EU AI Act brokers still keep most artificial intelligence use inside the firm, with 87% of 847 reported use cases tied to internal work, according to FM Intelligence findings published on Monday.
The data came from a European Securities and Markets Authority survey of 728 firms across 19 countries. Of those, 395 firms reported 847 use cases. ESMA asked each respondent for no more than three main cases.
Customer relationship tools made up 10% of reported use cases. Systems used to provide investment services accounted for 3%. ESMA said firms mainly used AI for drafting and internal help, and therefore focused on efficiency rather than direct revenue.
EU AI Act Brokers Face Compliance Impact
At the firm level, 23% of respondents said the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act would affect them strongly. Another 53% expected a moderate effect. Together, that put the combined share at 76%.
The European Commission started enforcing applicable AI Act rules on Aug. 2. The new transparency rules require disclosure when users interact with certain AI systems. However, the source said standard internal drafting, market surveillance and algorithmic trading do not become high-risk only because they use AI.
Still, firms must address model access, audit trails, outsourcing, resilience and responsibility for third-party systems. The report also said the 87% and 76% figures measure different things, so they should not be read as a direct comparison.
Investment Gap and Vendor Reliance
ESMA’s figures showed a sharp gap by firm size in 2024. Among large respondents, 93% invested in AI. That compared with 40% of small firms and 21% of micro firms. Meanwhile, 100 respondents either did not answer that question or said they did not know.
Hosting leaned toward outside infrastructure. Of 397 firms that answered, 62% used only commercial cloud services. In addition, 41% relied on a single commercial provider.
Microsoft ranked first among third-party AI providers by fees for 47% of 344 firms that named at least one supplier. OpenAI followed at 20%, while Amazon Web Services stood at 8%. However, the report said those figures reflect provider mentions, not market share, workloads or spending.
ESMA also said 74% of respondents allowed staff to use public generative AI tools. Unrestricted access stood at 39%, while 32% said they had a formal policy. Only 17% reported complete AI understanding at board or senior-management level, and that fell to 8% among operational staff.
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Source: Finance Magnates
