The Observatory of Artificial Intelligence in Business is a free AI maturity diagnostic for Portuguese organisations, created and run by Alongside. We invited the first participants from around 9 March 2026, and in April registration opened to the public on two sites: one for companies and one for HR departments.
What is the Observatory of AI in Business?
It is a way to follow how Portuguese companies adopt AI. We started it because we wanted to understand where companies really are, by sector, by size and by region, and where they get stuck. Every organisation that takes part gets its own result, and every answer adds to the picture of the market. It is part of Alongside’s research and development work.
How does the AI maturity diagnostic work?
You register, answer a questionnaire and get a score on six dimensions:
- Strategy and leadership
- Data and technology
- People and skills
- Processes and integration
- Governance, risk and ethics
- Regulatory compliance
The result is compared with the market, with your sector and with companies of your size, and it comes with recommendations for what to do next. Company size is suggested from the EU definition of micro, small, medium and large, and you can edit it. On the companies site the diagnostic takes about 15 to 20 minutes. There are also dashboards and a methodology page. At the time of writing, the site at observatoriodeianasempresas.pt shows more than 50 responses from 37 sectors.
What is the HR observatory?
HR departments have their own site, at observatoriodeianosrecursoshumanos.pt. It uses the same six dimensions, but the questions are about AI in HR processes. It is longer, with about 97 questions in 17 sections, and takes about 45 minutes. It is also free, and it compares your HR team with the market, your sector and your company size. We split the observatory in two because the questions that matter to a head of HR are not the ones that matter to a managing director.
Who has seen it so far?
Since the start of the project we have invited managers, entrepreneurs and HR leaders to try it, and their feedback has shaped the questionnaire and both sites. In July 2026 we moved both sites to their own Portuguese addresses. In October we showed the Observatory to business associations. An association can offer the diagnostic to its members, and that is the audience we are now working on.
Why would a company take part?
Because it is free, it is quick, and it gives you a measured starting point. You see where your organisation stands on strategy, data, people, processes, governance and compliance, and how that compares with others in your sector and of your size. You can do it in one sitting.
Where Alongside fits
We designed and built both observatories ourselves, from the questionnaire and the scoring to the dashboards and the administration tools. If you need a product like this for your own organisation, read about our product development service.
