Snowflake study on the AI labor market in Spain

The study conducted in June and July 2025, for which 200 executives from large companies in Spain were surveyed, revealed that 71 percent of companies are already in advanced stages of AI adoption. Despite this widespread adoption, a significant number of respondents say that the actual scalability of their projects is being held back by three major challenges: lack of trust in AI (37 percent), skills shortages (20 percent) and data quality (19 percent). Other notable challenges are high costs (11%) and regulation (10%).

„This finding highlights that trust is a major challenge for the scalability of AI,“ explains José María Alonso, Country Manager for Spain and Portugal at Snowflake. „Our research shows that companies in Spain not only need to further develop their AI capabilities, but also ensure their explainability, robustness and ethical alignment so that users and stakeholders can fully trust their decisions and outcomes.“

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‎„Our research shows that companies in Spain not only need to further develop their AI capabilities, but also ensure their explainability, robustness and ethical alignment.”

José María Alonso,
Country Manager for Spain and Portugal,
Snowflake.

Strategies for attracting and retaining talent

The latest study by Snowflake points to a shortage of AI talent in Spain. An overwhelming majority of local companies (96 percent) say that the availability of skilled labor has a direct impact on their AI investment decisions. To address this situation, companies are choosing to upskill their employees (46 percent) and increase salaries or other benefits (45 percent) to attract and retain talent.

„It's not just about finding AI experts, but professionals who understand how AI can be used strategically to ensure it understands and is relevant to business objectives. It is clear that in order to take advantage of the opportunities offered by AI, companies must rely on data platforms that simplify their data architectures, increase the productivity of existing teams and reduce dependence on highly specialized and hard-to-find professionals,“ explains José María.

Other strategies companies are using to address the current shortage of AI professionals include adjusting job requirements to increase the candidate pool (41 percent), outsourcing AI-related tasks to third parties or consultants (41 percent) and hiring people with different professional backgrounds unrelated to AI (39 percent).

According to the study, the most difficult positions for companies in Spain to fill are those that combine technical skills with strategic, legal and ethical knowledge, such as AI consultants (29%), AI legal experts (29%) and AI solution architects (29%). There is also considerable demand for experts in AI ethics (24 percent).

Modern, user-friendly data platforms that can democratize data can help companies overcome challenges such as skills shortages and distrust of AI by centralizing enterprise data in a fully controlled environment with a layered AI layer. This should be accompanied by best management practices across the organization, such as role-based access, to ensure the right business departments and users can access the right data and leverage AI to improve their analytics.

„AI is increasingly blurring the boundaries that have always existed between technical and business teams. These traditional boundaries were never due to a lack of willingness to collaborate, but rather a lack of a common language and tools. With AI, natural language is now the universal language for data, enabling executives to participate more actively in data analysis, while data analysts and engineers can expand their role and become more strategic partners within their organizations,“ adds José María.

Source: Snowflake