The Bank of Spain notes that the use of artificial intelligence technologies among Spanish small and medium-sized enterprises has doubled since 2024, to stand in a range of between 30% and 35% in the first quarter of 2026. In the case of large companies, the implementation of these tools is now around 70%.
According to the supervisory body, the gap in the degree of use of AI between SMEs and large corporations remains at very similar levels to those observed two years ago, without having been reduced appreciably.
The analysis, prepared from the data of the Bank of Spain Survey on Business Activity (EBAE) and the Integrated Balance Sheet Database (CBI), concludes that companies that incorporate AI record higher levels of productivity, higher wages and a greater presence of intangible assets in their structure.
By sector of activity, the information and communications sector continues to lead in the use of these solutions, with 60% of companies using predictive or generative tools, compared with the 40% recorded in 2024.
The study also points out that traditionally lagging sectors, such as agriculture and construction, have accelerated the adoption of AI to near 30% penetration, which implies almost 20 percentage points more than two years ago.
Impact on employment and productivity
On the labor front, the supervisory authority notes that the arrival of AI has had a limited effect on employment in the last three years, given that around 89% of companies have not observed significant changes in the size of their workforces.
Even so, among companies that make intensive use of generative AI, 13% say they have increased their number of employees, while 10% acknowledge having reduced it.
In terms of efficiency and spending, more than a quarter of the firms consulted says it has achieved increases in productivity and investment levels after the introduction of these technologies.
In addition, in the group of companies that use generative AI most intensively, more than 60% says it has recorded improvements in productivity and investment over the three-year period analyzed.
Barriers and forecasts for AI
As for the brakes on their deployment, the lack of personnel with the appropriate qualification stands as the main obstacle for approximately half of the companies, a percentage that exceeds 55% in sectors such as industry, energy, transport, and agriculture.
Among the companies that have not yet incorporated these tools, which account for around 70% of the business fabric, resource limitations appear as the most frequently cited difficulty, with 61% of the responses.
Looking at the next three years, the projections of the Banco de España indicate that 61% of large companies expect AI to have a positive effect on productivity, compared with 27% of SMEs.
Likewise, 79% of large organizations expect to strengthen the training of their staff, and 62% are considering hiring profiles with greater specialization to face this technological transformation process.