How companies are preparing to fund AI adoption

2 October 2026

By Annalisa Ferrando, Sara Lamboglia, Judit Rariga, and Maurice Schmidt

AI can improve our economies. The ECB Blog checks out the funding of AI financial investment in 2 posts. In this one we reveal that companies anticipate to rely extremely by themselves resources to fund the shift. Based upon the Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises, 72% of companies preparing to purchase AI anticipate to utilize internal funds such as capital or kept profits.

What kinds of Artificial Intelligence (AI) financial investment are companies preparing for the year ahead? That was a main concern positioned in the most recent Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises (SAFE). The responses paint a revealing image of where companies see the best worth in this quickly developing innovation. We inquired about 5,000 companies from throughout the euro location about their strategies to purchase AI innovations and tools, information facilities, AI experts and staff member training over the next 12 months.

Investing AI is significantly part of companies’ financial investment strategies

Almost half of the companies surveyed (49%) anticipate to assign their AI budget plans to AI innovations and tools, representing the biggest share of scheduled financial investment. Following carefully behind, 46% of services are prioritising training for their workers, highlighting the truth that effective AI adoption depends upon abilities in addition to innovation. Information facilities was the focus for 40% of the companies surveyed, while simply 12% are targeting the hiring of AI professionals. 38% of companies did not pick any of these classifications.

Bigger companies, maybe unsurprisingly, are most likely than their smaller sized equivalents to invest throughout all classifications, though the total patterns stay constant no matter size. These findings provide a look into how business are preparing to browse the AI transformation– and where they think the chances lie.

Investing Internal funds are the main source of funding, external sources play a supporting function

We likewise asked companies how they plan to money their AI financial investments. The response is clear: internal funds are without a doubt the most popular source of funding. In general, 72% of companies preparing to purchase AI anticipate to utilize internal funds such as capital or maintained incomes (Chart 2, left panel). Bank loans, grants and renting play a secondary function, each accounting for 16% of companies. Equity and equity capital are pointed out by 6% of companies, while just 1% are checking out financial obligation securities. Some companies have actually not yet selected a specific source of funding: 18% did not choose any of the funding choices noted, recommending that this sector of the sample stays uncertain.

Chart 2

Type and variety of funding sources for anticipated AI financial investment

Kind of funding source

Variety of funding sources

(portion of participants)

(portion of participants)

The majority of the companies preparing AI financial investment anticipate to utilize a single funding instrument (Chart 2, best panel). Once again, internal funds control, while bank loans, grants and leasing are much less typical as stand-alone sources (Chart 3). When companies utilize more than one source, they normally integrate internal funds with external financing, such as leasing, grants, bank loans or equity. Mixes including just external sources are less widespread.

Investing Security impacts how companies financing AI adoption

Whether companies utilize external financing depends most importantly on the nature of the financial investment. Companies are most likely to depend on external financing when purchasing concrete properties, such as hardware or information facilities. The benefit of these properties is that they can be promised or utilized as security, normally reducing loaning expenses. Alternatively, the financial investments required to develop long-lasting AI abilities– such as working with professionals or training staff members– are at a relative downside. While these financial investments can likewise produce important possessions for a business, they are intangible and can not for that reason be utilized as security, making it more difficult to acquire bank funding.

The significance of security ends up being clear when we compare companies in the very same nation, market and size class. Companies preparing to purchase AI innovations and tools, or in information and facilities, are significantly most likely to integrate internal and external funding. Both kinds of financial investment are related to a 16 portion point boost in the possibility of doing so (Chart 4).

The photo is various for more intangible costs. Working with AI experts is related to a smaller sized boost in the probability of integrating internal and external financing, at simply 9 portion points. Worker training reveals no statistically considerable result. Hardware and information facilities frequently need big in advance costs and can be utilized as security, whereas training tends to include smaller sized, incremental expenses that are much easier to money from maintained revenues. All of which indicates the very same conclusion: external funding for AI financial investment is carefully connected to the schedule of security.

Investing Conclusion

AI adoption is not simply a concern of whether companies wish to invest. It is likewise about how they can fund this financial investment. The SAFE proof indicate a clear message: euro location companies are preparing to buy AI however anticipate to fund much of it themselves. While internal funds use the benefits of availability, versatility and control, heavy dependence on this kind of financing might restrict the scale and rate of AI adoption compared to what might be accomplished if external funding were utilized more broadly.

The restricted function of external financing raises crucial concerns about prospective barriers in the euro location’s monetary community.^[1] Bank loans, grants and renting play a supporting function for some kinds of AI financial investment, while equity and equity capital are seldom mentioned. That might indicate prospective structural difficulties that limitation access to funding for intangible financial investment. Dealing with these problems by making sure that funding structures can support both concrete and intangible AI financial investment might assist unlock higher financial investment capacity and speed up the diffusion of AI innovations throughout the euro location economy.

The views revealed in each blog site entry are those of the author(s) and do not always represent the views of the European Central Bank and the Eurosystem.

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