Spain is determined to lead the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, boosting investment and demonstrating almost total optimism about its future as a global power in the sector. However, the figures of annual study conducted by Red Hat, world leader in open source solutions, also reflect crucial challenges: the lack of specialized talent, the persistence of legacy infrastructures and the phenomenon of “Shadow AI” threaten to slow down the long-awaited qualitative leap of Spanish organizations
Spain before AI: total trust
99% of IT managers surveyed agree that Spain is already, or has the capacity to become, a global AI power in three years. This figure places Spain between the most optimistic nations in Europe, along with Germany, Sweden and the Netherlandswhile Italy recorded the lowest proportion at 76%. However, only 29% consider that they already have that leadership, while 70% believe that they could achieve it in the next three years.
Julia Bernal, Red Hat country manager for Spain and Portugal, and Sathish Balakrishnan, vice president and general director of Red Hat’s Ansible business unit, during the presentation of the study on AI in Spain.
“The results of this year’s Spanish survey are a reflection of a smart and strategic approach to the AI journey by organizations in Spain,” highlights Julia Bernal, Red Hat country manager for Spain and Portugal. “Our business leaders realize that the real challenge lies not in experimenting, but in taking an idea from a pilot to a production-ready solution.”
Respondents identify a lack of IT infrastructure (52%) as the main reason hindering Spain’s rise to prominence in AI, followed by the absence of adequate government policy and strategy (49%) and limited public funding (44%).
Spanish organizations plan to increase their investment in AI by an average of 20% by 2026, with the overall average increase in investment in Spain being 20.46%. Nearly two-thirds of respondents (69%) expect to increase their investment between 5% and 20%, while 28% anticipate increases of 21% to 50%. No respondent plans not to increase investment.
Despite this investment enthusiasm, only 5% say they are generating true value for the client from their AI projects. 95% of organizations surveyed report that they are not yet generating customer value from their AI investments. The bulk of the business fabric is still navigating preliminary phases: 46% of those surveyed are exploring AI use cases, 36% are in the preparation phase, only 9% are maximizing their investment and a scant 5% have managed to transform AI into tangible value for their clients.
“The barriers they identify – integration with existing systems, system security and the search for a clear ROI – are precisely the problems that arise when trying to take AI from the laboratory to reality,” explains Bernal. «Therefore, the conversation has evolved. “It is no longer a question of which AI model to use, but rather how to build a technology platform that allows companies to do so with a stronger security posture, with greater scalability and in a more cost-effective manner.”
The talent challenge and the value of open source
For the second consecutive year, artificial intelligence tops the list of urgent skills gaps in Spaina concern shared by 85% of respondents. In the field of AI, respondents identify the main gap as the connection of AI with corporate data (53%), followed by the ability to efficiently use AI functionalities (51%) and general business training for the use of AI (42%).
The panorama is also complicated by the phenomenon of Shadow AI: Virtually all respondents (98%) report experiencing this issue, which refers to the unauthorized use of AI tools by employees, adding risks in terms of security, privacy, and data governance.
He Open source software is consolidated as a key factor to accelerate the maturity and security of AI in Spain. 100% of respondents consider enterprise open source software to be important for AI strategy, virtualization and cost optimization, and 98.9% consider it equally important for security.
“Enterprises need the flexibility to connect their data, manage governance, and scale solutions without skyrocketing costs, and that’s where an open source approach becomes a key strategic enabler,” says Julia Bernal.
Automation as a fundamental pillar of AI
Satish balakrishnanvice president and general manager of Red Hat’s Ansible business unit, who was present at the press conference, emphasized that “automation is mission critical” for enterprise AI success. “If all companies understood automation as a critical mission, they would not have the problems they have today of trying to reduce costs, trying to optimize personnel, trying to optimize resources”explained the manager. According to Balakrishnan, for successful automation are required “three things: a strategic commitment from the CIO from the top down, that there are the right incentives for people to automate, and having the right platform.”
The executive established that automation acts as a critical bridge: “We can all agree that AI is the most transformative technology we have ever seen. But if we really look at it in the context of enterprise IT, AI cannot solve disparate processes and disparate tools.”. Automation, he explained, “It is very important to ensure that all your IT tools are connected to each other, so that AI can intervene and make transformative changes. “With solutions like Red Hat OpenShift AI and Ansible Automation Platform, we provide the foundation for automation and management of AI infrastructure.”
Regarding the AI infrastructure, the manager highlighted that “We can automate AI the same way we automate everything else, and this becomes even more critical because we all know how expensive GPUs are, how expensive it is to get value from AI immediately”. Balakrishnan also explained the concept of turning intelligence into action: “When AI is able to predict these insights, not taking action on them does not make those insights useful. We call this turning intelligence into action.”
About the Integration of AI into your own productsBalakrishnan explained that “two years ago, Ansible introduced Ansible Lightspeed, which is a generative way to create playbooks using natural language processing.” “At Red Hat we are not only helping our customers implement AI, but we are also infusing artificial intelligence into our own products to simplify and accelerate their adoption.”he concluded.
Return, security and digital sovereignty as emerging priorities
AI adoption faces significant barriers for almost all respondents (98%). The main difficulties lie in integration with existing systems (37%), concerns about data privacy and security (36%), and the absence of clear business value or ROI (32%).
The top priority for respondents for AI strategy is cost optimization (90%), followed by realigning cloud strategy for AI (88%) and flexibility to support AI models (87%).
Although AI dominates the technology agenda, the cloud maintains its position among IT’s top three priorities. In Spain, the main barrier to cloud adoption is limited management support, indicated by 72.9% of companies, followed by sovereignty concerns (71.9%) and pauses in infrastructure investment due to market uncertainty (70.9%).
Regarding the cloud sovereignty strategy for the next 18 months, Spanish respondents prioritize transparency and auditability (90%), collaboration between specific geographies (89.9%) and operational control and autonomy (88.9%).
It’s time to turn expectations into reality
Spain presents itself as one of the most optimistic European markets about its potential in AIwith a clear commitment to increasing investment and adopting open source technologies as a strategic basis. However, for this push to translate into real competitive advantages, it will be essential to rigorously address the talent gap, strengthen data governance, improve systems integration and develop solid digital sovereignty policies.
As Julia Bernal concluded, the real challenge is no longer experimenting, but “taking an idea from a pilot to a production-ready solution”overcoming the complexities inherent to digital transformation without losing sight of security, transparency and business purpose.
