The next wave of Artificial Intelligence is here, Amazon Web Services said in its latest report, titled “Unlocking the Potential of Artificial Intelligence in Greece 2026.”
For the second consecutive year, AWS examines Greece’s economic and social landscape and, among other findings, stresses that while Greece is emerging as one of Europe’s fastest-growing AI markets, it is more critical than ever to empower businesses to move beyond basic AI use cases and harness the technology for transformation.
According to the study, the window for AI transformation is narrowing, and Greece must act to turn adoption into impact. This will require closing the skills gap, improving access to funding, supporting startups so they can scale from Greece, maintaining flexibility in choosing the best technologies, and implementing legislation in a clear and proportionate manner. The factors that will shape this evolution include a combination of access to the cloud, developer expertise, public support and strong digital ambition. These factors will continue to be critical drivers of the country’s ongoing digital transformation. Greece is emerging as one of Europe’s fastest-growing Artificial Intelligence (AI) markets.
AI: From basic use to intermediate and transformational adoption
AI adoption among Greek businesses rose to 47%, from 34% last year, recording an annual growth rate of 38% — the fourth-highest in Europe and significantly above the European average of 29%. However, for businesses across Greece, progress towards integrating advanced AI use cases — and, alongside them, transformational innovation — is not moving as quickly as it could.
Some 61% of businesses adopting AI remain primarily focused on more basic AI applications and incremental benefits, such as improving efficiency and streamlining processes, rather than innovation, such as developing new products or disrupting industries. These businesses use publicly available chatbots for routine tasks or purchase off-the-shelf AI solutions.
Another 22% have moved to the intermediate stage, integrating AI across multiple business functions and achieving efficiency gains and more innovative customer experiences.
Meanwhile, 17% of AI-adopting businesses have reached the most transformational stage of integration, using advanced AI systems, combining multiple models, creating customised AI systems or developing agentic or autonomous AI. This share has risen from 12% last year.
The emergence of next-generation AI technologies — such as agentic AI, physical AI and advanced robotics — represents a major opportunity, but many businesses remain unprepared. A clear readiness gap is emerging.
According to AWS, closing this readiness gap will be critical to ensuring that businesses can fully realise the benefits of next-generation AI and remain competitive in an increasingly fast-moving innovation landscape.
At the same time, startups are deeply integrating AI and remain one of Greece’s strongest assets. According to AWS, Greece should create a cycle of investment and growth centred on digital transformation and a specialised workforce.
Greater emphasis on modernising business processes, commercialising innovation and investing in research and development (R&D) can help Greek companies compete globally.
A central element of this effort is closing the skills gap. Priority should be given to making it easier for SMEs to access support for technology adoption, with simple application procedures, technology-neutral eligibility criteria and no restrictions on the choice of provider.
Eligible expenditure should cover commercial cloud and AI services, systems integration, practical training and technical assistance wherever these support a defined business use case.
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