AI becomes a core professional skill as employees welcome employer-led upskilling, new eDreams ODIGEO research finds

• Survey of 9,000 people across seven markets finds strong demand for employer-led training, with appetite strongest in Portugal (79%), Spain (73%) and Italy (72%), followed by Germany (68%), the United States (61%), France (55%) and the UK (54%).
• AI-first credentials increasingly influence job choices, with 57% of respondents in Portugal, 54% in Spain and 48% in Germany saying a company’s AI-first reputation would matter when choosing between two similar job offers.
• One example of this in travel technology is eDreams ODIGEO, an AI-first business since 2014, where every employee regardless of function is equipped with comprehensive AI tools and training.
• The shift is visible at organisational level too: the International Business Awards introduced a category dedicated to AI-driven culture for the first time in 2026, in which eDreams ODIGEO was recognised for making AI upskilling company-wide rather than confined to technology teams.

New research from eDreams ODIGEO (BME: EDR) (OTC: EDDRF), the world’s leading travel subscription platform, conducted among 9,000 respondents across seven markets, indicates that artificial intelligence is becoming established as a core professional skill, and that employees are receptive to their companies taking the lead in developing it.

Asked how they would react if their employer gave them access to AI tools and courses to master them, employed respondents were positive by a wide margin in every market surveyed. Portugal recorded the strongest appetite at 79%, followed by Spain at 73%, Italy at 72% and Germany at 68%. A majority responded positively in every other market, with 61% in the United States, 55% in France and 54% in the UK.

AI capability is also starting to feature in career decisions. More than half of respondents in Portugal (57%) and Spain (54%) said a company’s reputation as an AI-first pioneer would be an important or deciding factor when choosing between two similar job offers, alongside 48% in Germany.

Together the findings point to AI settling into the workplace as a general professional competency rather than a specialist one, with employees welcoming the chance to build it alongside their employers.

AI as a core competency in practice

The appetite the research identifies is already materialising in the travel technology sector, whereeDreams ODIGEO has operated as an AI-first business since 2014. AI is a core competency for the entire workforce, technical and non-technical alike, and employees are assessed against it as part of the performance cycle, ensuring that every team applies AI to its own work in the most strategic and efficient manner, and that AI literacy is sustained across the organisation.

Supporting this, eDO’s annual training hours have more than doubled, from 48,933 to 99,335, concentrated on AI fundamentals, prompt engineering and the critical thinking needed to validate AI outputs. The approach spans engineering, product, customer experience, marketing, finance, human resources and operations.

In this case, twelve years of AI-first strategy have expanded capacity, workforce and the business alike. Engineering productivity has risen more than 47% year on year, with teams delivering five times more business features.

Corporate AI culture becomes something companies are measured on

The growing weight of AI within organisations is increasingly reflected in how companies are assessed from the outside. The International Business Awards, the United States-organised programme known as the International Stevies and now in its 23rd year, introduced a category dedicated to AI-driven culture of innovation for the first time in 2026, recognising organisations that have built AI adoption, training and responsible innovation into how they work. eDreams ODIGEO was recognised in that inaugural category, honoured with a Stevie Award for extending AI upskilling across the whole organisation rather than confining it to technology teams.

Dana Dunne, Chief Executive Officer at eDreams ODIGEO, commented: “The research reflects a shift we went through more than a decade ago: AI literacy is becoming a general skill, and people want to build it. Twelve years of working this way has taught us that fluency is not really about the tools, which change every few months, but about judgement, knowing when to use AI, how to direct it and how to check what comes back. That is why our training puts as much weight on critical thinking as on prompting, and why AI is a core competency for every role rather than a technical one. It is also why the capability has translated into significant growth for us as the world’s first travel subscription platforms”

Notes to editors

• Research methodology: Research conducted by OnePoll on behalf of eDreams ODIGEO among 9,000 adults across the United Kingdom, United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Respondents were members of the general public and were not employees of eDreams ODIGEO. Questions on employer-provided AI training were asked of respondents currently in employment.
  
  
• The International Business Awards: The International Business Awards, known as the International Stevies, are organised in the United States by the Stevie Awards and are now in their 23rd year. Entries are reviewed and scored independently by a minimum of five judges drawn from businesses worldwide. Previous winners across categories include Amazon, IBM, Cisco, Dell, Delta, DHL, Ford, PayPal, PwC, Salesforce, Samsung, Sony and Toyota.