This article is a part of Poland Unpacked. Weekly intelligence for decision-makers
Poland’s IT sector is gradually emerging from the correction that, in 2023–24, unsettled the sense of stability for many companies and employees. Technology firms have had to rethink their business models. Projects linked to artificial intelligence have gained decisive importance. The IT labor market is moving away from mass hiring toward highly specialized skills.
The past few years have reshaped how Poland’s IT sector is viewed. The former - excessive, as time has shown – euphoria has faded. Many industry participants have lost their sense of stability. Yet recent market analyses carry a note of cautious optimism about an improvement in conditions.
“Companies – especially smaller ones – went through a tough reality check in 2023–24. Many closed 2024 with weak financial results, sometimes even losses, but 2025 already looks clearly better. Crucially, the euphoria and belief in ‘easy’ contracts have not returned. Instead, the emphasis is on profitability and predictability,” says Paweł Pustelnik, Chief Operating Officer at Future Processing and Vice President of SoDA.
Given that the entire digital sector across OECD countries has grown faster than the broader economy over the past decade, IT retains strong demand-side fundamentals. The Future Processing executive therefore speaks of normalization after a correction, rather than a market collapse.
“Instead of mass scaling, we are seeing selective growth and greater business discipline. Projects are shorter, more precisely defined, and more rigorously assessed against outcomes. Clients expect tangible value, not technological experiments without a clearly defined purpose,” adds Piotr Kaźmierczak, Chief Operating Officer at WebMakers Software House and Vice President of SoDA.
The euphoria and belief in “easy” contracts have not returned; profitability and predictability now take precedence.
Caution in selecting projects – especially long-term ones – also reflects the fact that many entrepreneurs look to the future with uncertainty.
“The biggest threat to companies today is an unstable external environment—geopolitics, currency volatility, and rising regulatory burdens. These factors limit risk appetite and force a sharper focus on efficiency,” Piotr Kaźmierczak emphasizes.
Demand for AI implementations
In the meantime, a new banner has been raised over the market: artificial intelligence (AI). Its impact on the entire IT sector – and on the nature of demand – is profound.
“AI is now one of the main factors that have allowed many companies to catch their breath at all. In a sense, it has become a supplier of projects: clients want to automate processes, boost productivity, bring order to their data, and shorten development and service cycles. It works like a flywheel – demand emerges, followed by pressure to deliver and, with it, work,” explains Paweł Pustelnik, Chief Operating Officer at Future Processing and Vice President of SoDA.
“Investment, sales, and organizational decisions are increasingly concentrated around AI. It is a key force structuring the market – not as a one-off breakthrough, but as a mechanism that accelerates companies’ maturity, changes how projects are delivered, and redefines client expectations,” adds Piotr Kaźmierczak, COO of WebMakers Software House and Vice President of SoDA.
AI is now one of the main elements that has allowed many companies to catch their breath at all.
Still, AI should not be treated as a miracle cure for the sector’s current slowdown. The spread of this technology will drive deeper structural change – and market participants will have to accept it.
“AI is reshaping the market’s structure. Simple tasks are becoming less profitable; the importance of implementation skills and accountability for outcomes – not just hours billed – is growing. Companies that treat AI as a gadget will soon resemble those that once ‘had a website’ but did not really have an online business,” Paweł Pustelnik warns.
The era of “salary tourism” in IT is over
Analysts and industry representatives note that the IT labor market, too, is beginning to catch its breath. The past few years, however, have fundamentally reshaped hiring practices, favoring experienced professionals and skills in the most sought-after fields.
“From the perspective of the IT job market in Poland, we can see an improvement in recruitment activity, but it is selective and far removed from a mass boom. The number of job postings is up 8.42 percent year on year, which confirms that companies are restarting projects and teams – yet they are doing so far more cautiously than during the years of rapid growth,” says Dagna Frydrych, Director of Marketing Development at the job portals justjoin.it and rocketjobs.pl.
“After the period of ‘salary tourism,’ we are seeing stabilization. Companies talk more often about retaining teams and making sensible use of existing skills than about recruitment races. We have not returned to a time when the sole challenge was finding people. Today, the issue is rather how to build the competencies that are missing,” adds Paweł Pustelnik, COO at Future Processing and Vice President of SoDA.
After the phase of “salary tourism,” stabilization has set in, and companies are more focused on team retention and effective use of skills than on aggressive hiring.
Demand in the labor market is concentrated primarily around technologies and areas that directly support product development and operational efficiency – such as DevOps, cybersecurity driven by hybrid warfare and European Union regulations, FinOps, as well as data engineering and AI Ops, which involves building data infrastructure for artificial-intelligence models.
“Recruitment is dominated by mid- and senior-level roles (96 percent), which shows that employers are looking for skills that can deliver business value quickly, rather than investing broadly in building teams from scratch over the long term,” Dagna Frydrych notes.
AI will reshape the software developer’s role
AI is also having a direct impact on the IT labor market—and these changes appear set to be lasting.
“The profile of the software developer will change fundamentally. AI will become an obvious work tool, while the developer’s role will shift away from writing boilerplate code toward validating, architecting, and securing solutions generated by artificial intelligence. Paradoxically, this may mean smaller teams without sacrificing productivity – senior developers’ efficiency will rise dramatically,” concludes Dagna Frydrych.
AI will also irreversibly change the position and career path of junior developers – those with the least professional experience.
The developer’s profile will change fundamentally. AI will become an obvious work tool, and the role will move from writing template code toward validation, architecture, and security of AI-generated solutions.
“Back in 2021, bootcamps all but guaranteed employment. Today, the barrier to entry into the industry has been raised extremely high. Companies have stopped training people from scratch, while AI automates simple tasks. The ‘cheap junior’ has lost its business rationale,” Dagna Frydrych notes.
These factors have contributed to a “normalization” of pay levels.
“After the exponential growth of 2020–22 came stagnation – and, in real terms, a decline. Strong pay rises today apply only to narrow specializations: AI, cybersecurity, and cloud architecture. The era in which the mere title of ‘software developer’ guaranteed above-average earnings has come to an end,” Dagna Frydrych concludes.
Expert's perspective
Who in IT can still expect attractive pay
What has changed, however, is the scale. Investors are focusing on smaller, highly specialized technology projects, particularly those linked to artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, advanced data analytics, and cloud solutions. Increasingly, their aim is not to build large workforces in Poland, but to create compact expert hubs staffed by very well-paid specialists with critical skills. As a result, Poland is becoming a genuine center of advanced technological expertise for the EMEA region, handling a growing share of complex processes and strategic projects.
Recruitment caution goes hand in hand with restraint in pay-setting. IT companies are making compensation decisions in a highly analytical way, which often lengthens hiring processes and leads to gaps between candidates’ financial expectations and employers’ budgets. This also affects pay-rise plans. According to the Hays Salary Report 2026, 77 percent of companies in the sector plan to increase salaries, yet as many as 67 percent expect those rises to stay below 10 percent. Estimates suggest that 2026 will bring wage growth of around 3–6 percent across IT.
Despite the many variables shaping the market, the most highly specialized professionals can still expect attractive rates.
Lasting changes in the structure of the AI market
Poland’s IT market has undergone several deep transformations in recent years – though not all of them have been equally visible.
“The first was a ‘silent correction.’ Unlike the headline-grabbing waves of layoffs at American tech giants, Polish companies – especially software houses – reduced headcount almost quietly. Statistically, unemployment in IT did not spike, but specialists’ sense of security fell markedly,” recalls Dagna Frydrych.
The second shift is unique and characteristic of the region.
“After the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and the repression in Belarus, Poland became a relocation hub. Thousands of IT specialists moved here, often with entire teams. This intensified competition for projects, but at the same time enhanced Poland’s standing as a competence center in Central and Eastern Europe,” Dagna Frydrych emphasizes.
She also observes a change in the nature of nearshoring – the practice of moving production closer to the end market.
After the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and repression in Belarus, Poland became a relocation hub, with thousands of IT specialists moving to the country, often alongside entire teams.
“Simple web projects and mobile apps are flowing to Asia or being handled by AI and no-code tools. What increasingly comes to Poland are projects that are critical to Western companies’ operations – systems requiring engineering precision, not just efficient coding. That is good news for highly skilled specialists, but a clear signal for juniors: the path to a valuable career runs through rapid specialization and the ability to work with AI,” Dagna Frydrych notes.
She expects market stabilization to be supported by European Union funds and Poland’s National Recovery Plan (KPO).
“2026 will be the peak year for public-sector digitalization projects – from e-government services to healthcare systems and cybersecurity for critical infrastructure. For software houses and consulting firms, this is an ‘IV drip’ sustaining employment as the private sector slows,” Dagna Frydrych adds.
Główne wnioski
Key Takeaways
- Poland’s IT labor market is showing signs of recovery, but the rebound is selective and markedly different from earlier periods of rapid growth. Job postings are increasing, yet recruitment is focused almost exclusively on experienced specialists – primarily at mid and senior levels – and in specific technological areas such as AI, cybersecurity, DevOps, and data engineering. At the same time, lasting changes are evident in the software developer’s role, with routine tasks losing importance and the barrier to entry for junior roles rising. After a period of sharp increases, pay levels have stabilized, and further rises are expected to be concentrated mainly in narrow, highly specialized skill sets.
- After the turbulence of 2023–24, Poland’s IT sector is entering a phase of gradual stabilization, described by industry representatives as normalization after a correction. Many companies – especially smaller ones – closed 2024 with weakened financial results, but conditions began to improve in 2025. At the same time, the market is operating in an environment of greater caution, driven by geopolitical uncertainty, currency volatility, and rising regulatory burdens. This has translated into tighter business discipline, selective growth, and a focus on shorter projects that are more precisely defined and assessed against outcomes.
- Artificial intelligence plays a pivotal role in shaping current demand and the structure of the IT market. In many cases, AI-related projects have allowed companies to maintain continuity of operations, generating demand for process automation, productivity gains, and advanced data work. AI also influences investment and organizational decision-making and is changing the nature of project delivery. At the same time, the technology is reducing the profitability of simple tasks, increasing the importance of implementation and architectural skills, as well as accountability for business results.