New research delves into Hungary’s AI use

Hungarian companies do not excel in the field of innovation, but they take the digital transition seriously, according to new research by K&H bank, which assessed medium and large enterprises in Hungary for three years.

Internet use rockets from half Hungary’s workforce to three-quarters

Half of Hungary’s companies are developing dynamically in relation to digital transition. Readiness planning for remote work fell to half of the previous level, although this is explainable by the fact that companies that wanted to introduce remote work already have, Hungarian business site Portfolio noted.

Around 60% of company employees use computers at work. Of them, the proportion of internet users is constantly increasing, and climbed to 74% from 49% in the first half of 2021. The proportion of people using a portable electronic device for their work rose to 56% in the second half of 2023, from 39% in the first half of 2021.

“Big data” analysis is carried out at 16% of Hungarian businesses, while information from smart devices and sensors is now used by 28%. Geolocation data extraction from such devices is increasingly rare.

The proportion of companies that analyse social media data is falling: two years ago, one-tenth of the companies monitored social media, today that figure is only 1%.

AI use still a rarity at Hungarian firms

As for AI, 11% of companies now use it. Typically, 2-5% of firms use artificial intelligence for forecasting, optimisation, visual data processing, face and image recognition, or the use of self-driving machines. 

Some 5% of companies in Hungary use AI for speech recognition, machine translation or as a chatbot, a significant increase compared to the low point of 6 months earlier, and a return to the level of 2 years ago. Meanwhile 10% of companies use AI for process automation.

“Companies are seemingly still trying to figure out what AI is capable of,” K&H’s head of innovation Balazs Nemeth said.