Nearly Half of German HR Chiefs Now Investing in AI as Workplace Transformation Accelerates

German HR AI adoption jumps to 48% as EU AI Act forces faster action; overall business AI use reaches 54.5%, but labor market impact remains uncertain.

A major shift is underway inside German personnel departments. Forty-eight percent of human resources executives are now directing money into artificial intelligence tools, an increase from 38 percent a year earlier. The reason is not just competitive pressure: almost half of all companies have already drawn up specific policies governing AI use in HR, and a looming European regulation is forcing faster action.

The EU AI Act imposes tighter transparency and risk-management requirements starting in August 2026. Legal experts say that deadline is pushing AI governance from the IT department straight to the boardroom. In Berlin and Brandenburg, the trade union federation DGB has demanded that works councils be involved early — particularly when administrative AI language models are introduced.

Record adoption across German business

The new Ifo survey, conducted in May 2026, shows the broader trend: 54.5 percent of companies now use AI, compared with 40.9 percent the previous year. Manufacturing leads with 58.7 percent, well above the average. Construction — a sector usually slow to digitise — reached 39.8 percent, a surprisingly high figure.

Company size still matters. Among large corporations, 67.2 percent have deployed AI solutions, while small firms lag at roughly 51.2 percent. The most common applications are administration, data analysis and programming. In industry, quality control and production planning see the heaviest AI use.

A contradictory labour market picture

The global employment effects are anything but clear-cut. The US jobs report for May 2026 came in unexpectedly strong. Yet at the same time, announced job cuts in the United States hit their highest level since the Covid pandemic — and companies increasingly cite AI as the reason.

Researchers at Saarland University call AI the next industrial revolution but stop short of predicting mass unemployment. Routine office tasks are at risk, they argue, while planning and oversight roles remain firmly human territory.

Software development offers a glimpse of the change. Anthropic reports that more than 80 percent of the code integrated into its systems now comes from AI models such as Claude. As a result, demand for traditional IT jobs is falling; the profession is shifting toward system steering and supervision.

Divergent corporate responses

Private-sector strategies vary sharply. IT services firm Cognizant hired roughly 20,000 graduates in 2025. CEO Ravi Kumar S. expects AI to eventually boost employment overall. The company has invested more than $1 billion in its AI infrastructure.

Other businesses take a harder line. Teradata CEO Steve McMillan suspended annual salary increases, redirecting the freed-up capital into AI investments and specialist hiring.

The pharmaceutical sector offers a mixed snapshot. At Agilent’s Waldbronn site, headcount remains stable. Curevac, acquired by Biontech, plans a drastic reduction — roughly two-thirds of jobs at its main location are to disappear by the end of 2026.