Accenture says Europe cut AI readiness gap with US firms

Accenture said its first AI Progress Barometer found that European companies reduced the gap with North American companies in AI readiness over the past six months. Accenture measured AI readiness on a 0 to 100 scale, where 100 is the highest level of readiness, and said the study tracked about 3,000 companies.

Accenture said European companies improved their AI readiness score by 1.6 points during the period, while North American companies improved by 1.1 points. Despite that faster improvement in Europe, Accenture said North American companies still had a higher average score overall, at 48.9 compared with 43.1 for European companies.

Accenture also said its research showed a wider income-related gap in Europe than in North America. According to the study, European companies with annual revenue above $10 billion, or about €9.2 billion, ranked higher on the AI readiness scale than smaller companies, with a more pronounced difference than the one seen among North American companies.