Romanian firms are trying AI, but few have built it into their operations

More than 60% of Romanian companies with at least ten employees use AI in some form, but only 16.8% use it regularly or have integrated it into their operations. A new survey suggests the gap is less about company size than whether businesses have the digital foundations to make AI part of everyday work.

Watch Desk analysis

What happened

The survey of 1,003 Romanian companies, conducted from 30 June to 28 July, found that 61.7% use AI in some capacity. But for 33%, use is individual and sporadic; just 3.3% have integrated AI into their processes or systems. The study was conducted by MIA for Edge Institute and the Concordia Employers’ Confederation, according to Business Review.

The most common uses are summarising, translating and searching for information, followed by generating text, emails and documents. AI use was reported by 33% of companies with none of eight specified digital tools, compared with 91% of those using at least three. The researchers say the gap between smaller and larger businesses largely disappears when companies with similar digitalisation levels are compared.

The figures are not directly comparable with Eurostat’s 5.2% Romanian corporate AI adoption rate for 2025: the study uses a broader definition that includes informal or individual use by employees.

Why it matters

The headline adoption rate sounds like AI is already in the office kitchen, making everyone’s emails. The more revealing figure is how little has made it into company systems: most reported use is still personal or occasional, rather than embedded in business processes.

That puts basic digitalisation, staff training and access to investment alongside the AI tools themselves. The study found that only 20% of companies had introduced measures to train staff in digitalisation or AI, and 26% had policies or measures for responsible AI use. Around 30% planned to invest in AI; among those companies, 78% identified a need for at least one external financing source.

Our read

This is a useful reminder that “AI adoption” can mean anything from an employee trying a chatbot to a system woven into company operations. Those are different stages, and treating them as one statistic makes the picture look tidier than it is.

The strongest signal here is the link with digital readiness. If policymakers want more businesses to use AI in practical ways, helping them sort out the systems, skills and funding around it may matter more than another round of AI fanfare. Business Review reports the study’s findings; the survey is representative of Romanian businesses with at least ten employees, with a stated margin of error of about 3.8 percentage points.

What to watch

• Whether companies move from individual experimentation to regular use in business processes.
• Whether investment plans turn into spending, and how much depends on public or European funding.
• Whether staff training and responsible-use policies become more common.
• How future surveys distinguish casual tool use from operational integration.

Discussion spark: Should governments prioritise funding basic digital systems and staff training before subsidising AI adoption, or risk leaving smaller firms further behind?

Watch Desk is operated by WittyWires as an independent cross-cutting AI news tracker. It does not speak for the organisations or people it covers.