Germany invests too little in AI expertise: Study calls for industrial qualification offensive

Alliance of Opportunities (Allianz der Chancen) identifies structural deficits in AI training and presents practical guidelines for professional implementation

Frankfurt/Main, 9ᵗʰ March 2026 
Germany’s AI offensive is in danger of failing due to a lack of qualification architecture. This is the conclusion of the ‘Corporate AI Learning’ study conducted by the Amadeus Fire Group (Prime Standard, ISIN: DE0005093108) on behalf of the Alliance of Opportunities. It diagnoses a structural imbalance between technology investments and systematic skills development – with immediate consequences for productivity and competitiveness. The results were presented at the latest network meeting of the Alliance for Opportunities in Berlin, where more than 100 HR directors and HR managers discussed AI training as a location factor.

The Alliance of Opportunities is a cross-industry initiative of leading companies that promotes competitiveness and a modern working environment in Germany. The study is based on AI-supported in-depth interviews with HR managers from member companies of various industries and sizes.

Although 91 percent of the companies surveyed consider AI to be central to their business model and 82 percent plan to increase their investments, whereby only 25 percent are investing substantially in the further training of their employees in the near future. Around 80 percent of companies are unable to reliably measure the impact of their training measures.

‘We are investing billions in AI technology – but without a measurable and scalable skills strategy, productivity gains will remain random,’ says Monika Wiederhold, CEO of Amadeus Fire Group and responsible for Corporate AI Learning within the Alliance of Opportunities. ‘If training is not organised systematically, the business location will lose its competitive edge.’

Structural deficits
Germany lags behind other countries in terms of AI usage: in 2025, only 26 percent of companies with at least ten employees used such technologies, compared to 57 percent of large companies. At the same time, the focus is shifting from pilot projects to the widespread implementation of generative and increasingly autonomous AI systems.

This places considerable demands on the workforce. Employees must control, evaluate and integrate AI applications into processes. In fact, only around 20 percent of working people in Germany have received AI training in their companies to date. 70 percent report that no such training is offered. Similar patterns can be seen in the companies themselves: there is a lack of binding competence models, learning time and systematic performance measurement. Many initiatives remain in pilot status.

Areas for political action
Addressing politicians and administrators, the study identifies four areas for political action in a position paper:
• Legally secure testing grounds for AI applications
• Mandatory integration of AI skills in education and training
• Tax incentives & co-financed programmes, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises
• Accelerated procedures for low-risk AI learning applications

Practical guide for implementation
Beyond analysing the problem, the authors of the study present an accompanying practical guide that can also be understood as a blueprint for Corporate AI Learning. It describes how companies can strategically anchor and operationalise AI training.

The starting point is not the training itself, but rather clear prioritisation:
Which business processes offer the greatest productivity potential?
Which roles require in-depth skills?
How can these be developed within a defined period of time?

The guide outlines key success factors – from leadership anchoring and governance to role-specific learning paths and the direct integration of AI tools into everyday work. Particular emphasis is placed on measuring impact: only when usage and concrete time savings are systematically documented can a robust business case be created.

Methodological approach
The Amadeus Fire Group used an ‘agentic action research’ approach for the study. An AI agent conducted adaptive in-depth interviews with HR managers at member companies. The results were validated by technical and scientific experts (‘human-in-the-scientific-loop’) and compared with international adoption data. The technology of Amadeus Fire subsidiary eduBITES was used.

The complete study results with position paper and practical guide are available here:
https://group.amadeus-fire.de/en/corporate-ai-learning/Please note that by using this link you are visiting an external website, which may not follow the same data protection, security, or accessibility policies.

About Amadeus Fire
The stock listed Amadeus Fire Group (ISIN: DE0005093108, Prime Standard), headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, is one of Germany’s leading providers of personnel services and professional training. The focus is on placing specialised professionals and executives, as well as on training and further education in the commercial and IT sectors. Temporary employment, recruitment, interim and project management are among the services offered in the Personnel Services segment, as well as publicly funded, practice-oriented training courses for private individuals and companies in the Training segment.
Further information on the Amadeus Fire Group is available at: https://group.amadeus-fire.de/en/Please note that by using this link you are visiting an external website, which may not follow the same data protection, security, or accessibility policies.

Contact:
Jörg Peters
Head of Investor Relations
jpeters@amadeus-fire.dePlease note that by using this link you are visiting an external website, which may not follow the same data protection, security, or accessibility policies.
+49 69 96 87 61 80

Press:
Mario Köpers
KC3 Köpers Corporate & Crisis Communications GmbH
info@koepers-kc3.dePlease note that by using this link you are visiting an external website, which may not follow the same data protection, security, or accessibility policies.
+49 170 56 72 100