Only 11.5% of Portuguese companies with 10 or more employees were using artificial intelligence solutions in 2025, a figure that places the country below the 20% average recorded in the European Union, according to the report "Radar on AI use and supply in Portugal 2026" by Via Analítica. The gap between Portugal and the EU average has grown significantly: in 2023, the difference was only 0.2 percentage points, rising to 8.5 percentage points two years later.
Barriers to implementation in companies
A lack of technical knowledge and high financial costs are the main obstacles identified by national companies. According to data from SAPO TeK citing the same radar, 74% of companies that considered using AI gave up due to a lack of internal skills, while 60% point to cost as the prohibitive factor. In the European Union, the weight of the cost factor is lower, affecting only 38% of organizations. Companies also express reservations regarding legal clarity, privacy, and data protection.
Interestingly, the individual use of these tools in Portugal follows a different trajectory. Among the population aged 16 to 74, 38.7% use generative AI tools, surpassing the European average of 32.7%. This disconnect between individual consumption and operational integration in companies suggests that the technology is present in daily life but has yet to find a structured place in business processes.
Investment and the IT market in Portugal
The government has been channeling investment to overcome these difficulties through the "AI in SMEs" support line, which has already approved 2,847 projects with total funding of 435 million euros. It is expected that 92% of these projects will be completed by 2027 or 2028, focusing primarily on document management, marketing, sales, and customer service.
For the IT market in Portugal, the scenario is one of growth in supply. Between January and September 2026, 336 out of 2,187 new IT companies declared that they offer AI products or services. Furthermore, the country has 486 specialized startups employing 4,108 people. The demand for specialized talent is also reflected in job postings: in 2025, AI engineering skills accounted for 4.1% of vacancies published on LinkedIn, a figure that exceeds the 2.5% mark indicated by the OECD. The challenge for the sector remains the ability to convert this investment into effective usage, at the risk of companies accumulating solutions they cannot integrate into their work routines.
