Although almost all enterprises claim to be taking steps to secure their IT network, more than one in five has recently experienced a security incident, as shown by the latest results from the survey on ICT usage and e-commerce in enterprises^[1][2] carried out by Statbel, the Belgian statistical office. There has also been a significant increase in remote meetings and IT training. E-commerce is growing in importance, now accounting for more than a quarter of the total turnover of enterprises. At the same time, artificial intelligence (AI) is gradually taking hold, although its use remains uneven.

Statbel, the Belgian statistical office, publishes today the results of the annual survey on ICT usage and e-commerce in enterprises. This Europe-wide survey reveals significant trends in the adoption of ICT and artificial intelligence (AI) by Belgian enterprises.

ICT security

Securing your IT infrastructure is an issue that almost every enterprise is aware of. Indeed, 96.1% of them use at least one ICT security measure.

However, only 40.3% of enterprises have documents on measures, practices or procedures on ICT security. This percentage is much higher for enterprises with more than 250 employees: 88.1%.

Despite these measures, 22.3% of enterprises claim to have experienced at least once a problem due to an ICT security incident in 2023: unavailability of ICT services, destruction or corruption of data, disclosure of confidential data (for any reason). These problems even affected 36.2% of large enterprises. 

Adoption of remote meetings and ICT training

In 2024, 70.1% of enterprises held remote meetings, an increase of 10% compared to 2022. This proportion rises to 97.2% among large enterprises (with more than 250 employees). Remote access to e-mail and other messaging systems is possible in 93.8% of enterprises with 10 or more employees and in all large enterprises.

More than three enterprises out of ten have provided training to develop the ICT skills of their personnel (36.8%), an increase of 12% compared to 2022. For enterprises with more than 250 employees, the proportion has remained stable compared to 2022, at 87.4%. The biggest increase was recorded in enterprises with between 50 and 249 employees (+11%).

Although 29.1% of enterprises with 10 or more employees and 89.5% of large enterprises employ ICT specialists, it is still difficult to recruit them: 9.1% of enterprises said they had a hard-to-fill vacancy for ICT specialists in 2023. This figure even rises to 47.5% for large enterprises.

E-commerce accounts for over a quarter of turnover

Over a quarter of enterprises received orders placed via websites or apps. This proportion amounts to one in two for enterprises with more than 250 employees. The proportion of total turnover accounted for by e-commerce rose by 2.2 percentage points compared to the previous year, from 26.6% to 28.8%. Nevertheless, only 5% of enterprises generated more than 50% of their turnover from online sales.

AI continues to expand

A quarter (24.7%) of enterprises are using at least one artificial intelligence (AI) technology, an increase of 10.9% compared to the previous year. The biggest increase was in enterprises with more than 250 employees, where the use of AI rose from 47.9% to 66.3%.

Artificial intelligence is mainly used to analyse or generate language and automate workflows or decision support.

However, two thirds of enterprises have never considered using AI technologies (66.2%). But here too, things are changing, as that figure was still 80.1% in 2023.

^[1]Enterprises with at least 10 employees
^[2]Survey organised at European level based on Regulation (EC) No 808/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 and on Regulation (EC) No 1006/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 September 2009.