The driver of the next wave of digitalisation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), has become prominent and is seen as central to the digital transformation of society. The use of AI has led to remarkable changes in various economic sectors such as healthcare, industry, commerce, and transportation, offering notable gains in productivity and efficiency. Its main business applications include automation, image/face recognition, natural language processing, data analytics and decision making, the latter including enhanced information management and predictive capacity.

If awareness of AI is almost universal, AI adoption varies greatly across countries, sectors and firm sizes which poses a problem for economic development and regional competitiveness. Companies tend to fall into one of two camps: the adopters (42%) who are currently using at least one AI technology and the non-adopters (40%). The early adopters of artificial intelligence have generally been either large corporations or small highly specialised start-ups with access to the technological know-how required for the earlier forms of AI implementation. In 2020, 39% of large enterprises in the EU used 2 or more AI technologies compared to only 22% of small enterprises. SMEs face a series of barriers in adopting AI. To name just a few: lack of awareness and data readiness, lack of human capital and skills, lack of finance, lack of networking and collaboration, and reputational, business and legal risks.

The overall objective of embrAIsme is to improve policies and programmes for encouraging the uptake of AI by SMEs regardless of their location, size and sector. The project's specific objectives are to:
- Raise awareness of AI and increase data readiness
- Invest in human capita and skills
- Facilitate access to finance
- Foster networking and cooperation
- Strengthen the governance of AI/SME policies
- Better consider legal and ethical issues.