Overview
- The Münchner ifo Institut found that 54.5% of German companies reported using AI in their business processes in May 2026, with a further 16% planning adoption and 21.6% discussing it.
- Use has climbed rapidly from 40.9% in 2025 to 54.5% in May 2026 and has risen especially fast in construction, where adoption jumped from 7.1% to 39.8% over three years.
- Adoption is uneven by sector and size with the industrial sector at about 58.7%, services at 56.2%, trade around 45%, and large firms using AI far more often (67.2%) than medium (47.2%) or small (51.2%) firms.
- Nearly three quarters of AI users rely on paid external offerings while 48.4% also use free tools, 22.5% use only free systems, and 18.7% run in‑house AI, reflecting different vendor ties and development paths.
- Companies mainly deploy AI for routine tasks such as administration, data analysis, programming, correspondence, planning, controlling and customer contact which may raise new needs for training, vendor oversight and regulation.