The use of artificial intelligence opens the gap between large and small companies

Technology is advancing by leaps and bounds and the world is walking with its tongue hanging out. Societies are discovering new ways of interacting and companies are shaping their structures to keep up. But not all of them are able to achieve this, especially the smallest ones . This is what the UGT union denounces in the sixth edition of its report Digitalization of the Spanish company , in which, based on the results of surveys by the INE or Eurostat, among others, it warns that the digital gap between companies based on their size continued to grow, especially with regard to investment in artificial intelligence . While those with 250 or more employees increased their contribution by 3.14% at the beginning of last year compared to the same period in 2023, those with 50 to 249 employees reduced it by 30.9%.

The union report states that the use of tools based on artificial intelligence is a common trend among Spanish companies, to the point that its use in the last year grew, at a general level, by 4.65%. However, the majority of these new technologies were used by large companies, those with more than 250 employees (45.29%), far ahead of medium-sized companies (21.17%), small companies (9.54%) and micro companies (7.48%). Also, among those with fewer resources, the use of AI increased by three points and cloud (information storage in the cloud) by more than 6%.

Despite these data, which reflect the desire of all firms to remain united with the new work tools, the strength of this movement, in the opinion of UGT, is still insufficient to catch up with a train that is moving at full speed. “The business castling regarding new technologies is a fact that is repeated year after year, with different nuances, but continues to be dominated by the aversion to technological modernization,” warns the text. “The consequences of this lack of interest are an economy with less muscle, less diversification and potential, and for all this, much less competitive, which makes us very dependent on economic cycles and vulnerable to future crises,” it laments.

To support this claim, the report refers to a Eurostat survey (the European statistical service) on the added value that the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector has on the economy of different countries, and in this classification Spain appears at the bottom, with a percentage of less than 4%, which has remained practically identical to that of the previous year (when it was 3.6%).

In an attempt to find out the reasons behind this lack of technological motivation in companies, the UGT report contains the responses to an analysis carried out by the firm Ionos, which concluded that 68% of companies say that costs represent the greatest inconvenience, ahead of lack of time (61%), lack of knowledge (61%) and fear of security and data protection (59%). These results are complemented by those offered by the INE, which show that the greatest obstacle for companies to implement ICT procedures is the “ lack of specialized knowledge ”, with 79% of companies agreeing with this argument.

This slowdown is leading to a symptomatic decline in the number of skilled workers in recent years. According to the UGT report, the presence of ICT experts in Spanish companies has dropped to 15.7%, the lowest figure since 2007 and eleven points less than in 2015. Between 2023 and 2024, this presence will fall by almost one point, accumulating three consecutive years of decline. Broken down by size, in small companies (10-49 employees) today there are only half of these qualified workers left than in 2014 - in a decade the figure has gone from 20% to 10% - and even in large companies there is a slowdown in hiring. A minimal presence in the squads (14.6%) has placed Spain at the back of the line among the Twenty-Seven, only ahead of Romania (13.2%) and Italy (12.4%).

Less competitiveness

Another of the most illustrative sections of the study has to do with what is known as the trade gap , which measures the difference between the digital business generated in Spain and that produced outside the borders. Taking these two variables into account, national business stood at 30.2% in 2023, falling two points compared to 2022, and more than 10 compared to 2014 (when it was then 41.6%). “This huge gap perfectly represents the distressing state of the digital competitiveness of our companies,” the report explains. “Beyond the enormous power of the digital giants, which monopolize a large part of the market in an oligopolistic way – a common evil for all of Europe and which threatens the geostrategic capacity of the EU – the truth is that our companies have a hard time entering to compete in the online world (and then staying in it),” it adds.

In order to try to bridge the gap between large and small companies, the text advocates “adding new lines of action” that are added to the delivery of public aid , financing campaigns and current institutional sponsorships. “Digital transformation must end up meaning prosperity for all and not just growth for a few. And hence the need to hold processes of dialogue, dialogue, negotiation and consensus,” they conclude. “We must give incentives to companies to radically increase their investment in new technologies, truly introducing them into their production processes, value chains and the way they organize and do business, and always from a comprehensive, rigorous and lasting perspective,” the text concludes.