ServiceNow has published the third edition of the AI Business Maturity Index, which reveals that, although the adoption of artificial intelligence is advancing strongly in Spanish companies, organizations face increasing complexity when it comes to its implementation and management.
In fact, companies in our country obtain a score of 54 out of 100 in global maturity in AI, 20 points more than the previous year (34/100), which places Spain, along with Italy, as the market with the highest level of maturity in artificial intelligence in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
However, the ServiceNow study also shows that this progress does not always translate into homogeneous implementation throughout the organization. While the scores in leadership, vision and strategy reach 60 points in our country, AI-assisted workflows stand at 41, which highlights the difficulty of local companies in transferring strategy to daily operations.
Difficulties when integrating AI
This trend is repeated throughout the EMEA region, where AI-based workflows remain the least mature area. In other words, organizations are increasingly clear about what they want to achieve with AI, but most still find it difficult to integrate it into their daily processes. Building a solid foundation in data, governance and workflows remains one of the key challenges to scaling AI and turning investment into tangible business impact.
According to Luís Miguel Domínguez, vice president of the Iberia area of ServiceNow: «Spanish organizations are among the most mature in EMEA in their adoption of artificial intelligence. The challenge is no longer to invest more or demonstrate commitment to this technology, but to integrate it effectively into business processes and operations to generate a real impact. “The companies that manage to do this are the ones that manage to scale AI faster and achieve sustained improvements in productivity, efficiency and return on investment.”
Investment in AI continues to accelerate in Spain
Artificial intelligence has established itself as one of the main priorities for Spanish companies. In the last year, investment in AI increased by 117% and is expected to represent 19.7% of IT budgets by 2027. This trend is also observed in the EMEA region as a whole, where investment in AI grew by 113% over the last year and is expected to reach 20.1% of IT budgets in 2027.
These percentages reflect the commitment of organizations to modernize their technological infrastructure and take advantage of the potential of AI. However, the study shows that the challenge is no longer to increase investment, but to create the necessary conditions to scale AI. To achieve this, Spanish organizations must still overcome four key barriers:
- Data quality and management continue to be the main bottleneck: for 76% of Spanish companies (compared to 73% in EMEA) data quality, accessibility and management continue to be the main obstacle to scaling AI.
- Governance still does not keep up with the pace of adoption: only 21% of organizations in our country (19% in EMEA) have implemented testing, auditing and risk management processes for AI, an essential basis for deploying this technology in a secure and scalable way.
- Technological modernization is advancing more slowly than investment: only 18% of Spanish companies (15% in EMEA) have replaced fragmented legacy systems with an integrated platform, which limits the deployment of AI on a large scale.
- Agentic AI has not yet translated into autonomous automation: although 59% of Spanish companies use agentic AI (57% in EMEA), only 13% have managed to implement autonomous workflows, which shows that the majority continue to use it as a support tool, instead of turning it into an operational engine.
Governance makes the difference in AI success
While the majority of organizations continue to make progress in AI adoption, the report identifies a group that is already seeing a significantly higher return on their investments. Globally, approximately 21% of the organizations analyzed belong to this group.
Strong governance enables organizations to deploy AI with greater confidence
What differentiates these organizations is their maturity in governance. Companies that generate the highest return on their AI investments are also those with the strongest governance, data management, and risk control practices. This translates into five times greater productivity, more than double the ability to scale AI, and significantly more effective risk management than other organizations.
These data dismantle the idea that governance slows down innovation. On the contrary, strong governance allows organizations to deploy AI with greater confidence, accelerate its adoption, and maximize the value they derive from this technology.
This conclusion is especially relevant in Spain, where the progressive application of the European AI Regulation and the development of the national governance framework are driving organizations to strengthen their management models. In this context, governance is no longer just a regulatory requirement but has become a key competitiveness factor, providing the necessary foundations to innovate safely, scale the use of AI and take advantage of its full potential.
