Personell needs are rising

Almost six percent of German companies used AI in 2019 and spent around 4.8 billion euros - mainly on personnel. Nevertheless, there is a lack of suitable skilled workers, as a ZEW study shows.

Last year, about 139,000 people were employed in German companies with activities related to artificial intelligence (AI). However, almost every second vacant AI position was filled insufficiently or not at all. This is the result of a study by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi). It provides an overview of the use of AI in German companies and is based on data from 2019 and an additional survey from November 2019 to January 2020.

According to the survey, AI was used by almost six percent of the companies surveyed, which corresponds to about 17,500 companies. The companies mainly come from the manufacturing and business-related services sectors.

Use of AI is increasing

In 2019, companies' expenditures for the use of AI processes amounted to around 4.8 billion euros. The largest item is personnel costs: three quarters of AI expenditure is internal current expenditure, especially for employees working in the AI field. »In the past year, around 139,000 people worked in AI-using companies, mainly or partly in the development, introduction and maintenance of AI procedures. Of these, about 50,000 people in the companies using AI were mainly working on AI. A further 89,000 people were partially involved in AI activities during their working hours,« explains Dr. Christian Rammer, co-author of the study.

Programming knowledge required

However, the staffing needs are far from being covered; according to the study there were 22,500 open AI positions. Only just under half of the vacancies could be filled by the companies, another eleven percent were not able to fill them with the desired personnel, the rest remained unfilled. However, the right personnel is crucial for the success of AI projects. Without the right knowledge, many projects get stuck in the early stages.

According to the companies surveyed, the basic requirement for filling AI positions is knowledge of software programming. In addition, knowledge of database management or mathematics was decisive for three quarters of the companies.

Meanwhile, the importance of AI for business is considered important by most companies: AI makes their business processes faster, more accurate, more flexible, more reliable, more cost-effective or increases capacity. For twelve percent of the companies, the use of AI is even essential for their business activities.