'The EU’s next chapter in AI is agentic': New OpenAI report claims agent use is on the rise across Europe — but it still has some way to catch up to other markets

• OpenAI has seen agentic AI usage surge among SMBs following the launch of ChatGPT Work
• EU only accounts for 10% of 'frontier firms' – North America is home to 65%
• More works needs to be done on accessibility, affordability and skills

OpenAI's latest research has revealed just how widespread agentic AI usage is growing across Europe, with AI agents now accounting for more than half (55%) of the output tokens among the company's enterprise and business customers in the EU – leaving more basic generative AI handling the other 45%.

In its report, the company argues European businesses are now in the midst of a major transition, from using AI to simply answer questions to getting AI to complete tasks for them.

The biggest shift OpenAI has seen coincides with the launch of ChatGPT Work, an agentic tool built into the company's 'superapp'.

Agentic AI vs generative AI

Crucially, the metrics are based on output tokens and not the proportion of companies using AI. In other words, the report isn't claiming that more businesses use agentic AI, it's just saying that those who do are producing more output than non-adopters.

But while the European average stands at 55%, there are notable disparities – Slovenia (22%), Austria (26%) and Portugal (29%) fall short, while Lithuania (85%), Cyprus (81%) and Hungary (79%) trend ahead of the curve.

The report also shows how it's the small business' time to shine, while many large enterprises have already invested heavily in artificial intelligence. By making agentic AI more accessible via its "superapp", OpenAI saw European SME AI agent usage increase more than 8x in less than half a year. The biggest spike started around the time that ChatGPT Work went public.

These findings imply that smaller businesses are now experimenting with the tech capabilities that were previously only associated with bigger companies.

"Europe is now in a new era of AI, with tools that can carry out tasks for people," OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar wrote.

Slow growth in Europe compared with other regions

Despite solid growth in adoption, Europe still falls short, OpenAI says. Countries in the EU only account for around 10% of the world's so-called frontier firms – companies that are in the top tenth of businesses ranked by AI output tokens per active user.

That puts the EU behind EMEA (11%), APAC (13%) and North America (65%). Growth also differs per region, with non-EU frontier firms seeing a 12.9x growth between May and September versus just 6.1x for EU firms.

OpenAI doesn't seem too worried about these findings, rather seeing them as an opportunity for the business within Europe. But for companies who feel like they could be getting more out of AI, the ChatGPT maker wants to encourage organizations to move beyond experimentation and trials.

Some priorities highlighted in its blog post include improving accessibility, affordability and workforce skills.

"Giving people the tools, skills and confidence to use AI well will help build stronger businesses and growing economies, with benefits felt across Europe," Friar added.

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