Spanish companies intensify their artificial intelligence (AI) adoption efforts, with 50% of businesses from the country already using the technology, 39% more than a year before, and eight percentage points above the EU average. Startups are also initiating their activity with AI use in mind, with 42% having made it the centre of their strategy.

AWS has published its latest edition of the study Unlocking the Potential of AI in Spain in 2025, which details the process of adoption of AI technologies by companies in Spain during 2024. Amazon has stated companies are adopting AI faster than mobile phones in the first decade of the 2000s at a global level.

This translates into the fact that currently, there are 1.6 million Spanish companies employing AI, and only last year, more than 450,000 companies adopted AI for the first time, which is equivalent to a new company adopting the tech “almost every minute”, according to Amazon. In total, the increased rate of adoption of digital technologies, especially AI, could unlock 282 billion euros for the Spanish economy, the US company highlights.

Startups lead the AI path

More specifically, it is the startups that lead this AI adoption in Spain, with 63% of them already employing this technology and up to 42% having made AI the centre of their strategy. Moreover, startups are the driving force, through their advancements in digitalisation, of competitiveness for companies in Spain.

On the contrary, only 6% of large companies in Spain have an AI strategy, as the country does not have a clear AI plan, and only 15% offer new products or services using the capabilities of this technology. Instead, 69% of these large corporations use AI services to develop basic applications and are still not taking advantage of it for “advanced uses”, Amazon notes.

In spite of all this, the study shows that almost all companies (96%) that have adopted artificial intelligence for their products or processes have experienced an average increase in their profits by 34%. On this topic, the national director of AWS for Spain and Portugal, Suzana Curic, has expressed that the sector is “at a turning point” for AI. “We are just beginning to see the benefits that this technology can bring to companies,” she highlights.

Where are the AI professionals?

The Amazon study also analyses how the lack of skills in AI is one of the most urgent and widespread challenges among Spanish companies at present, as it represents a direct limitation to adopting this technology.

Specifically, four out of ten companies surveyed have indicated that they have difficulties in finding talent with the “necessary experience to implement and manage AI solutions.” Thus, in order to face this situation, around half have implemented training programmes in AI.

Another relevant aspect is the attraction of talent, for which it has been recorded that companies are offering an average salary increase of 45% for candidates with this type of digital skills. According to the technology company, this behaviour is “a clear sign of the increasing value placed into technical experience in the labour market.”