{"id":16755,"date":"2026-10-30T10:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T10:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/?p=16755"},"modified":"2026-10-30T10:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T10:05:14","slug":"edge-institute-and-concordia-employers-confederation-study-over-6-out-of-10-companies-in-romania-use-artificial-intelligence-but-only-3-have-integrated-it-into-processes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/?p=16755","title":{"rendered":"Edge Institute and Concordia Employers’ Confederation study: over 6 out of 10 companies in Romania use artificial intelligence, but only 3% have integrated it into processes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Edge Institute and the Concordia Employers’ Confederation have launched the study “Widespread use, superficial integration. Artificial intelligence in Romanian companies”, based on a representative survey of 1,003 companies with at least 10 employees.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Eurostat, Romania ranks last in the European Union for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in companies, with 5.2%. The study measures the wider use, including the informal use of chatbot tools by employees, and shows that AI is present in most Romanian companies. Most of the time, however, technology is used superficially: without rules, without training and without the digital foundation that would bring productivity gains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Main conclusions<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

1. Widespread use, superficial integration. 61.7% of companies with at least 10 employees use AI in one form or another, but only 13.5% use it regularly, and 3.3% have integrated it into the company’s processes. In 56% of companies that use AI, the technology reaches less than a quarter of employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Companies are not institutionally prepared. Only 20% of companies have any employee training measure, 26% have some rule for the responsible use of AI, and 15% consider AI an important component of the strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Digitalization matters more than the size of the company. 46% of companies do not use any of the eight digital tools measured (55% of companies with 10-25 employees, compared to 3% of large ones). The use of AI increases from 33% in companies without digital tools to 91% in those with three or more, and at the same level of digitization, the size of the company no longer has a significant effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. The gap risks widening. 30% of companies want to invest in AI: 6% of those without digital tools and 75% of those with five or more. 78% of companies that want to invest need external funding. On the other hand, 39% of companies have not analyzed AI and do not consider it relevant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Alexandru D\u0103nescu, co-author of the study, highlighted the following aspects: <\/strong>“The Romanian economy does not lack interest in artificial intelligence (AI), but instead has a digitalization problem. Almost half of companies are not at all or poorly digitized, so in these organizations AI means at most a chatbot used by an employee. That is why public funding in this direction must start with basic digitization before any step to integrate AI into companies’ activities.”<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recommendations: Basic digitalisation before AI<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PNRR scheme “Digitization of SMEs”, the only grant scheme for companies that want to equip themselves digitally, has a payment deadline of October 30, 2026. The 2026-2028 government program announces vouchers for the adoption of AI, cloud and cybersecurity in SMEs, but does not specify their budget and calendar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study proposes three principles for future funding:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • Public money for AI should reach the companies that use it, not just those that develop it. Romania seems poorly positioned in the race for AI development, but it can win the race for the use of technology for productivity.<\/span><\/li>
  • Basic digitization before AI. The first step is a digital tool for basic functions such as electronic document management.<\/span><\/li>
  • Support to reach companies that are not looking for it, through free digital diagnosis offered on a large scale and applied examples of the use of AI in companies in the same sector.<\/span><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    The study was discussed at the event “How do Romanian companies use artificial intelligence?”. The presentation of the study was followed by a panel between Radu Mihaiu (president of the IT&C Committee, Chamber of Deputies), Cristi Movil\u0103 (founder and CEO, OptiComm.AI) and Radu Postolache (president of ANIS and General Manager, Qualysoft), who discussed the needs of companies, opportunities and the EU’s direction on this issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Regarding the relationship between the state and the private sector, the Minister Delegate stressed that the state should at least not create additional obstacles to the business environment. Also on the sidelines of yesterday’s event, the Minister Delegate detailed the measure of the vouchers proposed to support the integration of AI in companies:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    “As they are in the government program, these vouchers come, first of all, to help a company, especially SMEs, to validate a process, to validate a certain integration, an adoption of AI components in their ecosystem. If this process works, it will continue to receive this kind of support. We are talking about two things: to help SMEs to obtain, to be able to validate, to have access to resources for validating a process, and if the process produces the expected results, then it should be fully implemented.”, Bogdan Dumitru, Minister Delegate for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    About the study<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The survey was commissioned by Edge Institute and the Concordia Employers’ Confederation and conducted by MIA between June 30 and July 28, 2026, through 1,003 telephone interviews with decision-makers from companies with at least 10 employees (owners, directors, IT managers or other top managers). The results are weighted to be representative at national level. The authors of the study are Roland Kristo, Alexandru D\u0103nescu and Vlad Zaha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The study is part of a series of research conducted by or for the Edge Institute aimed at digitalization and artificial intelligence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    • Romanians in the diaspora and digitalization: perceptions, needs and recommendations (August 2026). The lack of digitalization costs Romanians in the diaspora approximately 1.54 billion euros per year.<\/li>
    • Artificial intelligence in pre-university education (October 2026). 98% of high school students have already used artificial intelligence.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      By the end of the year, further research will be published on:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      • the degree of penetration of AI in university education (4 November);<\/span><\/li>
      • the use of AI by teachers;<\/span><\/li>
      • the use of AI in central public administration;<\/span><\/li>
      • use of AI among the Romanian population.<\/span><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        About Edge Institute<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Edge Institute is a think tank whose mission is to propose, generate and actively co-organize the architecture of public policies, governance and digital infrastructure to accelerate digitalization in Romania, by achieving a national consensus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        About the Concordia Employers’ Confederation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        The Concordia Employers’ Confederation is the voice of the Romanian business environment, a cross-sectoral organization established as a social partner based on the Social Dialogue Law. It represents over 4,200 companies with Romanian and foreign capital from 20 essential industries that produce over 30% of Romania’s GDP and employ 500,000 employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        The Edge Institute and the Concordia Employers’ Confederation have launched the study “Widespread use, superficial integration. Artificial intelligence in Romanian companies”, based on a representative survey of 1,003 companies with at least 10 employees. According to Eurostat, Romania ranks last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,19,18,6,3,5,17,317],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16755"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16762,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16755\/revisions\/16762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}