The European Union’s ambitious plan to digitally transform Europe by 2030 – the “Digital Decade” – is running late and is seriously lagging behind when it comes to AI, according to the latest update.
The Digital Decade strategy aims to create “a vision for a human-centred, sustainable digital society that empowers people and businesses”.
Major multi-country projects span a variety of areas, including quantum and cybersecurity, 5G, HPC, common data infrastructure and services, and even blockchain, which seemed like a good idea back in 2020.
The second report on the Digital Decade, published yesterday, noted that “as things stand, the joint efforts of Member States will not reach the EU’s level of ambition.”
As a result, Brussels called on “member states to step up and become more ambitious in their actions.”
The report identified specific gaps in digital skills, connectivity, semiconductor production, the startup ecosystem, and business adoption of AI and data analytics.
The latter highlights one of the problems with grand tech strategies: new technologies come about quickly. AI wasn’t part of the original vision, but HPC and analytics were.
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Speaking privately this week, an EU official said there was “growing evidence that AI and genetic data in particular will play a key role in Europe’s future prosperity and in shaping our societies.”
However, the study points out that “projected to 2030, only 17% of European companies will have adopted AI, which is clearly insufficient.”
Similarly, less than two-thirds of companies use cloud and only half use big data. The target was 75% across all these categories.
A related issue is the lack of digital skills, the official said: “The transformation cannot be successful unless people have the skills they need to access digital technology. And there is still a shortage of ICT specialists and other professionals.”
Small and medium-sized enterprises in particular have struggled to secure the skilled manpower they need to realize the benefits and value of AI and develop their own services.
Using Gen AI to find information is one thing, but “tailoring that system to a company’s specific business needs is an entirely different thing.”
This has brought back the issue of skills and nurturing the broader ecosystem. It’s also important that skills and infrastructure spread beyond big companies and metropolitan areas, officials said.
The rise of Gen AI highlights the point that if you want your digital transformation to be successful, there can be no gaps. This doesn’t just mean skills, but also cloud, infrastructure, hardware, and edge nodes.
“We need to look at different aspects together with member states and make sure we’re making progress on all fronts,” the official said. “Otherwise we’ll miss the big picture.”
Yet, at least in this respect, Europe is not alone.
