The inaugural AI Index Hungary was produced by Joint Venture Szövetség (JVSZ) in collaboration with Code Intelligence and Peak to track domestic AI adoption, acceptance and economic impact. The study was presented at the JVSZ Country Ride event in Debrecen and will be repeated periodically to provide ongoing, data-driven insights.
Key findings
- More than half of Hungarians (50.4%) used an AI-based tool at least once in the past month, but only 25.9% are regular users. A further 24.5% describe themselves as occasional users, while 39% have never tried an AI tool.
- Among active users, the most common use case is information search (82.2%), followed by learning (35.5%) and text generation (26.4%). More complex corporate applications are less widespread.
- Employer- or institution-paid AI access is rare: only 3.9% of respondents said their employer or educational institution pays for AI tools.
- The most used solutions are ChatGPT (64.7%), Gemini (21.9%) and Copilot (7.3%).
Trust and demographic patterns
Although 51.8% of respondents feel confident using AI, trust in the accuracy and reliability of AI outputs remains limited: 39.5% say they only partly trust AI-generated answers. Usage declines with age and away from the capital: AI use is highest in Pest County and western regions (60.2% and 57.7%), and lower in southern and northern parts of the country (31.6% and 40.9%). Men are more likely than women to be regular or occasional users (58.4% vs. 43.2%).
Workplace adoption: individual initiative dominates
AI deployment in workplaces is largely driven by individual initiative: 67.6% of respondents work for companies without any AI regulation. Only one in ten employees reported that their employer explicitly allows or recommends AI use. Nearly half (47.5%) believe their own job cannot be fully replaced by automation today.
Organizational challenges highlighted by experts
Dr. Csorbai Hajnalka, President of Joint Venture Szövetség, warned that while Hungary’s public shows active engagement with AI and lacks major technological barriers, the number of AI-using companies is among the lowest in the European Union. She identified the key challenge as converting individual experimentation into organizational knowledge and tangible business advantage.
Dobos Balázs of Code Intelligence emphasized shortcomings in corporate culture and structured adoption: globally AI is already a critical competitiveness factor, but in Hungary it has only been integrated into daily corporate routines and business processes to a limited extent.
Next steps
The AI Index Hungary team plans to repeat the survey at regular intervals to monitor changes in AI usage, user trust and economic impact over time, with the aim of giving policymakers, companies and professional bodies a reliable, evidence-based picture of the country’s AI maturity.
