Fortune Greece: The real reason Greek SMEs are falling behind on AI
Alexandros Karagiannis of our team writes for Fortune Greece on why Greek SMEs are falling behind on AI, and why the gap is about skills, infrastructure and time rather than AI itself.
Alexandros Karagiannis, Digital Transformation & Programmes Lead and Principal Transformation Consultant for Greece at Capacitor Partners, writes for Fortune Greece on why Greek SMEs are falling behind on AI. Here are the key highlights and numbers.
- Almost 84% of Greeks aged 16 to 24 used a generative AI tool in early 2025, the highest rate in the EU (Eurostat).
- Under 9% of Greek businesses with ten or more employees used any AI technology, against an EU average of almost 20%, placing Greece in the bottom five of the Union (Eurostat).
- In 2024 only 53% of Greek SMEs reached even a basic level of digital intensity, against an EU average of 73%; Finland and Denmark stand at 93% and 90%, already meeting the EU 2030 target of 90% (Cedefop).
- Of nearly 300 Greek companies surveyed in late 2023, over 82% of those outside the technology sector said generative AI can improve productivity, yet only 9% had adjusted their strategy to use it (SEPE and Deloitte).
- A separate European Investment Bank survey shows the same pattern: Denmark and Austria at the top of digital adoption, Greece near the bottom.
- The problem is not AI itself. SMEs employ the vast majority of the Greek workforce, so a skills or digitalisation gap at that scale is a national issue, not a business one.
- Hiring alone cannot close the gap given the national skills shortage. What works is treating the first year of AI adoption, and AI governance, as a partnership with people who have already built that capability.
- Greece does not need more enthusiasm for AI. It needs specialists, infrastructure and time, in that order.
Read the full article on Fortune Greece
About Capacitor Partners
Capacitor Partners is a technology and strategy consulting firm working with leaders in the private and public sectors across Cyprus and Greece. Our work covers digital transformation, product management, AI transformation, process reengineering and business technology strategy, delivered across eleven industry verticals.
We work inside client organisations rather than beside them. Every engagement begins by defining what the organisation is trying to change and how anyone would know it had worked, and continues until the change is running in production and someone internally owns it. As a certified authorised Zoho partner we also implement and support Zoho Projects and Zoho CRM where a platform is part of the answer.
Alongside client work we publish original research, including the Digital Cyprus Survey, and our consultants write for the wider press on how organisations adopt technology. Case studies set out completed engagements in detail, and our services page explains how each of the four core service lines works.
