Europe narrows AI readiness gap with North America by 1.6 points

European companies are closing the AI readiness gap with North America, but a widening internal divide threatens to leave smaller firms behind.

Europe's largest companies improved their AI readiness scores by 1.6 points over the past six months, outpacing North America's 1.1-point gain, according to Accenture's inaugural AI Progress Barometer. The report assessed roughly 3,000 of the world's largest companies on a 0-to-100 scale measuring data quality, workforce skills and process maturity.

"Europe is clearly building real momentum in AI, mainly driven by its largest companies," Mauro Macchi, chief executive for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Accenture, said. "They understand that for AI to deliver more value, faster, it requires enterprise-wide reinvention, not just plug-and-play adoption."

North American companies still lead overall with an average score of 48.9, compared with Europe's 43.1. But the gap narrows sharply for Europe's largest firms — those with annual revenue above $10 billion — which scored 47.4, just 2.1 points behind their North American peers at 49.5. Smaller European companies scored 40.5, trailing comparable North American firms by 7.6 points — more than three times the gap among large enterprises.

The divergence creates what Accenture calls a "long tail" risk that could weigh on Europe's future competitiveness. Smaller companies risk missing the next wave of AI-led productivity gains unless they accelerate investment in the capabilities needed to scale, the report said.

France, UK and Spain lead European gains

Progress varied significantly across countries. France recorded the largest improvement, rising 5 points to 43.1, followed by the United Kingdom at plus 4.8 points to 44.5 and Spain at plus 4.6 points to 39.9. Ten of the 18 sectors tracked showed overall improvement, with insurance leading at plus 8 points to 48.6, followed by travel at plus 5.7 points to 46.7 and consumer goods at plus 5.2 points to 43.7.

Insurance companies have made the most progress by redesigning processes rather than layering AI on top of existing workflows, according to the report. Straightforward claims can now be automated from damage assessment through payment, while complex cases are flagged for human experts.

"This progress reflects a shift from experimentation to execution at scale," Gavin Stephenson, Accenture's data and AI lead for EMEA, said. "A growing number of European companies are beginning to reinvent business processes with AI, while cleaning their data and skilling their people."

Investment implications

The Barometer measures four pillars: strategic direction, technology foundation, people and skills, and process reinvention. Accenture, which generated roughly $70 billion in revenue in fiscal 2025 and employs about 799,000 people, plans to update the scores every six months to track relative movement against global peers.

For investors, the data suggests Europe's largest companies — particularly in insurance, travel and consumer goods — are becoming more attractive targets for AI-related investment as they build the infrastructure needed to deploy at scale. The widening gap between large and small firms, however, signals that European small-cap exposure carries higher execution risk in AI adoption. Companies that fail to invest in data modernization and workforce training may see their competitive positions erode as larger rivals capture disproportionate gains from the technology.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.