AI use among Nordic companies is increasing rapidly, with businesses across Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland integrating artificial intelligence into everyday operations. New Danish figures show that 59% of companies with more than ten employees used AI in 2026, while comparable data from 2025 already placed several Nordic countries among Europe’s leading adopters.
The latest Danish figure, reported by DR on the basis of Statistics Denmark data, represents a sharp increase from 15% in 2023 and 42% in 2025. AI use includes text analysis, speech recognition, image and video generation and the automation of workflows.
Nordic companies are among Europe’s biggest AI users
The trend extends well beyond Denmark. Eurostat data for 2025 showed that the three EU countries with the highest share of companies using artificial intelligence were all Nordic.
Denmark ranked first with 42%, followed by Finland at 37.8% and Sweden at 35%. The EU average was only 20%.
Norway, which is not an EU member but is included in Eurostat’s comparison, stood at around 29%. Statistics Norway similarly reported that three in ten Norwegian companies with at least ten employees used one or more AI technologies in 2025, compared with about two in ten a year earlier.
The figures show that the expansion of artificial intelligence in business is not limited to a single Nordic economy. Instead, the region as a whole is moving faster than much of Europe in adopting the technology.
Finland and Sweden also recorded rapid growth
In Finland, Statistics Finland found that 38% of companies used AI technologies in spring 2025, an increase of 14 percentage points from the previous year.
Usage was particularly high among larger businesses. Around 68% of Finnish companies employing at least 100 people reported using AI. The information and communications sector recorded the highest adoption rate, at 80%.
Sweden followed a similar pattern. According to Statistics Sweden, AI use among companies with at least ten employees increased from about 25% in 2024 to 35% in 2025.
The difference between company sizes was substantial. AI was used by 30.8% of small companies, 49.6% of medium-sized businesses and 71.9% of large companies.
Swedish companies most frequently reported using artificial intelligence in marketing and sales, followed by business administration and management.
Iceland shows widespread use but less formal integration
Icelandic data also point to broad adoption, although the figures are not directly comparable with Eurostat because the national survey covers a different business population.
A Statistics Iceland survey conducted in 2025 found that 48% of companies used some form of AI software, while 50% reported using at least one specified AI technology.
However, only 25% said they used AI for clearly defined business tasks and 14% had adopted a formal AI strategy.
The gap suggests that access to AI tools is spreading faster than structured integration into company processes. Online services such as ChatGPT and similar platforms were the most common form of AI used by Icelandic businesses.
Skills and governance remain major challenges
The spread of artificial intelligence is also creating new challenges for Nordic businesses.
In Denmark, the Danish Chamber of Commerce (Dansk Erhverv) says companies primarily see greater efficiency as the main benefit of AI. At the same time, shortages of skills, knowledge and time remain among the most important barriers to broader adoption.
Similar concerns appear elsewhere. Statistics Sweden found that a lack of relevant expertise was the most common reason given by companies that had considered using AI but decided against it.
Danish technology industry organisation IT-Branchen has also warned that wider AI adoption makes questions about quality, transparency, data security and human judgement increasingly important. Its CEO Natasha Friis Saxberg argued that broader AI literacy and continued employee training will be necessary as the technology becomes more deeply integrated into workplaces.
The Nordic figures therefore point to two developments happening simultaneously. Businesses are adopting AI at a pace that places much of the region ahead of the European average, while companies and employees are still working out how the technology should be governed and incorporated into established workflows.
With Denmark reaching 59% adoption among companies with more than ten employees in 2026, the gap between the Nordic countries and parts of the rest of Europe could widen further. The next stage will increasingly depend not only on access to artificial intelligence, but on whether businesses can develop the skills, governance frameworks and organisational capacity needed to use it effectively.
