Bulgaria AI market context
Enterprise adoption, technical workforce and the limits of what the data can tell you.
Read the market
Bulgaria has a calculated readiness proxy of 33/100 under the balanced weighting. It combines 8.6% enterprise AI adoption with an ICT workforce share of 4.8%.
The AI adoption figure is 11.4 percentage points below the published EU aggregate of 19.9%. This is a measure of business use; it includes firms buying ready-made AI tools.
Adoption changed from 6.5% in 2024 to 8.6% in 2025. Treat the difference as descriptive: survey responses, coverage and technology definitions can change between years.
The underlying evidence
All current values refer to 2025. Percentages use different denominators, stated below each value. “k” means thousand people.
AI adoption
2025 · Published observation
% of enterprises with 10+ people using at least one surveyed AI technology.
2024: 6.5%
Exact source query ↗ICT specialists
2025 · Published observation
% of total employment working as ICT specialists. A broad technical workforce proxy, not AI talent.
2024: 4.6% Flag: b
Exact source query ↗ICT workforce
2025 · Published observation
Thousands of people employed as ICT specialists. This is not a count of AI specialists.
2024: 135.2k Flag: b
Exact source query ↗Language generation
2025 · Published observation
% of enterprises with 10+ people using AI to generate written or spoken language or programming code.
2024: 2.3%
Exact source query ↗Machine learning
2025 · Published observation
% of enterprises with 10+ people using machine learning for data analysis.
2024: 2.1%
Exact source query ↗AI workflow automation
2025 · Published observation
% of enterprises with 10+ people using AI to automate workflows or assist decisions.
2024: 2.9%
Exact source query ↗In-house AI development
2025 · Published observation
% of AI-using enterprises with 10+ people whose AI technologies were developed by their own employees. Different denominator from adoption.
2024: 25.9%
Exact source query ↗Expertise barrier
2025 · Published observation
% of enterprises that considered AI but did not use it, citing lack of relevant expertise; see Eurostat denominator notes.
2024: 61.6%
Exact source query ↗Small-business adoption
2025 · Published observation
% of enterprises with 10–49 people using AI.
2024: 5.5%
Exact source query ↗Large-business adoption
2025 · Published observation
% of enterprises with 250+ people using AI.
2024: 20.2%
Exact source query ↗A 2026 planning scenario
No 2026 annual observation is included. For planning only, continuing half to one-and-a-half times the last observed annual change gives 9.6%–11.7% enterprise adoption; repeating the change gives 10.6%.
Mechanical extrapolation from 2024–2025, capped at 0–100%. This is a scenario estimate chosen by this benchmark, not an official forecast or a statistical confidence interval. It assumes the measure remains comparable and can miss saturation, economic shocks and survey changes. It is excluded from scores and rankings.
Use this in a talent decision
Check the relevant role and evidence of delivery before interpreting a national signal. A large technical workforce may offer adjacent skills; high business adoption may involve bought products. Neither tells you how many suitable people are available to hire.
For a real hiring plan, add current local vacancies, compensation, language needs, employment arrangements and the specific city or region. These inputs are not covered by this release.
What this profile does not measure
AI-specific headcount by role, salaries, seniority, vacancy rates, willingness to move, research quality and individual proficiency. The benchmark cannot infer these from ICT employment or enterprise adoption.
Sources, status flags and downloadable data · Explore the eight role guides