Few companies using AI: survey

The Employment Survey commissioned by Suomen Yrittäjät, the Finnish SME association, shows that 26% of respondents did not use AI at all.

Few companies use AI, and at the ones that do, it is mostly management who is using it. Those are the findings of the Employment Survey from Suomen Yrittäjät. Among respondents, 26% do not use AI at all, and 20% said they only use it occasionally.

Daily users constituted 16%, of which 9% used it several times a day. A total of 37% said they used AI at least once a week.

“The proportion of people using AI at work or in their free time continues to be low. It hasn’t enrooted itself as a part of Finns’ daily life and business. It’s critical for the boost of productivity and technological development that using AI becomes a natural part of our daily lives,” says Maria Nyroos, an expert on digital and innovation policy at Suomen Yrittäjät.

The most active users of AI are managing and senior clerical workers. Rank-and-file employees, business owners and other self-employed people use AI significantly less frequently.

“Business owners still have a lot to catch up on when it comes to using AI, so they can find support for innovative entrepreneurship. AI must not be a tool only for the management and highly educated: that could segregate the world of work,” Nyroos says.

Women and men use AI equally frequently, and 30–44-year-olds are the most frequent users.

Benefits recognized

The larger a company, the more frequently it uses AI. Around a fifth (19%) of respondents thought AI had made their work more efficient. At the same time, there was concern about the threats of AI to their own work. Such concern is prevalent among the unemployed and business owners.

“If the labour market is prone to thinking that AI will replace certain kinds of jobs, that could increase concern, especially among people who already feel insecure about their employment status. In addition, freelancers and solo entrepreneurs are responsible for their own upskilling and incomes, meaning rapid technological development could feel burdensome without clear support or education,” Nyroos says.

Around one in three respondents (32%) thinks AI could replace some jobs done today. This view is most common among those aged 30 to 44 and those in a management or senior clerical position.

“The groups that use AI the most, the young and management, also believe more frequently than others that AI will replace some current jobs. This tells us that when the more you use AI, the more you understand its opportunities.”

Training still thin on the ground

The Employment Survey found that 21% of respondents had received AI training at their jobs. That was particularly the case among management and senior clerical employees. The most frequent organizations to hold AI training were municipalities or the companies they own, the state, and the largest employers.

“Small employers and individual employees should make a particular investment in training to ensure the productivity benefits of AI spread as widely and evenly as possible through the labour force,” Nyroos says.

The Employment Survey was carried out by Verian on behalf of Suomen Yrittäjät between 5 and 11 Jun. 2025. The respondents were 1,093 people in the working world (employees, self-employed, unemployed and furloughed). The respondents were 18–69-year-old Finnish residents. The data represent the Finnish residents on the labour market in the target group. The results’ confidence interval for the entire result is ±3.0% at the 50% result level. Read the results in more detail here.

Suomen Yrittäjät and Elisa have started “Business Owners & AI” (Yrittäjät & Tekoäly) training modules for businesses owners to keep them up to speed in the tech disruption. They include a range of training sessions, webinars, informational content and podcasts. The modules offer concrete tips for using AI. Some of the material is publicly available to all. Check out the training modules here.

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