Statistics Estonia's ICT survey: half of Estonian enterprises use data analytics

Data analytics involves collecting, processing, and analysing large amounts of data and making decisions based on this information. Tiina Pärson, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that the use of data analytics in enterprises has quickly gone from being a niche skill to a common and natural part of daily work. “Data analytics is like a compass for enterprises, allowing them to better understand the market and their customers, increase efficiency, and make data-driven decisions. Two years ago, approximately 19% of enterprises used data analytics, while this year the figure stands at 49%, which is more than twice as many,” Pärson stated.

Key sources for data analytics are transactional and customer data, but open data from the web, social media, and public authorities are also widely used. The use of data analytics has increased in all economic activities. It is particularly widespread in enterprises engaged in financial and insurance activities, energy and water supply, and arts and recreation. The use of data analytics has also risen across all enterprise size groups, most notably in medium-sized and small enterprises with fewer than 50 employees.

Use of artificial intelligence grew moderately

At least one artificial intelligence (AI) technology is used by 22% of enterprises, up by 8 percentage points from 2024. “Although expectations for growth were perhaps even higher, this still points to a clear trend towards wider use of artificial intelligence,” Pärson said.

According to Pärson, the application of artificial intelligence has become increasingly accessible, natural, and necessary for enterprises in recent years. “Greater cooperation between research institutions and enterprises plays an important role in this, helping to accelerate the development and market launch of artificial intelligence-based solutions,” noted Pärson.

The most widely used of these technologies is text generator, which creates written text, spoken language, or programming code according to instructions given. It is used by 15% of enterprises, and a typical example is ChatGPT. 12% of enterprises use text mining technologies. Other solutions are not used as widely, for example, 4% of enterprises use machine learning, and 1% use autonomous robotic machines that observe their surroundings and make independent decisions based on this information. 

Pärson added that AI still has a lot of untapped potential. “Many technologies are currently only partially in use, and wider adoption depends on enterprises' awareness, skills, and willingness to invest,” she said.

Artificial intelligence is most commonly used to boost sales and marketing. AI is also widely used for managing administrative processes, the most common examples of which are virtual assistants, voice recognition-based transcription tools for creating document drafts, machine learning-based planning systems, and machine translation. 4% of Estonian enterprises have implemented artificial intelligence to improve their production processes.

The use of AI is more widespread in large enterprises with 250 or more employees, with 53% of them implementing it. However, artificial intelligence is becoming more and more common in medium-sized and smaller enterprises as well – one-fifth of enterprises with fewer than 50 employees use AI technologies.

Enterprises are increasingly moving towards cloud-based solutions

This year's survey results reveal that 61% of enterprises use paid cloud computing services. This is even more widespread among large enterprises, with 94% of them using such services. The use of cloud computing has grown significantly in small and medium-sized enterprises, which often lack their own IT infrastructure.

Cloud services are a central part of enterprises' everyday IT infrastructure, enabling them to use computer software, storage space, or server resources via the internet without having to physically manage them. “Cloud computing can be used flexibly and cost-effectively. For instance, they help avoid large initial investments in hardware, as the enterprises can only pay for the necessary resources on a pay-per-use basis,” Pärson explained. “Cloud services make it possible to quickly implement new applications, increase data capacity, enhance ICT security, and simplify remote work. Based on the latest data, we can say that enterprises consider these issues to be important,” the analyst added. 

The most widely used paid cloud computing services in enterprises are email services, office software, file storage software, and financial and accounting software. Large enterprises are also increasingly purchasing data processing platforms and software security applications, such as antivirus software, network access controls, etc., as cloud services.

Statistics Estonia has studied the use of ICT in enterprises since 2001. The 2025 survey included 3,400 enterprises. Enterprises with 10 or more employees are surveyed. The survey is conducted in all European Union member states simultaneously, using the same methodology. Eurostat will publish the data for member states at the end of this year.

See also the dedicated section on information and communication technologies. More detailed data have been published in the statistical database.

When using Statistics Estonia’s data and graphs, please indicate the source.
 

For further information:

Susann Kivi
Media Relations Manager
Marketing and Dissemination Department
Statistics Estonia
Tel +372 5696 6484
press [at] stat.ee (press[at]stat[dot]ee)

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