CEE digital future: a new report by CMS
Recently the CMS company has published an interesting survey that spans 18 countries across
Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and features the region‘s digital achievements together with
the risks, opportunities and expectations about the CEE’s digital future. Ranked as a Top 10
Global Law Firm, CMS is operative in 43 countries with 77 offices worldwide. CMS lawyers
offer business-focused advice no matter whether it is about a local or global market.
The survey was conducted by CMS during the pandemic months of July and August 2020,
focusing on a variety of topics related to the digital agenda for business. In seeking the views of
professionals in business, management, IT and legal matters, a wide range of sectors were
included: aviation, consumer products, energy, financial services, hotels & leisure, life sciences
& healthcare, manufacturing, real estate, and TMT.
The truth is the pandemic has significantly accelerated the shift to digital in the region. The
digitalisation outlook in CEE is therefore very positive, although a lot more efforts are expected:
most organisations that have engaged in digitisation are still in the relative early stages of their
digital transformation. Among the sectors where digitalisation matters most are telecoms,
financial services and manufacturing.
Of all digital technologies, 5G continues to merit great attention. It is considered a transformative
technology but full European 5G standardisation is not yet completed. For businesses throughout
the region, certainty is of paramount importance for the deployment of 5G networks. At the
moment survey respondents are divided on how much their digital agenda is reliant on 5G roll-
out: only 10% confirm it is crucial; 36% answer “to some extent”, while for 54% it is of no
significance at all.
In CEE overall, the current use of AI technology may look uneven across organisations, from
country to country and from function to function. However, from nearly 100 companies in the
region, nearly 60% already deploy AI solutions. Total CEE spending on robotics and related
services will reach more than USD 4.2bn in 2020, according to the International Data
Corporation (IDC). In this respect, security risk and potential legal liability issues in relation to
AI are highlighted as significant concerns by the overwhelming majority (86%) of respondents.
Among CEE countries the V4 members (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) are
the most active and seeking to advance co-operation in AI.
The conclusion is that CEE has turned into an attractive investment region and the digital
economy is quickly expanding. This digital upsurge will create an economic boost for CEE
business.
The full report is available at: file:///D:/Downloads/CEE%20Digital%20horizon%20report.pdf
Compiled by Media 21 Foundation from the Internet
