Study: 66% of DACH Firms Scale Under 25% of AI Pilots
Hamburg – November 02, 2026 -- Two-thirds of companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland move fewer than a quarter of their AI pilot projects into regular operations, according to a study by Lünendonk & Hossenfelder in cooperation with Sopra Steria. Only 1% have integrated AI agents across more than one core business process.
Sopra Steria concludes that strict internal governance, data quality and compliance structures, often seen as brakes on innovation, are what allow AI agents to scale.
Only 19% run AI agents productively in individual task areas
Of the 141 companies that answered the question, 66% bring fewer than 25% of AI pilots into production. Some 58% still test AI agents in pilot projects and 18% are exploring the technology. Another 19% use agents productively in individual task areas, 1% run them across several central business processes, and 4% have not addressed the topic.