Competitiveness

Digitisation of European SMEs grows, but Italy lags behind

Webidoo's annual report shows a Europe at different speeds, with Italy in 21st place, although improving on 2024

by R.I.T.

23 December 2025

Industry 4.0 Cloud computing, physical systems, IOT, cognitive computing industry. 3d illustration

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

Europe at different speeds
The five dimensions of digitisation
Artificial intelligence as a lever for growth

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The digital transformation of European SMEs continues to grow, but at different speeds, with Italy still lagging behind the leading countries. This is what emerges from the Sme Digital Growth Index 2025, the report by Webidoo Insight Lab that comparatively measures the evolution of the digital maturity of SMEs in EU countries.

Now in its third edition, the report confirms an overall growth in the digitisation of European SMEs, with an average index of 42.88%, up from 40.2% in 2024. However, the evolution remains highly uneven across countries. Well-established digital ecosystems, such as Denmark (66.35%), Malta (63.14%) and the Netherlands (59.86%), continue to rank high, while Slovakia (33.14%), Bulgaria (26.58%) and Romania (26.43%) have persistent structural lags. The comparison between 2025 and 2024 highlights important differences in the pace of transformation.

Europe at different speeds

In fact, a first group of countries shows accelerations above the EU average (+2.66%), with Austria (+6.05%), Portugal (+4.82%), Finland (+4.41%), Ireland (+4.13%) and Lithuania (+4.05%) showing more dynamic paths of digital reinforcement than the European context. A second group, including Germany (+3.71%), Belgium (+3.44%), the Netherlands (+3.36%), Malta (+3.01%) and Denmark (+2.95%), is growing at a more moderate but steady pace. At the tail end, Spain (-0.08%) and Sweden (-1.49%) recorded a drop in the overall index, showing signs of stagnation or slowing down.

In the European context, Italy is still in the lower-middle range of the Sme Digital Growth Index 2025, in 21st place, although it shows an improvement compared to 19th last year, and obtains a score of 38.92%, up from 36.1% in 2024, but still below the EU average (42.88%). This is characterised by a composite profile that shows a solid infrastructure endowment (54.40%), higher than the European average (50.30%) and accompanied by significant annual growth (+4.41%).

This figure "confirms that our country has consolidated over time an adequate technological base in terms of connectivity and use of digital services, which represents a fundamental enabling factor for the transformation of SMEs," reads the Report. Even on the Digital Commerce front (19.9%), Italy shows a positive dynamic (+3.50% compared to 2024), higher than the EU average growth (23.1% in 2025, +0.9% compared to 2024), signalling a progressive strengthening of online sales capabilities.

On the other hand, criticalities persist in the more intangible dimensions of digitalisation. In particular, Research and Innovation (29.16%) and Digital Competencies (29.05%) remain significantly below the European average, with the latter decreasing compared to the previous year (-0.78%). The Italian profile thus highlights a still unbalanced digital transformation: infrastructures are growing faster than organisational and human absorption capacity, limiting the impact of digital on SMEs' productivity and innovation.

The five dimensions of digitisation

Webidoo's report identifies five different dimensions that define the digitisation of a company: Digital Presence, Digital Commerce, Technological Infrastructure, Research and Innovation, and Digital Skills. Analysing the individual dimensions, Digital Presence emerges as a key competitive differentiator: Malta (73.26%), Denmark (69.79%) and Sweden (66.35%) stand out for online visibility and digital engagement capabilities. On the dynamic front, Germany marks the highest annual increase (+7.42%), highlighting a decisive strengthening of the digital communication and online positioning strategies of SMEs.

In Digital Commerce, which measures the ability to carry out electronic transactions, Lithuania (70.76%), Austria (64.07%) and Denmark (62.75%) stand out. Austria also shows the most significant annual increase (+10.14%), demonstrating how investments in online sales, payment systems and digital logistics can rapidly strengthen the competitiveness of SMEs.

Technological Infrastructure confirms its key role: Denmark (77.95%), Finland (77.40%) and Sweden (71.12%) offer highly connected business environments. Poland stands out, with 12.37% growth over 2024, supported by the expansion of connectivity and the adoption of cloud services, key elements in strengthening the technology base of SMEs.

The Research and Innovation dimension presents itself as the most future-oriented: Denmark (61.74%), the Netherlands (59.70%), Belgium (54.80%) and Croatia (53.80%) show an advanced deployment of data-driven decision-making processes and capabilities supported by artificial intelligence. Sweden records the fastest annual increase (+10.89%), signalling the transition from initial experimentation to the systematic integration of advanced digital tools.

With a European average of 39.42%, Digital Competencies, outline a more complex evolution. Countries such as Finland (66.49%), Denmark (63.38%) and Belgium (62.84%) maintain a strong endowment of digital talent, while some digitally advanced economies show a reduction of in-house ICT personnel. The data suggest a possible shift towards outsourced skills, cloud-based technical functions and AI-supported operational capabilities.

Artificial Intelligence as a lever for growth

The SME Digital Growth Index 2025 shows that the competitiveness of European SMEs will depend less and less on the adoption of basic digital tools and more and more on the ability to integrate advanced technologies into business processes. In this perspective, the results dovetail with the evidence from the previous Webidoo Insight Lab report, Artificial Intelligence and Productivity in SMEs, which shows that companies that are already characterised by greater digital maturity are also those that are more ready to seize the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence.

In particular, the transition from generative AI tools to operational AI agents - capable of automating functions such as marketing, sales, internal management and production - represents a potential productivity accelerator. In fact, countries with a higher adoption of AI solutions among companies register higher margins of growth and profitability.

"The SME Digital Growth Index 2025 tells of a Europe that is changing, but at different speeds," comments Giovanni Farese, CEO of Webidoo. "The companies that integrate digital in a strategic way, from their online presence to their ability to innovate, are the ones that are building a real advantage. The data on digital skills, however, reminds us that technology alone is not enough: we need vision, culture and continuous investment in people'