AI agents: European SMEs speed up, but Europe still lags behind, according to OpenAI

OpenAI has published a report on the use of its tools in Europe. Its finding: AI agents, systems that carry out tasks instead of simply answering questions, are making clear progress in companies across the European Union, including SMEs. But among the most advanced companies, Europe remains far behind North America. These figures should be read carefully, as they come from a provider that sells these tools.

What the report really measures

According to OpenAI, cited by TechRadar Pro, agents now account for 55% of the tokens generated by the company’s Enterprise and Business customers in the European Union, compared with 45% for more conventional uses of generative AI. Tokens are the units of text a model produces: the more a tool works, the more it generates.

Therein lies the key nuance, highlighted by TechRadar Pro: the measure is based on token volume, not on the proportion of companies using AI. The report therefore does not say that more companies are already using agents, but that those that have adopted them generate more content than the others.

The European average hides wide gaps. Again according to the report, the share of agents reaches only 22% in Slovenia, 26% in Austria and 29% in Portugal, while it climbs to 85% in Lithuania, 81% in Cyprus and 79% in Hungary.

SMEs speed up with ChatGPT Work

OpenAI claims that small businesses are starting to catch up with large organisations, which have been investing in artificial intelligence for longer. The number of weekly active users of Codex and ChatGPT Work in European SMEs reportedly grew more than eightfold in less than six months. The sharpest acceleration coincides with the public launch of ChatGPT Work, the agentic tool OpenAI has built into its “superapp”.

This finding concerns the use of OpenAI’s products, as measured by OpenAI. It says nothing about other providers, nor about the actual gains achieved by companies.

“Europe is now entering a new era of AI, with tools capable of carrying out tasks for users,” says Sarah Friar, OpenAI’s chief financial officer.

Lagging among pioneering companies

The report defines “pioneering” companies as the 10% of organisations that generate the most tokens per active user. According to OpenAI, the European Union accounts for only about 10% of them, behind the non-EU EMEA region (11%), Asia-Pacific (13%) and above all North America, which is home to 65%.

The gap also concerns speed. Between May and September, pioneering companies outside the European Union multiplied their activity by 12.9, compared with 6.1 for their European counterparts, according to the report.

OpenAI sees this less as bad news than as growth potential in Europe, a reading that also serves its commercial interests.

Cost, accessibility, skills: the obstacles cited

For companies that feel they are not making full use of artificial intelligence, OpenAI mainly recommends moving beyond the stage of experiments and pilot projects. The report highlights better accessibility of tools, more affordable pricing and the development of skills within teams. “Giving citizens the tools, skills and confidence they need to use AI well will help build stronger businesses and growing economies, with benefits felt across Europe,” adds Sarah Friar.

For a Swiss SME, these obstacles are concrete: what intensive use of AI agents costs, tools suited to its size, trained staff. The sources, however, give no figures on Switzerland, which therefore cannot be placed in this ranking.

Jensen Huang urges Europe to speed up

According to AFP, as reported by Allnews, Nvidia chief Jensen Huang urged Europe on Thursday evening in Stockholm to step up its AI industry. “Every company will one day be an AI company. Every sector will be affected by AI,” he said at the launch of Sferical One, a Swedish supercomputer equipped with Nvidia chips.

Nvidia has invested eight billion dollars in AI in Europe over the past year, Jensen Huang told AFP, citing in particular the British data centre and AI cloud provider Nscale and the Dutch AI cloud provider Nebius. Like OpenAI, Nvidia sells what it recommends: its call is a statement of intent, not a measure of what European companies are actually doing.

Sources

• TechRadar Pro (France): “‘The next chapter of AI in Europe will be agentic’: OpenAI sees strong progress, but a lag persists”
• Allnews: “For the Nvidia boss, every company will eventually become an AI company”