DEVELOPMENT OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN LITHUANIA, LATVIA AND ESTONIA: SOME EMPIRICAL EVIDENCES

In the 21st century, artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as one of the most important factors with a major impact not only on the productivity and competitive advantage of companies, transforming labour, goods and services, and capital markets, but also influencing the growth of the global economy. After describing the AI concept, the stages of its development and analysis of scientific literature, the paper explores the specificities of the AI use in 2021-2023 in companies in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and the EU-27 countries. It compares the share of enterprises using AI and analyses differences by size, sector, type of technology used, purpose of use and mode of acquisition. It explains the reasons that most often hinder the use of AI. The analysis shows that the share of enterprises using AI in any Baltic State was below the EU-27 level, but in some groups of enterprises the rate of change in the Baltic States exceeded the EU-27 growth rate. To ensure that the most significant changes do not go unnoticed and to provide longer-term insights, this study should be continued.