The adoption of the cloud in German companies has increased significantly. Currently, 74 percent of organizations rely on cloud infrastructures to a large extent or completely, which represents an increase of 13 percentage points compared to 2023. Despite this positive development, Germany lags behind in the EMEA comparison (Europe, Middle East, Africa). While a quarter of companies across Europe have already completely migrated their infrastructure to the cloud, this figure is only 14 percent in Germany.
Agentic AI as a Driver for Cloud Innovations
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become the central driver for cloud investments. For 67 percent of the executives surveyed in Germany, the capabilities of agent-based AI (Agentic AI) are now a decisive criterion when selecting their cloud providers. Nevertheless, the study reveals a discrepancy between aspiration and reality: Only seven percent of German companies have already implemented or scaled Agentic AI, while the EMEA average is 29 percent.
A significant obstacle to AI readiness is the lack of skilled workers. Less than half of German decision-makers (48 percent) are confident that their own workforce has the necessary skills to use AI profitably. In the rest of the EMEA region, this figure is 80 percent.
Challenges: Complexity and Digital Sovereignty
With the increasing maturity of the systems, the focus is shifting from pure migration to optimization. Multi-cloud has established itself as the standard with a usage rate of 69 percent. However, this diversity leads to new problems:
- Integration complexity: 42 percent of respondents identify the increasing technical complexity as the biggest internal obstacle to measurable added value from the cloud.
- External risks: Data protection concerns and regulatory requirements are cited as major problems by over half of the companies.
- Geopolitics: 73 percent of organizations have already adjusted their cloud strategy due to geopolitical uncertainties or plan to do so within the next twelve months.
In this context, national and sovereign cloud models are gaining in importance, even if they are currently still underrepresented in Germany.
Investment Priorities and Deficits in Cost Management
Despite the economic pressure, 84 percent of companies plan to increase their cloud budgets. More than half of the investments (54 percent) are primarily intended to flow into the areas of AI and machine learning.
There is a significant need to catch up in the financial management of cloud resources. Only eleven percent of German companies use comprehensive FinOps practices for consistent cost optimization across multiple providers. The EMEA average is almost three times as high at 31 percent. In addition, one in five German companies states that it has not yet planned any activities in the area of FinOps.
Methodology of the Study
The results of the “PwC Cloud Business Survey 2025” are based on a survey conducted between July and September 2025. A total of 1,415 executives from the EMEA region took part, including 110 participants from Germany. The German sample consists of 63 percent technical and 37 percent commercial decision-makers, with the industrial and pharmaceutical sectors being the most strongly represented.
