Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

en by Austrian companies
. Based on recent analy-
ses, however, it can be assumed that several hun-
dred firms are grappling with the issue of AI and 
developing or deploying solutions in different ways 
and to varying degrees. The concentration of com-
panies active in the AI field (i.e. these as a percent-
age of all companies in a sector) is highest in the 
pharmaceutical products manufacturing segment 
(20%), oil processing (20%) and insurance (8%). 
Overall, it is evident that Austrian companies main-
ly use AI for automating and optimising processes 
and for increasing efficiency. 
There is currently only limited information avail-
able to determine Austria’s relative position in the 
topic area of AI, although the plan to include AI in 
the next Europe-wide survey of ICT use in compa-
nies will improve the situation. Recent analyses by 
the Austrian Patent Office show that the total num-
ber of 
AI-related patent applications
has grown 
sharply, particularly since 2012. These analyses, 
which cover South Korea and the EU-28 as well as 
the USA, put Austria in 
11th place
for the last avail-
able year (2017), closely behind the UK and France. 
However, South Korea is the runaway leader (fol-
lowed by Ireland and the USA), filing nearly 13 
times as many patents per million inhabitants as 
Austria. 
The potentially disruptive nature of AI itself and 
its various applications will also drive structural 
change in Austria. Nevertheless, developing and 
using AI presents various challenges, particularly of 
a regulatory nature, but also in terms of technolo-
gy, as well as issues surrounding its societal and 
ethical ramifications and questions of security, and 
data protection. This means that a whole host of 
relevant skills in using AI are called for. SMEs in