Dr. Can Tihanyi
Institute for International Business · WU Wien
A decade studying Austria's AI and digital adoption — Industrie 4.0 to today · upper-echelons cognition & the direction of corporate AI adoption
View full profileAustria's AI Workforce.
We measure what really matters.
A first independent measurement at the individual worker level. 2.86 million employment records across 188,265 firms, 1.23 million unique workers, eight years, benchmarked against 37 European peers.
Other reports survey what Austrian companies plan to do with AI. This one measures who actually does the work — every Core AI worker in the country, where they sit, where they go, what they earn.
0 %
Austrian firms employ zero AI workers.
Employment records
2.86M
2018–2025
Unique workers
1.23M
individual-level
Firms in panel
188,265
123,226 with resolved parent
European peers
37
Chapter 4 benchmark
Mission · We believe
AI adoption is no choice. This report measures where AI matters — at the workforce level. Data-driven. Science-based. Independent.
Christian Schumacher, PhD
Institute for Strategic Management · WU Wien
Previously Copenhagen Business School and Schumpeter Fellow, Harvard University
View full profile
Dr. techn. Andreas Schumacher
VTU Group
Previously Fraunhofer Austria · TU Wien · co-author of widely cited Industry 4.0 maturity work
View full profileReport Contributors · Practitioner Voices
Philipp Bousa
Vice President, CIO & Digital Office
OMV
“AI capability flourishes where business ownership, data readiness, and workforce strategy meet.”
Daniel Valtiner
Senior Manager · Analytics & Artificial Intelligence
Infineon AG
“AI is no longer a future scenario — it is already reshaping the global economy at systemic scale.”
Christoph Krammer
Senior Manager, Manufacturing Strategy & Excellence
Magna
“AI creates value not through models, but through disciplined integration into production and people.”
Liam O'Neil
CEO
VTU Group
“AI workforce is becoming a strategic asset class. Those who understand it will win the AI race.”
Angelika Hofer-Orgonyi
CFO
Müller-Transporte GmbH
“The SME segment is the decisive battleground for shifting national productivity.”
Willibald Erhart
Chief Digital Officer
Saubermacher AG
“Firms that pull AI from business problems will outperform those pushing technology for relevance.”
Headline finding
97 % of Austrian firms employ zero AI workers.
Of the 123,226 Austrian firms with a resolved corporate parent, only 2.6 % employ at least one Core AI worker. The AI economy in Austria has roughly 4,600 winners and more than 120,000 spectators. In this large-scale analysis of the Austrian AI workforce, we answer at the individual worker level: who builds AI, where they sit, where they go.
Source: Revelio Labs via WRDS · austria_located segment · Chapter 1, ecosystem panel.
Firms with AI staff
Firms with zero AI staff
Findings
Six findings.
One country, one panel, 1.23 million Austrian workers — read along six findings. The first finding is the strength: a technically deep, mid-career AI workforce that holds its own at the European frontier. The other five are the cracks. The base is too small to compete on scale. The growth engine has stalled since 2021. The frontier leaks talent abroad. The leadership tier is male-dominated. And the pipeline that should renew the system is thinning. Read together, the picture is enviable and fragile in equal measure — and the next five years will decide which way it tilts.
1,602 in 2018 → 4,578 in 2025
01The strength · Chapter 1
The Core AI workforce nearly tripled. Top-three in Europe.
From ~1,600 in 2018 to 4,578 in 2025. By Core AI share of employment, Austria ranks third out of thirty-eight European countries. The depth is real. So is the quality. The story does not end there.
Read the chapterAustria · 0.99 / 1,000
Netherlands · 7.2 / 1,000
02The small base · Chapter 4
Top-three on quality. Working from a small base.
Austria places third out of thirty-eight on Core AI share of employment, the depth metric. On density it sits #19, behind Poland, Czechia, and Germany. The Netherlands and Denmark deploy five to eight times Austria's density per 1,000 employed. Quality is real. Scale is not.
Read the chapterPeak 31 % · 2019 → 7.1 % · 2025
03The base · Chapter 1
Growth is declining.
97 % of Austrian firms still employ no AI workers. The engine that should be filling that gap is slowing sharply: annual growth climbed steadily from +496 in 2019 to +476 in 2024, then collapsed to +304 in 2025 — half the prior year. Annual growth has fallen from a +31 % peak in 2019 to +7.1 % in 2025. At sustained 2025 pace, doubling Core AI from here takes about ten years.
Read the chapterBuild · 17 %
04The frontier · Chapter 3
Build-tier brain drain runs at 17 %. The frontier leaks fastest.
The most strategically valuable cohort leaves the fastest. Build is portable. Enable is anchored. The frontier brain drain leaks. The back office stays.
Read the chapterBuild · 19.0 %
05The gender gap · Chapter 2
19.0 % female in Build. Lowest at the frontier.
Adjacent and Integrate sit near 30 % female. The Build tier collapses to 19 %. The most strategic tier is the most male-dominated. Lifting the Build-tier share by five points takes about sixty-five more women, and meaningfully shifts Austria's frontier capability.
Read the chapter11.4 % · 2018 → 9.0 % · 2025
06The pipeline · Chapter 5
6 % entry-level. The intake is shrinking.
Just 6 % of Austria's 2025 Core AI workforce are entry-level — against 23 % in non-AI, a 3.8× gap. Hardly anyone new is coming in; the workforce ages without replacement. The career-trajectory view below tracks the parallel Lifetime decline (11.4 % → 9.0 %) — the slowest-moving of the findings, hardest to reverse once the trend crosses the renewal line.
Read the chapterSection 03 · The report
Six chapters. One honest picture.
Six chapters cut the same 2.86 million individual-level employment records by ecosystem, gender, brain drain, benchmarking, seniority, and region. The full picture of who builds AI in Austria, where they sit, and where they go.
Use this report
Download. Cite. Get in touch.
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Two reports, one data spine. The full scientific report (70 pages — policymakers + researchers) and the practitioner companion (34 pages — company leaders + decision-makers).
Scientific report (PDF)Practitioner report (PDF)Cite
Suggested citation for the full report. BibTeX is in the methodology page.
Schumacher, A., Schumacher, C., & Tihanyi, C. (2026). The State of AI Workforce in Austria 2026. https://stateofai.at
Method: Revelio Labs via WRDS · austria_located segment · 2018–2025 · ~120 Core AI roles · taxonomy κ = 0.84.