That’s a sharp rise from 65% in 2025, and puts Portugal ahead of Spain, France and Germany among the countries included in the research.

The study, carried out by OpinionWay for business software company Cegid, surveyed 2,006 office workers across the four countries, including 502 in Portugal, between 22 May and 4 June.

And workers aren’t just asking AI to tidy up an email or summarise a document.

In Portugal, 44% say they frequently or systematically use AI when making important work-related decisions. Among workers aged 18 to 29, that figure rises to 57%.

Perhaps surprisingly, the public sector recorded the highest figure of all the sectors studied, with 53% saying they regularly consult AI tools to help with decisions.

Workers are moving faster than their employers

While individual use has taken off, companies appear to be struggling to keep pace.

Only 41% of Portuguese respondents said AI was fully or partially integrated into their organisation’s daily operations. Just 6% considered it fully integrated.

That gap has created another issue for employers.

Almost seven in ten Portuguese workers, 69%, admitted using external AI tools without informing their organisation. In the public sector, the figure rises to 77%.

That matters because putting company information into an external AI service can raise questions around confidential data, privacy and security, particularly when organisations haven’t established clear rules about which tools employees can use and what information can be shared with them.

The figures suggest that, in many workplaces, employees haven’t waited for an official AI strategy. They’ve simply started using the technology themselves.

Portugal warming to AI

Attitudes towards the technology are also changing quickly.

Around 76% of Portuguese workers now describe their feelings about using AI at work positively, compared with 59% last year. Among 18 to 29-year-olds, the figure reaches 86%.

Concern, meanwhile, has fallen from 28% to 23%, while curiosity remains the most commonly reported reaction to the technology.

Cegid Portugal and Africa general manager Paulo Carvalho said the challenge for businesses now is closing the gap between employees’ individual use of AI and its formal integration within organisations.

The numbers certainly suggest that AI has already made its way into Portuguese workplaces, whether employers were quite ready for it or not.