As the latest Bitkom survey shows, the EU AI Act has now become a major issue across large parts of the German economy. 71% of companies either expect to be affected by the AI Act or are still assessing whether it applies to them. Of these, almost 90% anticipate a high implementation burden, with just over half expecting it to be very high.
At the same time, 66% of all companies surveyed believe the regulation will bring more disadvantages than advantages for their own business – a figure that has risen significantly compared with the previous year. “The AI Act was intended to build trust, but instead it is creating widespread uncertainty,” says Bitkom President Dr Ralf Wintergerst.
Meanwhile, companies are expanding their AI governance structures. According to a SAS survey, Germany is ahead of other European countries in this area. 66% of German companies already have a Responsible AI policy in place. The proportion with “model governance” measures has risen by 12.6 percentage points since 2025 to 56%.
However, only 16% have established mandatory data quality processes for every AI project. Almost 30% have formal Responsible AI guidelines in place, but respondents doubt whether these are consistently followed in practice. Awareness of the importance of data quality has also increased significantly: 66% of German companies now identify it as a key requirement, compared with 29% the previous year.
By Maria Kleiner
Source: Bitkom, 14 September 2026