How is Europe doing as a center of innovation? — To explore this question, Deloitte surveyed a total of 760 companies in 16 countries. The results have now been published.
Deloitte investigated the true state of innovation capacity in Europe and surveyed 760 companies from 20 sectors and 16 European countries about their status quo, their future plans and the associated challenges in terms of innovation.
"Innovations have always been the foundation for the economic success of companies and thus also for employment, prosperity, and quality of life in a society. We need innovation to meet the challenges of the future, and Europe's companies have understood this,"
explained Nicolai Andersen, Head of Innovation at Deloitte.
The key findings of the Opinion poll:
- 88 percent of the companies surveyed intend to invest more in innovation in the next two years.
- 12 percent want to maintain the current level.
- None of the companies plans to reduce their innovation budget.
Technology as the most important driver for innovation
However, the term "innovation" leaves a certain amount of room for interpretation. The survey therefore also sought to understand what "innovation" means to the companies surveyed.
For European companies, this is primarily about technology. 92 percent of respondents cite technology as the most important driver of innovation. In a relatively short period of around 20 years, new digital technologies have fundamentally changed or even rendered obsolete a number of traditional business models and created new ones.
“Digital transformation puts technology at the heart of the economy and companies,”
says Alexander Börsch, Chief Economist at Deloitte.
"Economic value creation continues to shift toward development and software. This makes innovation easier to scale and thus even more valuable."
Clear trend towards artificial intelligence
Technology and innovation go hand in hand in Europe. Data analytics and cloud computing have been a particular focus so far. 69 and 62 percent of the companies surveyed are already investing in these areas, respectively. However, the survey shows a clear trend toward artificial intelligence (AI). 42 percent of European companies plan to implement AI projects in the next two years. Augmented and virtual reality, robotic process automation, and blockchain are also important topics for companies.
"In the future, it will increasingly be about building bridges between digital technologies and traditional industries in which European companies are strong. A good example of this is the robotics industry, which has its roots in traditional mechanical engineering but has experienced a boost through the application of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence. Such innovation-driven transformation processes offer enormous opportunities for European companies—they just have to seize them."
Börsch is sure.
