DigitalEU Takes Europe’s Scale Debate to Web Summit

Key Takeaways

DigitalEU is highlighting rapid gains in business digitalisation alongside persistent gaps in cloud and AI adoption
European startups are attracting more capital, but the region still trails the United States in AI investment
Turning adoption into economic scale will depend on infrastructure, skills, procurement, and later-stage funding

Europe’s digital economy arrives at Web Summit 2026 with a somewhat contradictory story. More companies are adopting artificial intelligence, small businesses are becoming more digital, and investment in European startups is rising. Yet the region remains well short of several ambitions set under the EU Digital Decade Policy Programme 2030.

That tension gives DigitalEU a practical agenda for the event. Its focus spans cloud computing, startups, high-performance computing, data policy, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and EU funding for digital projects. These areas are closely connected. An AI startup, for example, needs computing capacity, access to usable data, skilled employees, cloud infrastructure, and enough capital to move beyond an early commercial foothold.

Adoption is moving in the right direction. According to Eurostat, 20.0% of EU enterprises with at least 10 employees used AI technologies in 2025, up from 13.5% in 2024. This 6.5 percentage point annual increase reflects companies shifting from experimental generative AI projects toward active deployments for forecasting, customer service, software development, and internal knowledge management.

Still, four out of five enterprises were not using AI in 2025. The headline growth rate therefore masks a large implementation gap. Smaller companies face distinct hurdles around data quality, integration costs, staff expertise, and legal risk. Buying access to a model is relatively easy; re-architecting operations to fully leverage that model presents substantial organizational challenges.

Broader digitalisation figures look stronger. The European Commission reported that 71.38% of EU SMEs had at least a basic level of digital intensity in 2025, compared with 57.90% in 2023. The underlying Digital Intensity Index measures adoption across 12 technologies, offering a more useful view than simply asking whether a business owns computers or maintains a website.

Basic digital intensity serves as a starting line rather than a final productivity outcome. A business may use digital accounting, online sales, and collaboration applications without having the data architecture or technical staff needed for more advanced automation. That distinction matters when policymakers assess whether Europe is merely digitising existing processes or creating companies capable of competing globally.

Cloud adoption illustrates the distance still to travel. Recent figures show 46.69% of EU enterprises used sophisticated or intermediate cloud services in 2025, below the EU’s 75% target for 2030 (source). The gap affects more than cloud providers. Modern AI development, data analytics, and distributed software operations depend on scalable computing resources. Sovereign-infrastructure provider OVHcloud addresses this gap by offering commercial computing capacity specifically designed to meet European requirements for resilience, jurisdiction, and control over sensitive data.

The investment picture is similarly mixed. AI accounted for 27% of European venture-capital investment in 2025 (source). Europe-based startups raised approximately $58 billion during the year, about 9% more than in 2024, while AI attracted roughly $17.5 billion and became the region’s leading startup investment sector.

But between 2020 and 2025, Europe received only 18% of total VC funding for AI, versus 34% for the United States. Developing more companies such as Mistral AI requires promising businesses to secure large growth rounds at home. Early-stage innovation remains important, but later-stage capital provides the resources companies need to hire internationally, build infrastructure, expand sales, and withstand long product-development cycles.

The examples extend beyond AI. Klarna demonstrates why scaling involves more than just a research challenge; it requires navigating regulation, market access, financing, and cross-border operations. Meanwhile, Observe Europe tracks the uneven progress in SME digital intensity, reinforcing that aggregate EU gains can conceal substantial differences among countries and sectors.

DigitalEU’s Web Summit 2026 presence therefore lands at an important point. Europe has more adoption, higher AI investment, and a broader base of digitally active SMEs than it did only a few years ago. The next step involves connecting those gains to cloud capacity, commercial deployment, and growth capital. Progress is visible. Scale remains the definitive test.

Editorial oversight by Rich Tehrani — CEO of TMC and creator of ITEXPO.

Disclosure: Rich Tehrani is also CEO of RT Advisors and a Registered Representative offering securities through Four Points Capital Partners LLC (Member FINRA/SIPC). Nothing in this article is an endorsement or recommendation to buy or sell any security or sector mentioned. RT Advisors may have or have had business relationships with companies mentioned in TMC Insight articles. Such relationships do not affect editorial judgment or coverage.