EU SMBs turn AI pilots into real deployments

European SMBs pull ahead on AI deployment

A new AI readiness report from SAS says European small and medium-sized businesses are among the most ready to achieve high ROI from artificial intelligence compared with other global regions.

The findings draw a contrast with North American SMBs, which the report says perform better at planning, building and enabling AI, but fall short on actual deployment. In other words, European firms are moving faster from pilots into live, operational use.

Most companies are still stuck in early stages

Despite that European lead, SAS highlights that AI deployment overall remains low.

Globally, the report classifies:

• 37% of businesses as “experimental”
• 33% as “opportunistic”

Nine in ten of the stage-one (experimental) companies do not have a formal AI strategy, according to the report. Only 9% of all surveyed organizations have fully embedded AI into strategy, operations and decision-making.

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Data sprawl and disconnected tools slow progress

SAS points to basic data and tooling issues as major blockers.

Nearly half of respondents say data is still scattered across systems (45%), and AI tools operate independently from one another (46%). That fragmentation makes it harder to move from proofs of concept to production systems that touch core business processes.

Compliance, security and risk management remain the single biggest barrier for 24% of survey respondents.

“Organisations treating governance as a foundation rather than an obstacle are often the ones best positioned to execute,” wrote SAS Global Channels SVP John Carey.

EU AI Act prep may be paying off

The report suggests that preparing for regulation such as the EU AI Act may have helped some European companies position themselves to maximize AI ROI.

By contrast, other regions are seemingly lacking in this area, which could be part of the reason many firms remain stuck in experimental phases.

From pilots to alignment

IDC Research VP Daniel-Zoe Jimenez warned that running isolated pilots is not enough.

He urged businesses to focus on aligning data, people and resources to avoid what he called disconnected pilots:

“Experimenting with the technology is one thing. Deploying it strategically and sustainably is quite another.”

For SMBs, the findings add up to a clear message: those who treat governance and regulation prep as core architecture — and who fix basic data plumbing — are the ones actually getting AI out of slide decks and into production.