The adoption of AI technologies is growing steadily across enterprises of all sizes, with large enterprises leading the way, according to the results of the survey on the usage of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and e-commerce in enterprises in 2024 published on Tuesday by the Statistical Service of Cyprus.

The survey says that in 2021, 13% of large enterprises used AI technologies, increasing to 15.5% in 2023 and to 34.9% in 2024. 

Furthermore, it says that in 2024, 59.1% of all enterprises have conducted remote meetings via the internet, while in 2024, almost one out of two (49,4%) enterprises declared that they paid to advertise on the internet, a figure that almost doubled compared to 2016.

The survey also showed that in 2024, 27.5% of enterprises employ ICT specialists and that during 2023, almost one out of four enterprises (23.5%) received orders for goods and services via computer networks.

Artificial Intelligence

In 2024, 7.9% of all enterprises in Cyprus used Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies compared to 4.7% in 2023. A percentage of 34.9% of large size enterprises use AI, 14.3% of medium enterprises and 6.3% of small enterprises.  

AI refers to systems that use technologies such as text mining, computer vision, speech recognition, natural language generation, machine learning, deep learning to gather and/or use data to predict, recommend or decide, with varying levels of autonomy, the best action to achieve specific goals.

The adoption of AI technologies is growing steadily across enterprises of all sizes, with large enterprises leading the way. Large enterprises have the highest rate of AI adoption. In 2021, 13% of large enterprises used AI technologies, increasing to 15.5% in 2023 and to 34.9% in 2024. 

Remote working - use of portable devices, remote access and meetings over the internet

During 2024, 84.1% of enterprises with 10 or more persons employed, provided their employees portable devices that allow a mobile connection to the internet using mobile telephone networks.

The subscription and usage costs of these devices are being paid either in full or at least up to a limit by the enterprise. A 88.1% of all enterprises provide remote access to their e-mail system, 71.7% to the enterprise’s documents, including spreadsheets, presentations or any other files and 66.3% provide remote access to the enterprise’s business applications or to software used by the enterprise, such as applications or software related to accounting, sales, CRM or other business software.

Remote access refers to the enterprises’ readiness, capacity and willingness to make it possible for the persons they employ to work remotely, by giving them remote access to the enterprises’ resources (e.g. e-mail, documents and ICT systems of the enterprise).

In 2024, 59.1% of all enterprises have conducted remote meetings via the internet (e.g., Skype, Zoom, MS Teams, WebEx etc.).

E-Commerce sales

During 2023, almost one out of four enterprises (23.5%) received orders for goods and services via computer networks, 22.7% via websites or “apps” and 2.5% via EDI–type messages. 17.1% of all enterprises received orders for goods and services via the enterprises’ own websites or “apps”, while 14.2% received orders via e-commerce marketplace websites or “apps” used by several enterprises for trading products.

A 21.2% of enterprises received orders via websites or “apps” from private customers compared to 11.4% of enterprises which received orders from other businesses and/or from the government or public authorities. 

Advertising over the Internet

Advertising over the internet refers to paid advertisements by the enterprises in order to promote their goods and services. In 2024, almost one out of two (49.4%) enterprises declared that they paid to advertise on the internet. Compared to 2016 that figure almost doubled.

A 43.5% paid for targeted advertisements based on the geolocation of the internet users, 38.4% of enterprises paid for targeted advertisements based on content or keywords searched by the internet users and 28.7% based on tracking of past activities and profile of the internet users.

ICT specialists and skills

The information and communications technologies (ICT) specialist develops, designs, maintains, operates and services systems and applications that are used to store, retrieve and send data.

In 2024, 27.5% of enterprises employ ICT specialists. In large enterprises, this percentage reaches 85.8%, in medium 49.6% and in small enterprises 22.8%.

The proportion of enterprises, that provided any type of training during 2023 to develop ICT related skills to either ICT specialists or other persons employed, remains low at 15.3% and 27% respectively. In large enterprises the corresponding percentages are 59.4% (ICT specialists) and 78.3% (other persons employed).

A 12.2% of enterprises with 10 or more persons employed recruited or tried to recruit ICT specialists in 2023. More than half of those enterprises (6.4%) faced difficulties to fill the ICT specialists’ vacancies during 2023. 

ICT Security

ICT security refers to the measures, controls and procedures applied on an enterprise’s ICT systems to ensure integrity, authenticity, availability and confidentiality of the enterprise’s data and systems.

The most common ICT security measures applied by enterprises are: authentication via strong password (95%), data backup to a separate location (including backup to the cloud) (90%), network access control (management of user rights in enterprise’s network) (73.9%), VPN (Virtual Private Network) (67.3%) and ICT security monitoring system used to detect suspicious activity (e.g. intrusion detection or prevention systems) (56%).