AI is becoming increasingly important for start-ups
Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly important for new companies, Bitkom has found out among start-ups.
Start-ups often promise to be able to stand out better with AI.
(Image: NASA)
Start-ups in Germany are increasingly using artificial intelligence. Of 172 such companies surveyed by the IT industry association Bitkom, 76% use AI. A year ago, the figure was 49 percent. In the economy as a whole, 13 percent of companies currently use this technology, writes Bitkom. According to the report, 63% of the start-ups surveyed use generative AI, 45% use AI for internal business operations and 37% also use it as part of their own products and services.
80% of respondents consider AI to be the "most important future technology par excellence", while 17% consider it to be a hype that is massively overestimated. 39% believe that start-ups that do not use AI have no future. 76 percent of those start-ups that have integrated AI into their products or services found it easier to obtain funding. And 38 percent could no longer offer their product or service at all or only to a very limited extent without AI.
AI Act as a stumbling block?
"While Germany has been at the forefront of AI research for decades, commercial applications are now predominantly coming from abroad," says Bitkom President Ralf Wintergerst. 56% of start-ups stated that excessive regulation was one reason why products such as ChatGPT were not developed in the EU. 33% see the AI Act passed in May as a competitive disadvantage for their own start-up compared to companies from the USA or China. 25% assume that the AI Act will restrict their start-up in the use or development of AI.
The biggest obstacles to the use of AI in their own start-up are currently a lack of financial and human resources as well as data protection requirements and the legal admissibility of the usability of data, according to 23% of respondents. 19 percent cited a lack of time in day-to-day business and 17 percent a lack of data to be able to use AI effectively. 10 percent are concerned that company data could fall into the wrong hands as a result of AI, 9 percent are generally unsettled by legal hurdles and uncertainties and 9 percent also lack the technical expertise to implement AI.
8 percent of respondents do not see any meaningful area of application for AI, 7 percent are concerned about future restrictions on the use of AI and 5 percent currently prefer to rely on other future technologies. 4 percent lack confidence in AI and for just as many, AI is simply not an issue at the moment. 33% of start-ups do not recognize any obstacles to the use of AI.
(anw)