Malt 2025 Tech Trends Report: demand for AI skills keeps exploding in Europe, with a 230% rise in AI projects within a year
Malt publishes its new “Malt Tech Trends” study, which analyses millions of searches from companies across Europe and the evolution of skills among 200,000 tech and data freelancers. AI is a driving force behind many tech shifts observed in coding languages, cybersecurity, and low-code/no-code. It is met with demand for more control by European companies, accelerating the growth of open source and sovereign solutions across domains.
London, June 10, 2025 – Malt, Europe’s largest community of independent tech talent with an overall of 850,000 freelancers, released its annual Malt Tech Trends report today, providing an in-depth analysis of the evolving tech landscape and jobs, focusing on 2023 vs. 2024. It includes an overview of major technology trends with its Malt Tech Quadrant and an analysis of supply and demand traction with the Tech Skills Index. Our marketplace is at the forefront of emerging trends, and our internal data enables us to identify signals of evolving skills.
The study’s key insights reveal that:
– European demand from companies for AI projects grew by 230%, while the number of AI expert freelancers only rose by 31%, between 2023 and 2024. Demand is still growing much faster than the supply provided by freelancers.
– Boost of European technological actors to face tech control stakes (especially in cloud and cybersecurity). Companies increasingly prioritise sovereign solutions, with demand for European cloud providers like Scaleway more than doubling (+100%).
GenAI, Data, and Low-Code: The Tech trinity is on the rise all over Europe
Demand for GenAI, Data, and no-code solutions is skyrocketing: they’re the fastest-growing skills. European demand from companies for AI skills all over Europe surged, especially demand for LLM skills, which was multiplied by 5, with a 413% surge for OpenAI skills.
The rise of AI is also fuelling the resurgence of low-code/no-code tools. These tools are critical in making AI accessible across organisations, and the report notes a 40% growth in demand for low-code projects in 2024. Thus, low-code platforms like n8n (+126%) and Make (+118%), and mobile app builder Flutterflow (+274%) are experiencing substantial demand growth. This isn’t an evolution, it’s a skills shockwave. GenAI and low-code tools are the fastest-moving currencies in tech, and freelancers are already trading in them.
Freelancers are more AI-ready than companies
Freelancers are three steps ahead when it comes to tech trends. They are anticipating the huge demand in AI skills and tools, training to match future requests, while most companies are still solidifying their tech foundations (cloud, cybersecurity, data) to better scale. Our Tech Skills Index uncovers an impressive gap: 30% of the top growing skills do not overlap between supply and demand. Freelancers focus on AI and low-code tools, while demand is more distributed between cloud, cybersecurity, data platform, and AI.
Cybersecurity is table stakes, Tech sovereignty is the game changer
Cybersecurity is no longer an add-on but a fundamental requirement. Cybersecurity-related projects grew by 35% in 2024, focusing on audit, compliance, and risk governance. Companies now recognise that security must be integrated into the very fabric of their tech initiatives. Security isn’t a separate layer anymore; it’s embedded into the tech architecture of the products themselves and enables innovation to happen responsibly.
This emphasis on responsibility also fuels one of the most consequential shifts we’ve observed this year: the growing adoption of sovereign solutions. Companies increasingly prioritise sovereign solutions, with demand for European cloud providers like Scaleway more than doubling (+100%). This reflects a desire for alignment with European regulations, data control, and transparency. Open-source tools, like Metabase (+35%) and open LLMs like Mistral (+8x), are also experiencing rapid growth.
“AI and a desire for more control are shaping European tech”, says Claire Lebarz, CTO at Malt. “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, confirms, “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.”
Methodology
The Malt Tech Trends 2025 report analyses the evolution of demand and supply of technologies and skills on the Malt platform from 2023 to 2024, across Europe and UAE. The analysis focuses on technical expertise, covering areas such as development, cloud computing, cybersecurity, data, and AI.
About Malt
Founded in 2013 by Vincent Huguet (CEO & Co-founder), Malt is the leading freelancer marketplace in Europe. Over 90,000 companies of all sizes find the external talent they need in Malt’s community of more than 850,000 freelancers. Malt is present in 9 countries and regions (Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the Nordics, Spain, Switzerland, the UAE, and the UK). Investments from Eurazeo, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Serena, Isai and BPI Large Ventures highlight the support for and confidence in Malt’s vision. In 2024, Malt achieved a business volume of over 800 million euros.
The post Malt 2025 Tech Trends Report: demand for AI skills keeps exploding in Europe, with a 230% rise in AI projects within a year appeared first on European Business & Finance Magazine.
What's Your Reaction?
Like
0
Dislike
0
Love
0
Funny
0
Angry
0
Sad
0
Wow
0
