Marvin OnumonuDemand for artificial intelligence (AI) skills in Europe rose sharply, with a 230% increase in AI projects from companies between 2023 and 2024, data from Malt found.
Malt’s Tech Trends report showed that the number of freelancers with AI expertise only grew by 31% in the same period.
Demand for European cloud providers like Scaleway more than doubled, up 100%, as companies focused on tech control, cloud, and cybersecurity.
GenAI, data, and no-code skills saw the fastest growth, with DeepAI skills up by 413%.
Low-code platforms like n8n and Make grew by 126% and 118% respectively, with the mobile app builder Flutterflow up 274%.
Additionally, Malt’s Tech Skills index showed a 30% gap between the top growing skills that freelancers are offering and what companies are asking for.
Freelancers leaned into AI and low-code, while company demand was spread out over more traditional areas.
Cybersecurity project demand rose 35% in 2024, with a focus on audit, compliance, and risk governance.
Demand for European cloud doubled, and open-source tools like Metabase grew 35%.
Claire Lebarz, CTO at Malt, said: “AI and a desire for more control are shaping European tech.
“Architectural choices and tech investments made today will determine companies’ resilience to growing economic, environmental, political, and technological uncertainties.
“Yet, companies don’t seem as ready as freelancers to embrace the AI revolution, and green tech is a blind spot.”
Maxime Marsal, fullstack developer, specialised in AI and automation at Malt, said: “With AI, it’s a new revolution every day.
“Companies are struggling to keep up — their needs evolve more slowly than the tech itself. For freelancers, it’s a whole new era: you no longer need to be a coding expert to build something.
“Just describe what you want, the AI writes the code, and you tweak it live. That’s what insiders call vibe coding — and this is only the beginning.”
