI chatbots rise from 22% to 65% in three years
Information and Decision Support Center, Egyptian Cabinet — The Egyptian Cabinet's Information and Decision Support Center found 65 per cent of respondents knew of AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Gemini in 2026, up from 22 per cent in 2023. Among those aware of AI, 26.3 per cent use ChatGPT and 10.9 per cent Gemini, chiefly for work (51.7 per cent), personal matters (38.3 per cent) and study (32.3 per cent). Generative-AI habits were surveyed from 15 to 28 July.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsPuerto Rico7 Sep 2026
53.7% of Puerto Rican entrepreneurs already use AI, Colmena66 finds
Colmena66 (Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust) — Colmena66, the Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust's entrepreneurship programme, finds AI adoption among entrepreneurs at 53.7%, with 19.3% more planning to follow, in its State of the Business Community 2025 report, presented at the Boricua Emprende Fest on 4 September. Business AI use centres on innovation, process automation, and marketing and data analysis. It rests on a convenience sample of 555 entrepreneurs gathered from September 2025 to May 2026, so it does not represent all Puerto Rican entrepreneurs.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsThailand6 Sep 2026
Only one in eight Thai firms deploys AI, World Bank says
World Bank — The World Bank puts AI adoption in Thailand at about 12% of Thai businesses, launching its Building Thailand's Future Today report at the Bangkok Business Summit. Vice-president for East Asia and Pacific Carlos Felipe Jaramillo noted the one-in-eight rate despite an established electronics manufacturing base and fresh data-centre investment. The report ties the 2037 high-income target to raising it, particularly for small and medium-sized firms.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsCyprus6 Sep 2026
9.3% of Cypriot businesses used AI in 2025, up from 2.6% in 2021
Statistical Service of Cyprus — AI adoption in Cyprus hit 9.3 per cent of firms in 2025, from 2.6 per cent in 2021, the Statistical Service found. Size drives the gap: 7.7 per cent among small firms with 10 to 49 staff, 15.3 among mid-sized ones, 35.1 at employers of 250-plus. Business use of AI was measured in selected sectors among firms of 10-plus staff.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsThailand3 Sep 2026
53.7% of Thai organisations already use AI, national survey finds
NECTEC — AI adoption in Thailand has hit 53.7%, a NECTEC poll of 574 Thai bodies shows, though maturity across five dimensions - governance, technology, people, data infrastructure, strategy - averages only 'Aware'. Thailand's national electronics laboratory, releasing AI Readiness 2026, urged faster progress on governance and technology for effective artificial intelligence deployment. A dashboard follows 29 September 2026.
Evidence of impactBusiness OperationsUnited States1 Sep 2026
US workers spend 42% of AI time troubleshooting errors and prompts
BambooHR — US workers spend more AI time troubleshooting errors and reworking prompts (42%) than on productive work that advances their workload (35%), a BambooHR survey of 1,600-plus full-time salaried workers finds. Respondents used AI an average 87 minutes a day, and BambooHR estimates roughly 20 workdays yearly go to troubleshooting, though 65% felt confident and enthusiastic about AI at work.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsColombia31 Aug 2026
61% of Colombian firms now treat AI as a strategic priority
Endeavor Data Unit / Xertica.ai — Endeavor's data unit, backed by Xertica.ai, finds in its Colombia AI Pulse study that 61% of Colombian companies call AI a strategic priority, yet only 37.7% have made it a significant part of daily operations. On AI adoption in Colombia, 82% already see measurable impact and 72% raised AI budgets last year; the country scores 45.6 of 100 on the AI Sophistication Index, near Mexico's 45.1.
DeploymentBusiness OperationsUnited States27 Aug 2026
Cisco rolls out a personal AI agent to 90,000 employees
Cisco — Cisco has given its whole workforce of about 90,000 people MyAgent, a personal AI agent built on its Circuit AI platform. Operations executive vice-president Thimaya Subaiya said it takes an objective and coordinates the steps, running autonomous workflows across apps such as Outlook, Webex, Jira and SharePoint.
Sportfive rolls out Microsoft Copilot to 1,900 staff, reporting 93% adoption
Sportfive — Sportfive has put generative AI in sports marketing work, giving Microsoft 365 Copilot to all 1,900 staff in 20 countries with 93% adoption and 88% satisfaction reported. Employees use it for translation, document creation, outreach drafting and sponsor research, after everyone passed 'AI driving licence' training aligned with the EU AI Act.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsChile24 Aug 2026
88% of Chilean companies now use AI, SONDA finds
SONDA — SONDA's Tech Trends study puts some degree of AI adoption among Chilean companies at 88%, up from 16% in its previous edition. Of those, 40% are exploring or piloting, 30% apply it to some processes, 13% treat it as a strategic pillar and 5% have woven it through the whole operation. SONDA Chile general manager Javier Larenas warns of pilots that never scale; 53% have only general AI guidelines, and the sample size is unpublished.
DeploymentBusiness OperationsNetherlands14 Aug 2026
Mews deploys Duna's AI agents for compliance and onboarding checks
Mews — Hospitality software firm Mews has deployed Duna's AI compliance agents across customer onboarding, from sanctions and PEP screening to know-your-customer checks and ongoing monitoring. Chief executive Matthijs Welle says the agents cut manual reviews and false positives and raise straight-through processing.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsAndorra13 Aug 2026
Andorran business AI use reaches 25%, third in the EU
Andorra Digital — Andorra Digital's 2026 Digital Divide Study puts AI adoption among Andorran companies at 25%, up on 17% in 2022, third in the European Union. Smaller firms trail at 24% despite forming 80 to 90% of the base, 12% carry ICT staff, and 96% of people go online daily. AI uptake here rests on 2024 replies from 800 residents and 678 companies.
NEC creates a department staffed entirely by AI agents
NEC — NEC has set up an AI agent department with no human staff: 'worker' agents run automation tasks under AI 'manager' agents, which answer to human supervisors. The company aims to lift productivity by separating human and AI work more clearly; the department's size and output were not disclosed.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsAndorra4 Aug 2026
AI tools top demand in Andorra's €500,000 digitalisation scheme
Govern d'Andorra — Andorra's Business Digitalisation Programme, open from 8 April, exhausted a €500,000 pot on 178 firms and 368 digital solutions in 2026. AI adoption in Andorran business topped demand with 85 requests. Micro firms drew 69% of grants, small ones 27%, mid-sized 3% and large 1% of this AI uptake.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsGeorgia20 Jul 2026
84% of Georgian companies adopting AI, BAG survey finds
Business Association of Georgia — BAG's survey of 600-plus Georgian firms puts AI adoption in Georgian business at 84%, spanning firms researching, piloting or running the technology. 13% report full integration, 24% are piloting, and 47% are still planning. Marketing and content generation led use cases at 20%, with finance and customer support each at 15%; fieldwork ran 9-25 June 2026, reflecting artificial intelligence use among Georgian companies.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsHungary13 Jul 2026
AI use among mid-sized Hungarian firms reaches a record 58%
K&H Innovation Index — Corporate AI adoption in Hungary has reached a high in the K&H Innovation Index: 58 percent of firms turning over at least 300 million forints run some AI-based solution, and those building their own rose from 24 percent a half-year earlier to 36 percent. Phone interviews with 360 innovation managers ran from 14 April to 6 May. Thin skills, plus data protection and confidentiality worries, still brake adoption, cited by 66 and 52 percent of would-be AI users.
CCI Mayotte adopts AI platform for business creation support
CCI Mayotte — CCI Mayotte now offers AI business creation support via IDcreaCCIon, a digital platform from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Belfort steering founders from concept to launch. Advisors pair the software's output with their own know-how, covering funding, legal structure, financial forecasting and market study. Mayotte is the tool's first outpost beyond mainland France, already relied on by several French chambers for entrepreneurship support.
Abu Dhabi rolls out Microsoft Copilot to 35,000 civil servants
Abu Dhabi Government, Department of Government Enablement — Abu Dhabi Government is rolling out Microsoft 365 Copilot for civil servants: its Frontier Employee Programme added 26,000 users across 27 government entities to 9,000 existing licences, making 35,000. Wesam Lootah, Director General of GovDigital at the Department of Government Enablement, says the public-sector AI rollout stays governed and secure, with Advanced Data Residency on every licence keeping processing inside the UAE. AI training and certification come with it.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsCzechia24 Jun 2026
74% of Czech firms say they use AI, but only 17.8% use it fully
ČSOB — Some 74 percent of firms surveyed for ČSOB's Index of business expectations report AI adoption in Czech business, yet thorough use reaches only 17.8 percent, with 38 percent dabbling, 19 percent confining it to back-office paperwork and 15 percent calling the technology a danger. Sectoral spread is wide: consulting and creative services stand near 57 percent and professional and IT services at 52.5 percent, well above accommodation on 27 percent and agriculture, forestry and fishing on 11 percent. Asked about the coming six to twelve months, 70.5 percent of consulting and creative houses, 57.4 percent in HR services and roughly 43 percent in construction intend fresh artificial intelligence projects, across 400 firms and entrepreneurs polled.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsMartinique11 Jun 2026
Baromètre IA Martinique 2026 surveys AI use among 130 business leaders
Awitec — Awitec's Baromètre IA Martinique 2026 polled 130 company decision-makers on AI adoption in Martinique businesses, a snapshot of generative AI use among company decision-makers. 50% had only tried generative AI once or twice out of curiosity, 33% acted as strategic thinking partners with the tools, and 17% reached expert level in automation and agentic AI. 89% still lack a working grasp of EU AI Act requirements.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsLebanon6 Jun 2026
27.3% of Lebanon's working-age population used AI in early 2026
Microsoft AI Economy Institute — AI adoption in Lebanon hit 27.3% of the working-age population during the first quarter of 2026, on the Microsoft AI Economy Institute ranking — above 19.1% worldwide and 22% across Arab countries. Lebanon sits 33rd of 147 nations, fifth of 16 Arab states. The gauge tracks generative AI use, derived from anonymised telemetry Microsoft harvests within its ecosystems and calibrates for internet penetration and device share.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsDR Congo3 Jun 2026
Congolese micro-entrepreneurs use AI for translation, logos and customer replies
Universite Technologique du Congo — 125 semi-structured interviews in Kinshasa, Lubumbashi and Goma reveal youthful Congolese running micro-businesses on AI in the informal economy: ChatGPT and other large language models, picture generators and chatbot apps shoulder translation, logo work, automatic customer replies, marketing copy, stock ledgers and crop planning. Delphin B. Kyubwa of the Universite Technologique du Congo credits swapped tips in WhatsApp groups, YouTube clips and tinkering, never a classroom; his coinage is compressed professionalization. Creaking infrastructure throttles informal-sector AI use worst: pricey bandwidth, erratic current.
AlRayan Bank rolls out Microsoft 365 Copilot to its staff
AlRayan Bank — AlRayan Bank adopts Microsoft 365 Copilot for bank staff under the Qatar Central Bank's AI guidelines, covering presentations, data analysis, document drafting and summarising reports and emails, it announced on 20 May 2026. Teams are trialling the AI assistant for credit documentation automation and analysis, ESG analysis and ratings support, and mobile-app user stories.
AI use reaches 22.1% of Bosnia and Herzegovina's working-age population
Microsoft AI Economy Institute — AI adoption in Bosnia and Herzegovina reached 22.1% of the working-age population in the first quarter of 2026, 2.6 points above 19.5% for the second half of 2025 and 18.2% for the half before. Worldwide the share moved from 16.3% to 17.8% over those months, on the Microsoft AI Economy Institute count. Its gauge tracks generative AI use among 15- to 64-year-olds, from pooled, anonymised Microsoft telemetry corrected for operating system, device-market share, internet reach and population.
AI use reaches 8.7% of Central African Republic's working-age population
Microsoft AI Economy Institute — AI adoption in the Central African Republic reached 8.7% of the working-age population in the first quarter of 2026, 0.9 points above 7.8% for the second half of 2025 and 7.0% for the half before. Worldwide the share moved from 16.3% to 17.8% over those months, on the Microsoft AI Economy Institute count. Its gauge tracks generative AI use among 15- to 64-year-olds, from pooled, anonymised Microsoft telemetry corrected for operating system, device-market share, internet reach and population.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsEstonia7 Apr 2026
Half of Estonia's biggest firms run AI only on their own machines
KPMG Baltics — Caution rises with size: about half of firms turning over 20 million euros or more have stood up local artificial intelligence, double the norm, which KPMG lays to security and data-protection nerves — a distinctive shape to AI adoption in Estonian enterprises. Across respondents, 69 percent confine AI to a limited slice of staff, though one large firm in five is past 50 percent. Gains run high: 93 percent cite faster throughput, 84 percent better independent problem-solving. Norstat polled firms above five million euros of turnover whose people use such tools, for KPMG Baltics OÜ, whose senior IT consultant Martin Käärik weighed the enterprise AI uptake.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsTaiwan18 Mar 2026
Almost half of surveyed Taiwanese firms have scaled AI use
Artificial Intelligence Foundation — The Artificial Intelligence Foundation's 2026 survey of 228 companies in more than ten sectors lifted its AI adoption in Taiwan score to 43.62 from 36.77 a year earlier. Firms at the Ready AI or Scaling AI stages made up 47.8 per cent, and those still classed Unknowing AI fell to 26.8 per cent. ICT leads while mining, fishing, forestry, farming, construction and engineering trail well behind.
Hungary will give 500 SMEs an AI-based management system
Government Commissioner for Artificial Intelligence — Palkovics László, Hungary's government commissioner for artificial intelligence, has unveiled AI Start 500, handing an AI management system for SMEs to 500 Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises. Plugging them into AI-based business processes is the purpose, and the commissioner cast the scheme as a small-business AI platform that dissolves firms' wariness.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsIceland10 Mar 2026
Half of Icelandic companies use AI, Statistics Iceland reports
Statistics Iceland — Iceland's national statistics office finds nearly half of firms already deploy some kind of automated software, according to a first-of-its-kind poll into business technology uptake. Statistics Iceland's inaugural enterprise survey, run in 2025 and released March 2026, puts AI in business adoption at 48%, with 50% using specified AI technologies. Just 25% apply it to defined tasks and only 14% have a formal strategy, though text-analysis leads use at 45%. Adoption among enterprises reaches 81% among firms with 250-plus staff.
Paraná's state audit court rolls Microsoft Copilot out to its staff
Tribunal de Contas do Estado do Paraná (TCE-PR) — Paraná's state audit court, the TCE-PR, has rolled Microsoft 365 Copilot into its work at a staff launch, putting AI in public auditing alongside administrative and technical tasks. A training track follows, with basic AI literacy compulsory for every employee.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsBermuda31 Jan 2026
Half of Bermuda residents use AI at least weekly
Narrative Research Bermuda — Narrative Research Bermuda puts weekly AI use at work at nearly six in ten employed residents, and half of residents use AI weekly privately. 78 per cent gave strongest agreement to regulating AI; 62 per cent fear for jobs, 58 per cent flag AI-related dangers and 57 per cent dread leaks of confidential or sensitive information, while 33 per cent voice excitement. Fieldwork ran 5 December 2025 to 4 January 2026 across 248 residents aged 18 upwards on its Bermuda Voice panel, where $75,000-plus earners showed heavier workplace AI adoption.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsBelarus29 Jan 2026
Neural networks sit in 21% of Belarusian companies' processes
rabota.by research centre — Neural networks already run inside business processes at 21% of firms polled by the rabota.by research centre, with 13% intending to adopt artificial intelligence. The centre questioned 2,199 service users in November 2025, from specialists to owners, mapping AI in Belarusian business. Positive feeling towards workplace neural networks reaches 56%, and 43% already draft text, answer professional queries or produce content. Employers apply them mainly in marketing analytics, planning, forecasting, production, staff training and customer service.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsGreenland12 Jan 2026
85% of surveyed Greenlandic businesses already use AI
ilik konsulentfirma & Grønlands Erhverv — A poll of local firms by ilik konsulentfirma and the Confederation of Greenland Industry (Grønlands Erhverv) puts business AI adoption in Greenland at 85%. Staff lean chiefly on ChatGPT, Claude, Mistral and Copilot for drafting copy, running analysis, and shaping marketing or social posts. Nearly all, 91%, expect their AI use in Greenlandic companies to grow further, yet thin knowledge and weak skills still stand as the top obstacle.
Nearly nine in ten organisations now use AI, McKinsey finds
Nearly nine in ten organisations report using AI in at least one business function, up from 88%, and about 72% use generative AI in at least one, McKinsey's State of AI: Global Survey 2026 finds. Adoption is near-universal, though the respondent panel is self-selected.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsUnited States2026
21.8% of US businesses report using AI, Census Bureau finds
21.8% of U.S. businesses reported using AI in some business function in the two weeks to 26 July 2026, and 25.9% expected to within six months (Census Bureau BTOS, 13 August 2026). Use climbs with firm size: about 20–22% under 50 employees, 30.3% at 100–249 and 41.5% at 250-plus.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsUnited States2026
18% of US firms use AI, but adoption stays shallow
A nationally representative U.S. Census study of 117,000-plus firms (Nov 2025–Jan 2026) found 18% using AI in a business function, 32% employment-weighted. AI adoption is shallow: 57% of adopters use it in three or fewer functions, chiefly sales and marketing (52%), strategy and business development (45%) and IT (41%); 66% of users only augment existing tasks, and 2% of firms cut AI-related jobs.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsUnited Kingdom2026
UK AI adoption widened to 35% of firms but not deepened
UK AI adoption has spread without deepening. Among businesses with 10-plus staff, self-reported use of at least one AI technology rose from around 12% in late 2023 to around 35% by June 2026, and 49% at firms of 250-plus. Yet adopters' average number of AI technologies grew only from about 1.4 to 1.6, and just 10% report extensive AI use.
19.2% of Canadian businesses used AI, triple the 2024 rate
Canadian business AI adoption reached 19.2% in Q2 2026, triple the 6.1% of Q2 2024, counting use to produce goods or deliver services over the prior 12 months. Rates ran from 42.3% in information and cultural industries to 4.5% in agriculture; 44.4% of firms changed training or staffing because of AI use. Cybersecurity or privacy (13.4%) and cost (10.6%) led the barriers.
69% of firms use AI, but most report no impact yet
Among nearly 6,000 senior executives at US, UK, German and Australian firms, 69% say their firms actively use AI, yet nine in ten say it has not affected their firm's employment or productivity in the past three years. For the next three years they expect modest effects: productivity up an average 1.4%, output up 0.8% and employment down 0.7%.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsUnited States2026
About 55% of US workers have used AI on the job
About 55% of U.S. workers say they have used AI at work for at least one of 11 tasks, per a Census Bureau household survey fielded March 2026. Among last week's users, 31% saved one to two hours, 25% under an hour, 15% three to four hours and 15% over four hours, while 10% saved no time and 3% needed extra time.
EU's AI Omnibus defers high-risk obligations to 2027 and 2028
Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, the 'AI Omnibus', took effect on 27 July 2026, delaying AI Act high-risk duties: stand-alone Annex III systems from 2 December 2027 and AI in Annex I regulated products from 2 August 2028, instead of 2 August 2026. Its AI Act simplification gives small mid-caps relief once limited to SMEs, widens regulatory sandbox access with an EU-level sandbox and eases database registration for exempted systems.
Investec — Investec has given all 8,000 employees Microsoft Copilot across South African, UK and wider overseas businesses, calling it the country's first whole-workforce Copilot launch. More than 800 AI agents in banking now handle everyday analysis, drafting, reconciliation and admin work group-wide, saving over 350,000 staff hours annually by Investec's estimate. Lyndon Subroyen, global head of digital and technology, backs the bank-wide AI programme with training and an AI governance framework.
Bank of Italy finds AI raises firms' productivity and profitability
Banca d'Italia — A Bank of Italy occasional paper by Tiziano Ropele and Alex Tagliabracci finds that AI adoption lifts firms' labour productivity and profitability. Using the bank's survey of industrial and private non-financial service firms with 50-plus staff, matched to balance sheets and worker data, it sees a shift to higher-skilled jobs with total employment holding; just over 10% used AI in 2024.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsChad2026-05
Chad's AI use climbs to 8.7% of the working-age population
Microsoft AI Economy Institute — AI adoption in Chad stands at 8.7% of the working-age population for the opening quarter of 2026, a gain of 0.9 points on 7.8% across late 2025 and 7.0% earlier that year. The world average climbed 16.3% to 17.8%, the Global South 14.1% to 15.4%. Microsoft's AI Economy Institute derives generative AI use among 15- to 64-year-olds from pooled, anonymised telemetry, corrected for handset and operating-system mix, connectivity and headcount.
SOMPO gives an AI agent to 30,000 Japanese group staff
SOMPO Holdings — SOMPO Holdings began rolling out an in-house AI agent for employees, about 30,000 across domestic group companies, from January 2026, including all staff at SOMPO Holdings and core operating company Sompo Japan. With Google Cloud's Gemini Enterprise as the main tool, the group is testing what the agent actually changes about work. The goal is a foundation for reworking practices and processes rather than tinkering with them.
Global corporate AI investment reached $581.7 billion in 2025
Global corporate AI investment hit US$581.7 billion in 2025, up 130% year on year, including US$344.7 billion of private AI investment (up 127.5% on 2024), with generative AI taking nearly half. This replaces the ledger's 2024 figure of US$252.3 billion (private investment up 44.5% YoY) from the 2025 AI Index.
DBS runs over 2,000 AI models delivering S$1 billion in value
DBS Bank says its AI value in banking reached about S$1 billion in 2025 from more than 2,000 AI models across 430-plus use cases, up from over S$750 million across 370-plus in 2024. The figure, from the annual report's chairman and CEO letter, is DBS's internal estimate of costs saved and revenue gained, unaudited, and harder to isolate as AI embeds in daily workflows.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsEuropean Union2025
20% of EU enterprises used AI in 2025, up from 13.5%
AI adoption in EU enterprises with 10 or more employees reached 20.0% in 2025, 6.5 percentage points above 2024's 13.5%. Uptake climbs with company size (17% small, 30.4% medium, 55.0% large) and spans 42.0% in Denmark to 5.2% in Romania.
Workers with an AI assistant spent two fewer hours weekly on email
In a randomised field experiment across 66 firms and 7,137 knowledge workers given a generative AI assistant inside their existing email, meeting and writing tools, the 80% of treated workers who used it cut email time by two hours a week over the final three months of the six-month trial and worked less out of hours. Researchers found no shift in how much or what kind of work they did.
AI adopters' productivity edge shrinks to 5% once controls are added
Linking AI-adoption survey answers to administrative business microdata, Statistics Canada found the raw productivity premium of AI adopters mostly vanishes once other firm traits are controlled for. Adopters' labour productivity was 16.8% above non-adopters' at baseline, 10.2% after controlling for prior productivity, and 5.1%, statistically insignificant, after adding complementary capabilities: robotics, cloud computing, data analytics, R&D and ICT training. Built on 2019 and 2021 survey waves, it predates generative AI.
Canada
Thailand
Netherlands
Austria
Albania
France
Egypt
Puerto Rico
Cyprus
United States
Colombia
Germany
Chile
Andorra
Japan
Georgia
Hungary
Mayotte
United Arab Emirates
Czechia
Martinique
Lebanon
DR Congo
Qatar
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Central African Republic
Estonia
Taiwan
Iceland
Brazil
Bermuda
Belarus
Greenland
United Kingdom
European Union
South Africa
Italy
Chad
Singapore