The next chapter for AI in the EU

Key takeaways:

• New program to train 20,000 SME across Europe with AI skills
• €500,000 NGO grant to support research into youth safety and wellbeing
• More ways to partner with governments through OpenAI for Europe

OpenAI is today launching its EU Economic Blueprint 2.0—with new EU AI usage data and a set of initiatives designed to accelerate adoption of AI across Europe to ensure people, businesses and countries seize the full opportunity of this transformative technology. 

That includes a new program to train 20,000 SMEs across Europe with AI skills, supported by Booking.com; a €500,000 NGO grant to support EU research into youth safety and wellbeing; and more ways for governments to partner with OpenAI on national AI priorities through the OpenAI for Europe initiative.

The Blueprint shares new data from OpenAI on Europe’s growing AI capability overhang—the gap between what frontier AI systems can do and how people, businesses and countries are using the technology. This capability overhang, ultimately, is about the opportunity for individuals, companies, and countries to participate in the Intelligence Age. Left unaddressed, it risks concentrating productivity gains in a small number of countries, sectors, and firms, while others fall behind.

Worldwide, the typical power user uses 7x more thinking capabilities—a measure of the amount of effort the model uses to respond to user queries, reflecting usage depth—than the typical user. And across more than 70 countries with the highest ChatGPT users, leading countries use 3x more thinking capabilities per person than users in lagging countries. 

OpenAI’s new data reveals the EU uses 17% more thinking capabilities on average than the rest of the world. However, there are big differences between Member States, with the most intensive country using approximately 40% more thinking capabilities than the least, and nine EU countries still fall below the global average.

We see the capability overhang as the primary challenge for Europe moving forward: the countries that have a strategy to better utilize AI will be the nations that ensure that their people have the opportunity to participate in an AI global economy. The Blueprint includes recommendations for policy makers to act including the introduction of national AI-in-education frameworks, a portable AI skills accreditation scheme, and measurement of adoption and usage at national and sector levels to monitor progress. 

Beyond recommendations to policy makers, OpenAI is also committed to doing its part to close the gap. According to Eurostat⁠(opens in a new window), in 2025, AI adoption among small businesses stood at 17%, compared with 55% among large enterprises. To help close that gap, OpenAI is launching a new SME AI Accelerator in partnership with Booking.com to help 20,000 SMEs from across the economy boost their productivity and grow their businesses with AI. 

The program will be delivered across six countries—France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Ireland, and the UK—and is open to small business owners and teams across all sectors, including those with no technical background. We will share more detail about the in-person workshops and virtual training sessions hosted on OpenAI’s free AI learning platform, OpenAI Academy⁠(opens in a new window), in due course.

Alongside adoption levers, trust remains a precondition for AI’s success in Europe. OpenAI was the first U.S. AI lab to sign the EU’s AI Act Code of Practice and continues to invest in safety. Building trust is also essential for the next generation growing up in a world where AI is increasingly part of everyday life. 

To strengthen collaboration between local youth organizations, independent researchers, and AI developers, OpenAI is launching a €500,000 Youth Safety Grant Program to support the broader community working on child protection, digital wellbeing, and evidence-based approaches to youth online safety. Find out more and how to apply, here⁠.

At OpenAI, we are keen to do our part to help countries close their capability gap too. Across Europe, we have already worked with governments and partners on a broad set of AI priorities—from sovereign infrastructure initiatives in Germany and Stargate Norway, to nation-wide access to AI in education, accelerating startup, and support skill-development programs spanning Estonia and Greece through to Ireland and Slovakia.

In 2026, we will expand our work through OpenAI for Europe, a regional adaptation of our OpenAI for Countries initiative—so more European governments are supported across additional policy areas as they pursue their national AI priorities. This will include new initiatives focused on education and health, AI skills training and certifications, disaster response and preparedness, cybersecurity, and startup accelerators.

The EU Economic Blueprint 2.0 sets out how Europe can lead in AI, and we look forward to working together to turn that ambition into impact. Read the full report here⁠(opens in a new window).