The Belgian digital economy is running at full speed, but not everyone is in the same boat. Large companies are sprinting ahead, while SMEs struggle to keep up.
The Belgian digital economy is running at full speed, according to a recently published report from the FPS Economy. However, beneath these strong growth figures lies a less visible tension: the digital growth pace between large enterprises and SMEs is increasingly diverging.
Particularly in terms of AI, infrastructure, and digital maturity, a structural gap is emerging. For CIOs, IT managers, and digital decision-makers, this is the moment to course-correct or risk falling behind. Let’s dive deeper into the numbers.
AI Adoption: Belgium both Leader and Laggard
On paper, Belgium is a European AI leader. 24 percent of Belgian companies currently use at least one form of artificial intelligence. That’s well above the European average. In the rankings, Belgium stands in third place, ahead of neighboring countries like Germany (20 percent) and France (12 percent).
But looking deeper reveals an imbalance. Large companies are adopting AI en masse: two out of three use AI applications such as machine learning, speech recognition, or automated workflows. Among small businesses, usage remains at 20 percent. Medium-sized companies fall somewhere in between.
This gap is also reflected in the types of technologies companies use. Large companies focus on workflow automation, deep learning, and natural language generation. Small companies typically limit themselves to basic automation or currently stay away from AI altogether.
For SMEs, the lack of internal expertise forms the biggest barrier, followed by issues with data quality, technological compatibility, and costs. Notably, ethical concerns hardly play a role. The limitation isn’t about unwillingness, but inability.
Digital Intensity
The Digital Intensity Index (DII) provides a picture of how mature Belgian companies are in their digital transformation. The results speak for themselves again: while 95.3 percent of large enterprises achieve a “high” to “very high” level, this applies to only 34.5 percent of SME “s. One in five SME” s remains in the lowest category.
Digital intensity measures the use of AI, cloud, cybersecurity, meeting tools, and digital training of employees, among other things. Here too, the rule applies: the larger the company, the more extensive the digital foundation.
This maturity translates into agility. Large companies can pivot more quickly with technological changes, organize hybrid work more smoothly, and handle cyber threats more efficiently. SMEs need guidance and affordable solutions to bridge the gap.
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Fiber Optics Faltering
When it comes to mobile connectivity, Belgium has impressively recovered. While 5G coverage was still a pain point in 2023, it has explosively grown to 96 percent in 2024, just above the EU average. The overall network coverage is also good: 93 percent of the Belgian population has access to high-quality broadband internet. However, research by Okta paints a much less positive picture of 5G availability, ranking Belgium as the worst performer in the EU class.
Yet here too lies an asymmetry. Belgium ranks at the very bottom of the European rankings regarding fiber coverage. Only thirty percent of the population has access to fiber to the premise or “complete fiber optic”, compared to the European average of 69 percent.
An explanation for the slow fiber rollout? Belgium still largely relies on hybrid networks combining fiber with coax, such as Docsis. While these hybrid networks are indeed performant, they slow down the structural development of fiber infrastructure, notes FPS Economy.
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For large companies with access to business networks or colocation infrastructure, this is rarely a problem. For SMEs or companies in less populated areas — who more often depend on public infrastructure — the lack of fiber could become a real bottleneck for the deployment of data-driven applications, cloud strategy, or AI integration, thus further widening the growing gap.
Wanted: ICT Talent
Belgium scores relatively well regarding the employment of ICT specialists: 29 percent of companies have at least one internal expert on the payroll, compared to 20 percent on average in the EU. But here too the gap is visible: in micro-businesses (2-9 employees), less than one in ten has their own ICT professional. For small businesses, it’s 20 percent. It only becomes standard from 50 employees upward.
FPS Economy notes that the proportion of the population working in the ICT sector is stagnating. This remains between five and ten percent. By 2030, this should rise to ten percent.
There’s no shortage of demand for ICT experts, but the search for talent proves challenging. Companies trying to recruit ICT professionals mainly encounter a lack of relevant qualifications and a low number of applications. High salary demands only come in third place. The ‘war for talent’ is thus real in Belgium, and it’s particularly difficult to find specialized profiles outside the major cities.
An additional challenge: training opportunities remain fragmented, especially for SMEs that don’t have their own internal training structure. Without structural cooperation between education, government, and sector organizations, this remains a brake on innovation.
What Does this Mean for ICT Decision-Makers?
The report shows two faces of the Belgian ICT sector: at the macro level, Belgium appears to excel, but beneath these impressive figures lies a digital split. For large companies, the focus is on optimization, scaling, and AI innovation, while SMEs are mainly trying to keep up.
What can you as an ICT decision-maker learn from the report? Build a solid digital foundation for your organization with these four action points:
- Invest strategically in AI: start with applications requiring minimal integration, such as AI-based customer service or document processing.
- Strengthen your digital foundations: cloud, cybersecurity, connectivity, and training are the basis for successful digital transformation.
- Collaborate: join sector initiatives or training networks to bring in expertise without having to build everything yourself.
- View infrastructure strategically: in regions with limited fiber coverage, switching to colocation or edge solutions can be a smart move.