Europe’s
Agentic
Opportunity: Moving from breadth
to depth with AI agents
Explore the report are now agentic02 / SMALL BUSINESSES8.1×the growth rate of agentic weekly active users since May 202603 / EU SHARE~10%of firms in the top 10% of token outputs per active user are EU-based
Over the past six months, AI use has broadened across the EU.
The opportunity now is to deepen that use through agentic capabilities. People are no longer only asking AI questions. They are using agents to carry out tasks from planning through completion. This shift is taking place as AI adoption accelerates across Europe. In 2025, 20% of EU companies with at least 10 people employed used AI, up from 13.5% in 2024. But broader adoption does not automatically translate into deeper use. The EU now has an opportunity to close the gap between access and impact.
Agentic work in the EU is growing rapidly
Agentic token output in EU firms now exceeds 50%
Note: An analysis of ChatGPT Enterprise and Business accounts. ChatGPT Work launched in July 2026.
Across the EU, the growing use of agents reflects both changing worker behavior and broader business adoption. By the end of September, following the launch of ChatGPT Work, agents via Codex and ChatGPT Work accounted for more than 50% of output tokens generated by firms in the EU.
Agent use differs across EU member states
EU member states · scroll to compare
Note: An analysis of ChatGPT Enterprise and Business accounts.
Alongside this steady rise across the EU, agentic use by firms still varies considerably across member states. At the high end, 85% of the tokens that Lithuanian companies generate are agentic through Codex and ChatGPT Work. On the low end, 22% of tokens in Slovenia are for agentic use. Interestingly, countries with smaller populations like Cyprus, Estonia, and Lithuania have relatively high agentic use within their larger firms.
Growth extends to smaller businesses
Agentic use is not limited to firms; it is also growing rapidly among small and medium-sized businesses. This analysis defines small or medium businesses as businesses with 200 or fewer associated users.
Agentic weekly active users in EU SMBs grew 8.1x since May
baseline
Note: This analysis defines small or medium businesses as businesses with 200 or fewer associated users.
Small and medium businesses are the backbone of EU employment, accounting for 63% of its private sector employment and contributing over 5 trillion Euros to the EU economy each year. Since May 2026, weekly active agentic use by small and medium businesses in the EU grew by more than 8x. A major part of this growth followed the introduction of ChatGPT Work.
Growth in agentic weekly active users among EU SMBs varied since May
Weekly active users of ChatGPT Work or Codex, relative to May 1–7
September 29–October 5, 2026
Note: This analysis defines small or medium businesses as businesses with 200 or fewer associated users.
Every EU country reached more than 5 times its May level of agentic weekly active users within small and medium businesses. Belgium, Italy, and Luxembourg grew the fastest over this period.
People do different kinds of work with AI in the EU
Growth figures show how quickly agentic use is expanding, but not how people are using AI to work. By classifying individuals’ messages for work use, we can better understand how people use AI for work across different regions.
Distinctive work tasks show nuance in work activities across the EU
Note: This analysis is based on messages from users with Free, Go, Plus, or Pro plans. Each label highlights the IWA—a category of work activity defined by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics— that is most common in work-related messages from each country, relative to its overall frequency across the EU. Data is drawn from a random sample of messages in 2026 Q3.
Source: OpenAI Signals
Workers in EU firms with most AI use per user are pulling ahead, but the global gap remains
Frontier firms represent the top 10% of firms by output tokens per active user. EU-based companies accounted for nearly 10% of the global frontier firms for token output per user in September. North America accounted for roughly 65% of these frontier firms.
EU countries make up 10% of frontier firms globally
Share of frontier firms by region · September 2026
Frontier firms represent the top 10% of firms by output tokens per active user.
Note: sample includes only ChatGPT Enterprise and Business accounts.
Frontier EU firms pulled ahead of typical firms, but not as much as frontier firms across the globe
Output tokens per active user in the last 28 days, relative to typical firms in May
September 2026
Frontier EU firms generated more than 4× as many output tokens per active user as typical EU firms.
Firms at the global frontier generated more than 2× as many output tokens per active user as frontier EU firms.
Global series exclude the EU.
Note: sample includes only ChatGPT Enterprise and Business accounts. Global firms only include firms outside of the EU.
Frontier firms are defined as the top 10% of firms by output tokens per active user.
As agentic capabilities and use increased, the gap between users in typical firms and top firms widened. In September, frontier EU businesses generated over four times more output tokens per active user than typical EU businesses. Yet, firms at the global frontier generated more than two times as many output tokens as frontier EU businesses.
Conclusion
These figures reveal a substantial gap in how intensively businesses use AI.
As agentic capabilities advance, the EU’s opportunity is to turn broader adoption into deeper use, stronger businesses, higher productivity and meaningful benefits for workers.
Closing that gap means helping businesses move beyond experimentation, giving workers the skills and confidence to use AI, and making advanced capabilities more accessible and affordable.
“Europe is now in a new era of AI, with tools that can carry out tasks for people. More than half of the AI use among our EU enterprise and business customers now involves these tools, and the number of small business users has grown 8x across the region. Yet there is still plenty of room for AI use to grow across the EU. Giving people the tools, skills and confidence to use AI well will help build stronger businesses and growing economies, with benefits felt across Europe.”
Sarah FriarChief Financial Officer, OpenAI
