{"id":170224,"date":"2026-07-13T09:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T08:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/?p=170224"},"modified":"2026-07-13T09:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T08:44:10","slug":"europe-narrows-ai-readiness-gap-with-north-america-as-smaller-firms-risk-falling-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/2026\/07\/13\/europe-narrows-ai-readiness-gap-with-north-america-as-smaller-firms-risk-falling-behind\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe narrows AI readiness gap with North America as smaller firms risk falling behind"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>European companies have accelerated their AI readiness over the past six months, narrowing the gap with North American rivals, although the region still trails overall, according to Accenture\u2019s inaugural <em>AI Progress Barometer<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The study assessed nearly 3,000 of the world\u2019s largest companies, measuring AI readiness through data quality, workforce skills, technology foundations and business processes. Scores ranged from 0 to 100, with higher ratings reflecting stronger AI capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>European businesses increased their average AI readiness score by 1.6 points, compared with a 1.1-point improvement in North America. Despite the stronger momentum, North American companies maintained a higher average score of 48.9, while Europe reached 43.1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The research highlighted a widening divide between Europe\u2019s largest and smaller businesses. Companies generating more than US$10 billion in annual revenue trailed North American counterparts by just 2.1 points, while smaller firms lagged by 7.6 points, raising concerns over long-term competitiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Accenture said Europe\u2019s biggest organisations were increasingly embracing enterprise-wide AI transformation through stronger governance, leadership engagement, modernised data platforms and redesigned operating models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>France, the United Kingdom and Spain recorded the strongest improvements in AI readiness. Insurance, travel and consumer goods posted the fastest sector gains &#8211; with insurers leading through extensive process modernisation and data improvements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Accenture said European organisations were shifting from AI experimentation to large-scale deployment by redesigning workflows, improving data quality and equipping employees with the skills needed to support long-term AI-driven growth and innovation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>European companies have accelerated their AI readiness over the past six months, narrowing the gap with North American rivals, although the region still trails overall, according to Accenture\u2019s inaugural AI Progress Barometer. The study assessed nearly 3,000 of the world\u2019s largest companies, measuring AI readiness through data quality, workforce skills, technology foundations and business processes. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":170225,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21064,6617,93],"tags":[3476,22565,22526,19032,577,26252,14823,76,20475,8,4555,8281,31,26251],"class_list":["post-170224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai","category-research","category-top-stories","tag-accenture","tag-ai-governance","tag-ai-investment","tag-ai-readiness","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-business-productivity","tag-data-strategy","tag-digital-transformation","tag-enterprise-ai","tag-europe","tag-insurance","tag-north-america","tag-technology","tag-workforce-skills"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170226,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170224\/revisions\/170226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}