Digital Transformation Statistics (2026)
You need a digital transformation statistic for a board presentation. The number you choose will depend on the decision in front of you: are you describing technology adoption, changes to how work gets done, or the financial results of an investment?
The latest available data gives you useful measures for the first two questions, but no single global adoption rate. The statistics below separate official business data from executive surveys, so you can cite each figure with its population and period intact.
Key digital transformation statistics for 2026
AI and cloud use in the EU: In 2025, 20% of EU businesses with at least 10 employees used AI, and 53% bought cloud computing services, according to Eurostat’s 2026 digitalisation report.
Digital intensity and e-sales in the EU: In 2025, 72% of EU businesses with at least 10 employees reached a basic level on Eurostat’s digital-intensity index. In its 2025 survey, 24% of those businesses reported e-sales in the previous year.
AI use in Spain: In the first quarter of 2025, 21.1% of Spanish enterprises with at least 10 employees used AI, according to Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE).
Cloud use in Spain: INE reports that 44.3% of Spanish enterprises with at least 10 employees used paid cloud computing services in the first quarter of 2025.
AI use among small US firms: The US Census Bureau’s Business Trends and Outlook Survey analysis estimates that AI use among firms with one to four employees rose from 4.6% to 5.8% between September 2023 and August 2024.
AI use among large US firms: Over the same September 2023–August 2024 period, the Census Bureau’s survey estimates that AI use among firms with 250 or more employees rose from 5.2% to 7.8%.
Deep AI transformation: In Deloitte’s 2026 State of AI survey, 34% of organizations said they used AI to deeply transform their business. The survey covered 3,235 business and IT leaders in 24 countries and was fielded in August–September 2025.
Surface-level AI use: In Deloitte’s survey of business and IT leaders, fielded in August–September 2025, 37% of organizations reported using AI at a surface level, with little or no change to underlying processes. This was a separate survey question from the one behind the deep-transformation figure.
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How widely are businesses adopting digital technology?
AI adoption varies by business size
Eurostat’s 2025 figures give you an EU baseline: 20% of businesses with at least 10 employees used AI, up from 13% in 2024. The size split is substantial: 55% of large businesses used AI, compared with 19% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Spain’s national figures give you a country-level view. INE reports that 21.1% of Spanish enterprises with at least 10 employees used AI in the first quarter of 2025, an increase of 8.7 percentage points from the same period a year earlier.
For a US comparison, the Census Bureau estimates that AI use among firms with 250 or more employees rose to 7.8% by August 2024, while use among firms with one to four employees rose to 5.8%. Firms with five to 99 employees were in the 3–4% range over the September 2023–August 2024 series.
These are not like-for-like national rankings. The periods differ, Eurostat’s enterprise population starts at 10 employees, and the Census survey covers firms across size classes using a broad AI definition that includes generative AI. Choose the population and period that match your question before comparing the figures.
Cloud services have a wider EU footprint
Eurostat reports that 53% of EU businesses with at least 10 employees bought cloud computing services in 2025. The reported shares were 85% for large businesses and 52% for SMEs.
INE’s first-quarter 2025 survey found that 44.3% of Spanish enterprises with at least 10 employees used paid cloud computing services, an increase of 6.6 percentage points from a year earlier. When you cite a cloud figure, keep the purchase or paid-service definition attached: it tells your audience what was counted.
Digital intensity captures more than a single technology
Eurostat’s digital-intensity measure is a composite index of business digitalisation rather than a count of AI or cloud users. In 2025, 72% of EU businesses with at least 10 employees reached a basic level; the shares were 71% for SMEs and 96% for large businesses.
That makes the index useful when you need a broader indicator of enterprise digitalisation. It leaves a separate question for your business case: which processes changed, and what happened after they changed?
What do digital sales statistics show?
In its 2025 survey, Eurostat found that 24% of EU businesses with at least 10 employees reported e-sales in the previous year. The shares were 48% for large businesses and 23% for SMEs. This is a participation measure: it tells you how many businesses sold electronically, not what proportion of their revenue came from those sales.
INE offers a Spain-specific measure: 26.6% of enterprises with at least 10 employees had e-commerce sales in 2024. Those sales generated €399,368 million in turnover, 3.5% more than in 2023, according to the national statistics institute.
If your next question concerns shopping on phones rather than enterprise participation, see the separate mobile ecommerce statistics and checkout trends. The two topics overlap, but a business selling electronically is not necessarily selling through a mobile app.
How deeply are organizations changing their processes?
Technology adoption is a starting point. To understand transformation, you also need to ask whether the way work gets done has changed.
Deloitte’s 2026 State of AI survey offers one view. Among organizations represented by the 3,235 business and IT leaders surveyed across 24 countries and six industries in August–September 2025, 34% said they used AI to deeply transform their business, and 30% said they were redesigning key processes around AI.
A separate survey question found that 37% of organizations reported using AI at a surface level, with little or no change to underlying processes. Do not add the figures together or present them as parts of one complete breakdown: they describe responses to different questions.
The survey captures leaders’ own assessments rather than independently measured financial results. You can use it to frame a planning discussion about whether an AI initiative has moved beyond individual uses into a redesigned process. It cannot tell you the return your organization will achieve.
What do skills and workforce statistics add?
A technology purchase tells you little about the capabilities available to use it. Eurostat reports that 40% of EU citizens lacked basic or above-basic digital skills in 2025. That is a population measure, not a percentage of employees at businesses undertaking a transformation.
Eurostat also reports that more than 10 million people worked as information and communication technology (ICT) specialists in the EU in 2025, representing 5% of total employment. The measure describes the workforce, not the number of organizations with an ICT specialist.
For an enterprise-level indicator, INE reports that 16.8% of Spanish enterprises with at least 10 employees employed ICT specialists in the first quarter of 2025, up 1.1 percentage points from a year earlier. If you are comparing talent figures, check whether the denominator is people, employees, or businesses.
What can the statistics tell you about remote work?
INE reports that 37.4% of Spanish enterprises with at least 10 employees allowed remote working in the first quarter of 2025. Among enterprises with 250 or more employees, the share was 78.0%.
You can use those figures to describe an employment arrangement associated with digital ways of working. They do not measure how much work was performed remotely or whether the arrangement improved a business outcome.
What the available statistics cannot tell you
Suppose your board asks a more demanding question: What share of businesses that deploy cloud and AI measurably change their revenue or cost structure as a result? The figures above do not answer it. Quash has no first-party data covering that question either.
The gap matters when you build a business case. The official statistics here describe technology use across business populations; the Deloitte survey describes leaders’ assessments of how organizations use AI. The figures do not link deployment to independently observed financial outcomes for the same businesses.
A more informative study would follow the same firms over time, record when they deploy technologies, and measure their financial outcomes independently. A panel spanning at least three years could show how adoption and results move together. You would still need a credible comparison group or another careful research design before attributing financial change to the technology itself.
For your own investment, set a baseline before deployment and define the outcome you intend to change. If your goal is to reduce processing costs, for example, record the cost and volume of the relevant work before and after the change. Keep that internal measure separate from a population-wide adoption statistic: they serve different decisions.
Methodology and source selection
This report uses official enterprise, workforce, and population statistics from Eurostat, INE, and the US Census Bureau, alongside Deloitte’s first-party executive survey. The latest periods vary: the EU and Spanish enterprise observations largely cover 2025, the US Census AI-use series covers September 2023–August 2024, and Deloitte’s survey was fielded in August–September 2025.
The Census series is included as historical context, not as a current 2026 US adoption estimate. The official enterprise examples here cover the EU, Spain, and the US; they do not establish a global enterprise benchmark. Deloitte’s figures are self-reported survey responses and should not be treated as official population estimates.
When you reuse a statistic, retain its geography, population, period, and measure. A market forecast, a survey response about process change, and a count of businesses using a technology answer different questions even when all appear under the label “digital transformation.”
Conclusion
For your next digital transformation decision, start by defining the outcome you need to discuss. An adoption statistic can establish context; a process-change survey can sharpen the questions you ask; neither replaces a financial baseline for your own investment. Choose the measure that matches your decision, and keep its population and period visible when you share it.
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