AI use surges among Estonian residents and companies in 2026
New Statistics Estonia data shows 65% of Estonia's residents and 34% of businesses now use artificial intelligence, both marking sharp increases from last year. Use of internet-connected smart devices has also grown significantly.
Statistics Estonia's latest infotechnology survey shows a marked rise in artificial intelligence use in 2026 among both households and businesses compared to the previous year. Analyst Luiza Nuka reported that AI use grew 1.4 times among households and 1.5 times among businesses over the year, a trend she attributes to greater availability of AI-based applications and services and their growing integration into daily life.
The sharpest growth — more than doubling — occurred in the 65–74 age group, with notable growth also seen among 35–44-year-olds. Usage among young people did not rise significantly, since it was already high, around 90%, but youth remain the most active AI users overall. The share of people who do not use AI continues to shrink, with lack of need cited as the main reason for non-use — only 1.4% of non-users were unaware AI existed, indicating high public awareness of the technology.
Businesses increasingly adopt AI
Companies are increasingly using AI to generate natural-language text, with the share of such businesses up 11.1 percentage points since 2025. The share of businesses using image and video generation technologies rose by 7 percentage points.
Smart device use keeps climbing
Compared to 2024, use of internet-connected devices rose substantially across all areas. Smart TVs, smart watches and other wearables, along with internet-connected household appliances, remain the most widely used. Use of smart energy-monitoring devices, such as connected thermostats, electricity meters and lighting, rose 28%. Health and wellbeing devices, including fitness trackers monitoring physical activity, blood pressure or blood sugar, saw usage grow 14% compared to 2024. The largest increase, 36%, was in use of Wi-Fi-connected cars, while the share of people using no internet-connected devices at all declined.
Data protection and cybersecurity
Use of personal data protection methods changed little compared to 2025, though the share of people blocking use of their data for advertising rose 12%. Awareness varies sharply by age: 69% of 16–24-year-olds restricted access to their device's geolocation, compared to just 14% of those aged 65–74. Businesses are paying growing attention to security measures, most commonly separate-environment data backups and two-factor authentication, while ICT risk analyses remain far less common.
