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Tag: IT work

  • Layoffs at Big Tech 2026 – why the Meta and Microsoft are cutting jobs

    Layoffs at Big Tech 2026 – why the Meta and Microsoft are cutting jobs

    Silicon Valley is going through a painful but precise tissue replacement operation. While investors are reacting enthusiastically to new stock market records, thousands of Met and Microsoft employees are finding out that their roles are becoming redundant in the new algorithm-oriented world order. What we are seeing is no longer just an echo of the Pocovid correction, but a fundamental shift in strategic priorities.

    The Met has just announced a 10 per cent reduction in its workforce, which, combined with the elimination of unfilled vacancies, means the removal of nearly 14,000 jobs from the labour market. However, a deeper financial analysis of Mark Zuckerberg’s company reveals a second bottom to this decision. The company plans to increase capital expenditure to as much as $135 billion in 2027, focusing on building data centres and developing Superintelligence Labs.

    This is a classic example of aggressive reallocation of resources: billions saved on the ‘traditional’ workforce are funding an artificial intelligence arms race. Behind the scenes, however, there is talk of the phenomenon of “AI-washing” – conveniently attributing redundancies to technological advances to cover up the 2020-2022 recruitment mistakes.

    Microsoft in Redmond, on the other hand, is employing a more subtle but equally telling tactic. For the first time in its history, the giant has opted for a voluntary departure programme targeting around 7% of its US workforce. The ‘sum 70’ criterion (combining age and seniority) suggests that the company wants to slim down the structure of costly, experienced managers whose competencies may not be suited to the era of generative models. At the same time, Microsoft is simplifying the reward and bonus system, giving executives more leeway to reward the talent that realistically drives new business divisions.

    This trend is not isolated – Amazon, Intel or Cisco are following a similar path. There is a clear lesson for the business world: operational efficiency in 2026 is no longer about having the largest teams, but about building the most scalable systems. The technology labour market is no longer a safe haven, becoming a testing ground for a new definition of corporate productivity.

  • IT market in CEE: Poland vs. Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania. Analysis

    IT market in CEE: Poland vs. Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania. Analysis

    Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has long ceased to be seen as an ’emerging’ technology market. Today, it is a globally established, dynamic and competitive centre of innovation, whose IT services and R&D market is growing four to five times faster than the global average.

    At the heart of this technological renaissance are four key players, a kind of ‘Visegrad+ Technology’: Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania. Each of these countries brings a unique profile to the regional jigsaw: Poland appears as a regional hegemon in terms of scale, the Czech Republic as a stable industrial and technological centre, Hungary as a magnet for foreign direct investment and specialised expertise, and Romania as a ‘digital contender’ with the highest growth rate.

    CEE technology arena

    To understand the dynamics of competition in the region, it is first necessary to assess the fundamental economic context, comparing the scale, structure and importance of IT markets in each of the four countries. It is these indicators that determine who are the biggest players and where the epicentre of growth lies.

    Scale and dynamics of the market: measuring the forces

    Market size is a fundamental indicator of strength. In this respect, Poland is the undisputed leader in the region, although different sources give slightly different estimates, reflecting the complexity and dynamics of the sector. According to PMR data, the value of the Polish IT market in 2023 was PLN 66.3 billion (approx. EUR 15.4 billion), with a forecast of growth to PLN 74 billion (approx. EUR 17.2 billion) by 2025. IDC Poland analysts, on the other hand, estimate this value even higher – at PLN 80.3 billion (approx. EUR 18.6 billion) in 2023. Regardless of the methodology adopted, the scale of the Polish market significantly exceeds its neighbours.

    The Czech ICT (information and communication technology) market presents the picture of a mature and stable powerhouse. Its revenues are forecast to reach EUR 24.3 billion by 2026, with a steady annual growth rate of 2.1%. This indicates a less volatile, well-established market. The Hungarian ICT market is more difficult to assess conclusively due to disparate data. Mordor Intelligence estimates its value at an impressive USD 35.17 billion in 2025, with a projected annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.41% until 2030. Other sources quote a more conservative figure of €5bn for 2024. This discrepancy suggests that the higher estimate covers a wide range of telecoms services and hardware sales, driven by large corporations. The Hungarian e-commerce segment alone reached HUF 1,920 billion (approximately EUR 4.9 billion) in 2024.

    Romania presents the most dynamic picture. Its digital economy is expected to reach a value of EUR 52 billion by 2030. The IT services export market, valued at EUR 24.9 billion in 2023, is expected to grow to EUR 44.8 billion by 2028, representing an impressive CAGR of 9.1%. This is the fastest growth trajectory in the group analysed, positioning Romania as a top contender for regional momentum.

    This dichotomy between scale and speed of growth creates a strategic tension. Poland, as the largest market, offers stability, a mature and diverse ecosystem, which is attractive to large corporations looking for space for R&D centres. On the other hand, Romania, with its near double-digit growth, is a magnet for venture capital funds and companies looking for rapid expansion, willing to accept the risks associated with a less mature market. The choice between these countries is therefore not a simple decision, but depends on the investor’s appetite for risk and its growth strategy.

    The powerhouse that drives GDP: More than the service sector

    The importance of the IT sector for national economies is best reflected in its share of Gross Domestic Product. In Poland, it is an impressive 8%, reflecting the deep integration of technology into the overall economy and its key role as a driving force. Romania also boasts a high figure at 6.6%. Surprisingly, Hungary has the lowest share at 4.3%. Although precise data for the Czech Republic is lacking for IT alone, the context is the powerful automotive industry, generating 10% of GDP, indicating strong links between the technology sector and industry.

    These figures, juxtaposed with overall wealth levels, show that technology is a key tool for convergence. Poland and Romania, with GDP per capita (in purchasing power parity) at 79% of the EU average, are chasing the Czech Republic (92%). The IT sector is undoubtedly one of the main accelerators of this process.

    Market Architecture: What’s hiding under the hood?

    The internal structure of the IT markets in each country reveals their unique specialisations and strategic directions.

    Poland: We are seeing a clear bifurcation of the market. The hardware segment is stabilising after a pandemic boom, while software and services are going from strength to strength, reaching a value of PLN 30.5bn (€7.1bn) in 2023. Cloud services are a key driver, with the market growing by 25% year-on-year to reach US$2bn.

    Czech Republic: The market is strongly determined by a powerful industrial base, especially the automotive and electrical engineering sectors. This generates a huge demand for embedded systems, industrial automation and advanced enterprise IT solutions. The country is also a hub for international R&D centres such as Microsoft, IBM and Oracle.

    Hungary: the market is characterised by an exceptionally high level of high-tech adoption by businesses. The cloud adoption rate is 37.1% (slightly below the EU average) and data analytics as high as 53.2%, which is well above the EU average (33.2%). This indicates a mature and demanding corporate customer base. The largest segment of the ICT market is telecommunications services, accounting for more than 41% of the total.

    Romania: the market is largely export-oriented, especially in the area of software development services. Despite the government’s strong emphasis on the digitalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises, its level (27%) still lags far behind the EU average (57.7%), which paradoxically creates a huge potential for growth in the internal market.

    An analysis of the structure of markets reveals an interesting phenomenon in Hungary. On the one hand, companies there show above-average maturity in the adoption of advanced technologies such as data analytics.

    On the other hand, the contribution of the overall IT sector to GDP is the lowest in the group. This apparent contradiction suggests that technological advancement is concentrated in a narrow group of large, often foreign corporations (e.g. from the automotive sector), rather than being a widespread phenomenon driven by a broad domestic IT industry.

    This indicates a ‘top-heavy’ market with potentially fewer opportunities for local SMEs compared to Poland, where the domestic IT sector is a much larger economic force.

    The human capital equation: talent, skills and remuneration

    In an industry dominated by a ‘war for talent’, it is human capital that is the most valuable asset and the ultimate determinant of competitiveness. The analysis moves from macroeconomic numbers to the practical realities of building and maintaining technology teams.

    Talent resource: A deep but challenging resource

    Poland: a giant with a skills gap: Poland has by far the largest talent pool, estimated at between 493,000 and over 586,000 professionals. This is a powerful asset, but the country is struggling with a significant skills gap. IT professionals account for 3.5% of the total workforce, which is lower than the EU average (4.5%). It is estimated that Poland lacks as many as 147,000 experts to reach the EU average.

    Czech Republic: Hub of specialists: the Czech Republic has a solid base of nearly 230,000 ICT experts, representing 4.3% of the workforce – a figure close to the EU average. Renowned technical universities provide a steady flow of graduates, although they have to compete for talent with the powerful industrial sector.

    Hungary: Stability and qualifications: In Hungary, the share of ICT professionals in employment is 4.2%, also close to the EU average. However, the annual growth rate of these professionals (2.4%) is slower than in the EU (4.3%) , suggesting a stable but less rapidly growing talent pool.

    Romania: The density paradox: Romania has a large and highly valued talent pool of between 202,000 and 226,000 professionals. The country boasts the highest number of certified IT professionals per capita in Europe. Paradoxically, their share of the total workforce is the lowest in the group at just 2.8%. In addition, Romania faces a ‘brain drain’ problem, which poses a serious challenge to keeping top talent in the country.

    This talent flow dynamic is fundamental to long-term development. The phenomenon of ‘brain drain’ in Romania stands in contrast to the ‘brain inflow’ in Poland, which is becoming an attractive place to work for professionals from other countries, including Ukraine.

    An economy that loses talent often exports junior and mid-level professionals, which undermines its ability to create complex, high-margin products locally. In contrast, a country attracting talent can accelerate its march up the value chain by importing experienced experts.

    This indicates that the Polish ecosystem may mature faster, while the Romanian ecosystem, if not reversed, may remain more focused on the provision of outsourcing services.

    Map of Wages: Clash of the four capitals

    Salaries are a key competitive factor in the talent market. A comparison of rates in the region’s main technology hubs reveals significant differences.

    Warsaw bonus: Polish salaries are among the highest in the region. A senior programmer on a B2B contract in Kraków or Warsaw can expect a salary in excess of PLN 26,000 net per month (around EUR 6,000). Even on an employment contract, senior salaries exceed PLN 12,000 net (around EUR 2,800).

    Prague competitiveness: Czech salaries are also very high. The typical range for IT professionals is between CZK 43,130 (approximately EUR 1,730) and CZK 122,874 (approximately EUR 4,930) per month. The best-paid roles, such as Data Scientist, can bring in an annual income of CZK 1.2 million (approximately EUR 48,150). The average annual salary for a software engineer is around EUR 55,600.

    Budapest’s value proposition: Hungarian salaries offer a better cost/quality ratio. The average salary for an IT specialist is around EUR 1,800 per month , while a software engineer in Budapest earns an average of EUR 40,400 per year. This makes Hungary much more affordable to build a team than Poland or the Czech Republic.

    Rising costs in Bucharest: Romanian wages are rising fast, but still offer a cost advantage. The average salary in the technology industry is EUR 3,402 net per month. The general range for IT is between RON 4,647 (approximately EUR 930) and RON 16,879 (approximately EUR 3,390) per month. However, these rates are further bumped up by the total exemption from income tax up to a certain threshold, which significantly increases the net salary.

    The prevalence and high rates of B2B contracts in Poland are not just a billing method, but symptomatic of a mature, highly competitive senior talent market. This model gives maximum flexibility and earning potential to the best professionals, but at the same time creates instability for employers and leads to a more transactional relationship with employees.

    In contrast, the dominance of traditional employment contracts in Hungary and the Czech Republic (83.5% and 67% in IT respectively) suggests a more stable, corporate labour market. This means that companies in Poland need to adopt a different HR strategy, focusing on offering attractive projects and top salaries, while in the Czech Republic and Hungary more emphasis can be placed on long-term career paths and company culture.

    A list of coveted expertise: Who’s on top?

    Across the region, there is a huge demand for specialists in areas such as artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), data analytics (Data & BI), cyber security and DevOps. It is these roles that are the highest paid.

    However, each country also has its niches in which it has achieved a leadership position. Poland is a global powerhouse in the production of computer games (gamedev), with giants such as CD Projekt RED at the forefront. The industry generates more than EUR 500 million in revenue, creating an ecosystem of talent in game design, programming and graphics that is unique in the region.

    Romania is rapidly developing its own gamedev scene, attracting global players such as Amazon Games, which has opened a new studio in Bucharest. The country is also strong in the Fintech sector, with the capital generating 77% of the industry’s turnover in the country.

    The Czech technology scene fits perfectly with the needs of its industry base, targeting areas such as cyber security (Avast originated from here) and enterprise software. Hungary, on the other hand, with its high adoption rate of cloud and data analytics by corporations, generates a strong demand for data architects, cloud engineers and enterprise systems specialists such as SAP.

    The innovation frontier: start-ups, outsourcing and investment

    The future of any technology market depends on its ability to innovate, attract capital and integrate into the global ecosystem. This section examines the dynamics that are shaping tomorrow’s technology scene in Central and Eastern Europe.

    The vibrant Venturelands: The startup race

    Poland: Leader in terms of volume: Poland boasts the largest startup ecosystem in the group, with more than 1,251 companies. Warsaw is the dominant hub. The ecosystem is mature enough to have released nearly a third of all unicorns (companies with a valuation of more than USD 1 billion) in the CEE region. Funding, however, remains a challenge, with as many as 56% of startups reporting difficulties in obtaining it.

    Czech Republic: An effective rival: Despite its smaller scale, the Czech ecosystem is highly rated, ranking 3rd in Eastern Europe, ahead of Poland. It is famous for startups in the areas of SaaS, Fintech and Healthtech and is the cradle of global success stories such as Avast and unicorns such as Rohlik and Productboard. A key challenge is the perceived lack of a sufficient number of high-quality projects by investors.

    Hungary: a stagnant giant? Hungary has established companies such as Prezi and LogMeIn, but has struggled to maintain momentum in recent years. Total investment has stagnated at around EUR 54 million. Recently, however, there has been an upturn in the segment of early-stage AI-based startups, which could herald a rebound.

    Romania: The unicorn factory: The Romanian ecosystem has been defined by the spectacular success of UiPath, the global leader in process automation (South Africa). This event has put the country on the map for international investors. The AI scene is particularly active, with large funding rounds for companies such as FintechOS. The ecosystem is heavily concentrated in Bucharest.

    The success of UiPath has had a profound secondary impact on the entire Romanian ecosystem. Not only has it created a generation of experienced, wealthy angel investors and serial entrepreneurs (the so-called ‘UiPath mafia’), but it has also acted as a global proof of principle, reducing the perceived risk of investing in Romania in the eyes of international VC funds. This explains the impressive funding rounds for companies such as FintechOS and the general revival around the Romanian scene, which might otherwise seem disproportionate to the size of the market. This ‘unicorn effect’ is a powerful accelerator that allows the ecosystem to perform well above its nominal weight.

    Global background: Strategic partner, not cheap labour

    The entire CEE region is a leading global destination for IT outsourcing. Clients are increasingly shifting their focus from cost optimisation to access to high-end skills, innovation and cultural proximity. The regional talent pool exceeds 1.75 million engineers.

    A stable business environment is a key asset. In the Doing Business 2020 ranking, Poland (40th), the Czech Republic (41st), Hungary (52nd) and Romania (55th) offer predictable conditions, an advantage over other global outsourcing hubs.

    Poland is often recognised as a leader in IT competitiveness in the region thanks to its huge talent pool, business climate and strong exports. It is a major hub for the R&D centres of global giants such as Google and Microsoft.

    The Czech Republic ranks among the top five countries in terms of the attractiveness of outsourcing, renowned for its high quality services and data security.

    Hungary and Romania are attracting investors with their correspondingly low 9 per cent corporate income tax and tax exemptions for programmers, which, combined with a large talent pool, creates a powerful value proposition.

    The strong presence of international R&D centres and outsourcing companies in Poland and the Czech Republic is not just a service industry; it is a key incubator for the country’s startup ecosystem. These centres train local talent to global standards, introduce them to global business practices and create a network of professionals who eventually leave to start their own product companies. A programmer working for five years in Google ‘s Warsaw office learns product management, scaling and international sales at a level not available in most local companies. Such a specialist, armed with unique skills, contacts and an understanding of the needs of the global market, is much more likely to succeed. In this way, the outsourcing sector is not a separate entity, but a fundamental pillar that feeds and accelerates the development of the domestic product and startup economy.

    The role of the state: Catalysts for growth

    The governments of all four countries actively support the technology sector through a variety of initiatives, including tax incentives, funding programmes and startup visas. Key policies, such as Romania’s income tax exemption for software developers or Hungary’s low CIT rate , are important competitive advantages. Poland and the Czech Republic are effectively using EU funds and national development agencies (such as PFR Ventures and CzechInvest) to fuel their innovation ecosystems.

    Verdict: Poland’s position and the way forward

    A synthesis of the data presented makes it possible to formulate a clear verdict on Poland’s position compared to regional rivals and to outline strategic perspectives for the entire region.

    Regional SWOT analysis: Comparative scorecard

    Poland:

    • Strengths: Largest market and talent pool, diverse ecosystem (gamedev, enterprise), strong startup scene.
    • Weaknesses: Significant talent gap, increasing wage pressure, high competition.
    • Opportunities: Inflow of talent from abroad, opportunity to move up the value chain to more complex products.
    • Threats: Loss of cost competitiveness to Romania/Hungary, market saturation in some areas.

    Czech Republic:

    • Strengths: Stable, mature market, highly qualified professionals, strong integration with industry, excellent business environment.
    • Weaknesses: Smaller talent pool, slower growth, higher costs than some neighbours.
    • Opportunities: Leverage the industrial base for innovation within Industry 4.0, become a hub for high-margin R&D centres.
    • Threats: Competition for talent with powerful manufacturing sector, risk of stagnation.

    Hungary:

    • Strengths: Favourable tax environment, high adoption of advanced technologies in companies, strong value proposition.
    • Weaknesses: Stagnation in startup funding, slower growth of talent pool, less dynamic ecosystem.
    • Opportunities: Potential to become a specialised hub for AI and data science solutions for corporations, attracting cost-oriented FDI.
    • Threats: Lagging behind regional leaders in startup innovation, political uncertainty affecting investor confidence.

    Romania:

    • Strengths: Top growth rate, high talent density, significant cost advantages, ‘unicorn effect’ after UiPath success.
    • Weaknesses: Brain drain, less developed domestic market, infrastructure gaps outside major hubs.
    • Opportunities: huge potential in the digitalisation of the country’s SMEs, becoming the gamedev hub of South East Europe.
    • Threats: Talent retention, risk of overheating the economy, dependence on export markets.

    Poland’s position in the CEE arena: Heavyweight champion under pressure

    Poland remains the undisputed leader of the CEE technology scene in terms of scale, talent numbers and diversity of the ecosystem. The size of its market and depth of specialisation, especially in gamedev and enterprise software, are unrivalled.

    However, leadership comes at a price. Poland faces challenges typical of a mature market: intense wage competition that undermines its cost advantage, and a critical skills gap that could stifle future growth. Poland is no longer the ‘low-cost’ option; it is the ‘scale’ option.

    While Poland is leading the way, the competition is not sleeping. Romania challenges it in terms of growth and dynamism, the Czech Republic in terms of stability and specialised quality, and Hungary in terms of cost efficiency for corporate investments.

    Collective strength: The future is regional

    The future of the CEE technology scene will not depend on which country ‘wins’, but on how the region as a whole handles the transformation from a cost-driven outsourcing destination to a value-driven innovation partner. Poland, as the largest player, has a key role to play in leading this change, but its success is inextricably linked to the health and dynamism of its neighbours.

  • IT jobs for beginners: AI an opportunity instead of a threat

    IT jobs for beginners: AI an opportunity instead of a threat

    For the past few years, the technology sector has been sending a single, clear message to entry-level programmers: there is no place for you. The end of the era of cheap money, pandemic-enforced remote working and the expansion of LLM models that flawlessly generate repetitive code have almost wiped out entry-level job offers. The figures from the No Fluff Jobs and Just Join IT reports for 2025/2026 are unforgiving – the share of offers for juniors in the Polish market has fallen below 5%.

    But today, paradoxically, it is artificial intelligence, which has taken away simple implementation tasks from juniors, that is becoming their biggest opportunity to get back into the game.

    Architects instead of builders

    In the traditional development model, the junior spent the first years of his career ‘walling’ – writing simple, repetitive modules. Today, these tasks are performed by AI agents. However, experts from Kraków-based software house Miquido note that this change shifts the focus from technical skills to conceptual competence.

    Piotr Polus, Head of Technology at Miquido, argues that the line between experience levels is starting to blur. Since AI can generate project structure and write code, the key role is taken over by someone who can manage these tools. In the new paradigm, juniors no longer need to be proficient craftsmen of a particular technology stack; instead, they need to become solution architects who can think design.

    The birth of the “2030 engineer”

    The market is beginning to recognise a unique advantage for young cadres: the status of ‘AI-natives’. For the generation entering the market in 2026, working with language models is a natural reflex rather than a necessity to adapt. Companies such as Miquido, which for years restricted the recruitment of beginners, are returning to hiring juniors, but using a completely new criteria – the so-called ‘2030 engineer’ profile.

    Instead of proficiency in one programming language, interdisciplinarity, flexibility and prompting skills are sought. This strategy is based on the creation of junior-senior tandems, where young employees bring freshness in the use of the latest AI tools, and experienced experts provide the necessary oversight of business logic and system security.

    For business, the lesson is clear: investment in juniors ceases to be a form of costly patronage and becomes a way of maintaining technological agility. Those who, instead of learning the syntax of code, learn to manage the intelligence that writes that code will survive.

  • How are NIS2 and DORA changing IT departments? New strategies in IT recruitment

    How are NIS2 and DORA changing IT departments? New strategies in IT recruitment

    Until recently, the IT security debate centred around the number of vacancies, treating the shortage of manpower as a major brake on growth. However, the SANS and GIAC Workforce Research 2026 report sheds a whole new light on this diagnosis. It turns out that it is not empty chairs that account for the fragility of systems, but the invisible to the naked eye gaps in the competencies of the people who already sit in those chairs. 60% of organisations have complete teams that, despite being fully staffed, remain vulnerable to modern threats.

    The dawn of regulatory engineering

    The traditional division between legal departments looking after the letter of the law and technical departments looking after the bits and bytes no longer exists. The exponential increase in the importance of regulatory compliance – from 40 to 95 per cent in just one year – has forced the birth of a new caste of specialists. Directives such as NIS2 or DORA have ceased to be regarded as an onerous bureaucratic obligation, becoming the foundation of job role design. Today’s job market is no longer simply looking for a systems administrator; it covets a regulatory engineer who can translate a rigorous regulatory framework into a cloud architecture.

    In March 2026, there were more than two and a half thousand active advertisements for AI and ML security engineers. This phenomenon shows that the market no longer believes in the versatility of former experts. Almost one in three companies has created dedicated positions for people operating at the intersection of artificial intelligence and data protection. This specialisation is not an aesthetic choice, but a necessity driven by the fact that it is at the intersection of new technologies and the lack of knowledge of how to secure them that 27 per cent of successful attacks occur.

    Foundation erosion and cognitive paralysis

    Automation, which was supposed to be a saviour for overloaded teams, has introduced an unexpected disruption to the HR ecosystem. Artificial intelligence has taken over entry-level tasks that for decades served as a natural testing ground for junior SOC analysts. By cutting out these career tiers, organisations have inadvertently dismantled the early training system for future experts. A generational gap is being created that cannot be bridged by ad hoc hiring, as the market lacks ready candidates to meet the exacting requirements of 2026.

    At the same time, the highest levels of human resources face a phenomenon known as ‘AI Fry’. This is a specific type of burnout resulting from the constant context-switching between numerous tools supported by artificial intelligence. Although these tools reduce manual analysis time, they paradoxically increase stress levels in 61 per cent of employees. The overabundance of data and the need to constantly verify the suggestions generated by the algorithms make even the most experienced professionals work at the limit of their cognitive capacity.

    New currency: Proof instead of a promise

    Competency verification has undergone the most radical transformation in the history of the IT sector. An academic degree, once the gold standard for recruitment, is now in the priorities of only 17 per cent of employers. In a world where technology becomes obsolete in quarterly cycles, a theoretical university foundation has given way to certifications and practical evidence of proficiency. For 64 per cent of leaders, it is the certificate that is the hard currency verifiable during an audit.

    This shift towards pragmatism forces organisations to use structured competency frameworks such as NICE or ECSF. They make it possible to precisely map the gaps in the team, turning the intuitive search for a ‘good IT professional’ into a mathematical operation of filling in the missing links in the security chain. Investing in the development of existing staff ceases to be seen as a benefit and becomes a key element of operational risk management.

    Education as a hard infrastructure component

    A common management mistake is to treat learning time as a resource that can be sacrificed in the name of day-to-day operations. However, the data is inexorable: 60 per cent of companies admit that it is pure workload that prevents necessary training, which in a straight line leads to project delays and weakened incident response. Teams trapped in reactive mode lose their ability to adapt, which, in the context of severe penalties for non-compliance with NIS2, becomes a real financial threat to the entire corporation.

  • IT jobs after the great adjustment: An analysis of the demand for experts and the marginalisation of juniors in 2026

    IT jobs after the great adjustment: An analysis of the demand for experts and the marginalisation of juniors in 2026

    After a tumultuous period of adjustment, the Polish technology sector is entering a phase of mature growth that is redefining the employment structure. Data from Pracuj.pl for 2025 shows an 18 per cent increase in the number of IT job offers, translating into more than 760,000 advertisements. While the numbers suggest a return to a bull market, deeper analysis reveals a deeply polarised market where experience and AI expertise have become the only hard currency.

    Dividend from experience

    The most striking indicator is the unprecedented 77 per cent increase in demand for experts and seniors. Technology companies have stopped investing in capability and started buying immediate efficiency. In a world where capital is more expensive than in the previous decade, employers expect specialists capable of generating business value from day one.

    This trend comes at the direct expense of the youngest seniority. The number of offers for juniors has dropped by 4%, which, combined with increasing demands, creates a ‘glass ceiling’ for entry into the industry. Rafał Nachyna, COO of Grupa Pracuj, notes that the market is shifting towards roles that are key to software development, marginalising support departments such as helpdesk or agile coaching.

    AI as a foundation, not an add-on

    Artificial intelligence has ceased to be merely the subject of conference panels, becoming an operational requirement. The AI/ML segment has seen spectacular growth of 122% year-on-year. New positions such as AI Engineer or Manager MS AI Copilot demonstrate that companies are moving from the experimentation phase to the deep integration of language models into business processes.

    Importantly, AI is not replacing programmers, but drastically raising the bar for those who stay. Candidates with a combined profile – those who can tie together advanced code with a measurable business objective – are preferred.

    Strategic transparency

    In the area of pay, a pragmatic approach to openness is observed. Although the overall percentage of offers with a fork has stabilised at 32%, it is distributed unevenly. In senior adverts, salary transparency has increased to 44%, becoming a key tool in the battle for scarce talent. At the same time, the junior segment has seen a decline in this area, suggesting that transparency is now a privilege offered almost exclusively to the most desirable links in the technology chain.

    Supported by the unlocking of EU funds and the stabilisation of GDP, 2026 may bring further recovery, but it will be a market tailored to the dictates of high technical competence and strategic AI adoption .

  • Where have IT jobs gone? 3 key growth areas after the 2025 wave of redundancies

    Where have IT jobs gone? 3 key growth areas after the 2025 wave of redundancies

    The year 2025 made economic history not as a year of crisis, but as a moment of great reconfiguration. According to a recent report by RationalFX, the technology sector has eliminated almost 245,000 jobs worldwide during this time. These figures, while alarming at first glance, represent only the facade of a deeper process: a sustained shift from a scale-based employment model to one driven by artificial intelligence-driven efficiency.

    Today, at the beginning of 2026, the key question for business leaders is no longer ‘how many people have gone out of business’, but ‘where is the capital that has been freed up by this transformation being invested’.

    The balance of the “Great Reset”

    Analysis of moves by giants such as Intel, which cut staff from 109,000 to 75,000 employees, and Amazon, eliminating more than 20,000 positions, indicates a move away from the ‘redundancy’ strategy that prevailed in the cheap money era. As RationalFX analyst Alan Cohen notes, last year’s cuts were different from previous waves of layoffs. They were not a short-term cost adjustment, but a permanent structural adjustment.

    Companies have stopped treating job cuts as a defensive reflex to high interest rates. Instead, they treated them as offensive groundwork for ‘AI-native’ organisations. In this context, 2025 was the end of IT as we knew it – a sector where success was measured by the number of engineers. 2026 becomes the dawn of the era of integrated IT, where value is generated by a symbiosis of human strategy and machine execution.

    Anatomy of a fallen position

    The hardest hit were the departments that for years formed the operational ‘body’ of the corporation: customer service, administration and human resources. Salesforce’s decision to reduce its support staff by 4,000 people or the massive cutbacks in data processing areas at IBM and HP are clear signals – roles involving manual data translation and repetitive interactions have been permanently taken over by autonomous agents.

    It is worth noting, however, that this elimination of roles has not always gone hand in hand with immediate success. The industry is currently facing a so-called ‘productivity gap’. Companies have got rid of old structures, but are still learning how to manage new ones. It is in this gap – between the potential of technology and its real implementation – that the new staffing needs for 2026 are born.

    New bastions of growth: the competence of tomorrow

    Although the RationalFX report suggests that the wave of redundancies may continue until the end of the first quarter of 2026, in parallel we are seeing the emergence of new competence centres. So where are the jobs being created?

    1 Orchestration and Governance AI: The massive deployment of automation at companies like Accenture (11,000 redundancies with a gigantic commitment to AI) is creating a demand for governance experts. It is no longer about programming algorithms, but about ethical and operational orchestration – ensuring systems are secure, compliant with regulations and consistent with company strategy.

    2 Value engineering and performance ‘recovery’: The market is looking for professionals who can fill the gap that Alan Cohen mentions. Companies need people capable of translating the raw power of AI into real margins. This is a new category of business-technology consultants who understand processes more deeply than old-school coders.

    3 Transformational systems architecture: The example of HP, integrating AI across all operations, shows that hardware and software are no longer separate entities. There is a growing need for architects who can design entire ecosystems of hybrid (people-machine) work.

    Survival strategies: the BT model versus shock therapy

    An interesting reference point is the UK’s BT, which has chosen a strategy of a ‘steady pace’ of job cuts until 2030. This approach stands in contrast to the aggressive, one-off cuts in the US (which have concentrated nearly 70% of global redundancies).

    There is a lesson here for business leaders: rapid downsizing, as in the case of Intel, allows for a quick financial reset, but carries the risk of losing intellectual capital. In contrast, an evolutionary model, based on reskilling (as at Tata Consultancy Services), preserves the domain knowledge needed to properly ‘feed’ AI models with data about the company’s processes.

    A new profile for the IT worker

    The year 2026 will not be a time of massive returns to old recruitment patterns. The IT job market is not shrinking in value terms, it is undergoing a fundamental metamorphosis. The place of the ‘task contractor’ is being taken by the ‘solution architect’.

    The 245,000 redundancies are a tragic event on a micro level, but on a macro level it is a huge release of talent. For smaller players and startups, 2026 is an opportunity to recruit Big Tech experts who have hitherto been out of their financial reach. It is a time of democratisation of competencies that could result in a new wave of innovation, as long as business learns from the painful lessons of the past year.

  • Earnings in IT 2025: Up to £25k for a B2B senior. Who gained the most?

    Earnings in IT 2025: Up to £25k for a B2B senior. Who gained the most?

    After two years of painful correction and frozen budgets, the Polish technology sector is finally seeing a rebound. According to the latest report by Just Join IT and N-iX, the number of job offers in 2025 increased by 8.42 per cent year-on-year, exceeding 110,000 advertisements.

    However, this is not a return to the ‘El Dorado’ of mass recruitment, but an entry into a phase of mature consolidation where capital is flowing to where it can see a direct return on investment: in analytics and artificial intelligence.

    The most symbolic change took place in the technology structure. After years of undivided dominance by JavaScript, the Data category has taken over the primacy, comprising 10.78 per cent of all offerings. The dethroning of the frontend in favour of analytics, Big Data and Data Science signals a fundamental shift in business strategies.

    Companies have stopped focusing solely on building new interfaces, shifting the focus to optimising processes and learning from their resources. This trend is reinforced by the rapidly growing AI/ML segment.

    Although artificial intelligence accounts for less than 5 per cent of advertisements, this is where specialists are seeing record salary increases of 15 per cent and the volume of offers has quadrupled.

    However, the market recovery is selective and brutal for newcomers. The barrier to entry in the IT industry has reached historic highs. As many as 96 per cent of all adverts last year were aimed at seniors and mids. Juniors, with only 4.79 per cent of the market share of offers, became a statistical margin.

    Rather than investing in staff training, employers are looking for ready-made competencies that scale the effectiveness of teams from day one.

    In terms of salaries, 2025 has widened the gap between B2B contracts and employment contracts. This is most evident at the mid-level, where the earnings gap reaches 26 per cent in favour of contracts.

    B2B seniors can count on an average net salary of nearly PLN 25,000, which is attracting more and more experts to this cooperation model. Although remote working remains the standard (74 per cent of offers), managers are increasingly bold in promoting the hybrid model. The number of adverts requiring partial presence in the office increased by 29 per cent, suggesting a slow retreat from 100 per cent remote work to building an organisational culture in the ‘4+1’ or ‘3+2’ model.

    The year 2026 promises to be a time of further specialisation. The era of easy money is over, and the era of precise investment in technologies that make a real difference to companies’ bottom line has begun.

  • Poland vice-leader in surveillance in Europe. 36% of employees feel under surveillance

    Poland vice-leader in surveillance in Europe. 36% of employees feel under surveillance

    More than a third of Polish employees feel that their work activity is closely monitored. ADP’s latest study ‘People at work 2025‘ shows that only Switzerland is ahead of us in this respect in Europe. Although globally we are far from the level of scrutiny felt in India (64 per cent), the result of 36 per cent places Poland well above markets such as Japan and South Africa.

    A detailed analysis of the data yields findings that may surprise IT and HR managers. Contrary to intuition, the feeling of being watched is not correlated exclusively with remote working and the use of activity monitoring software (so-called bossware). The percentage of employees declaring that they are being supervised is almost identical for those working from home (35 per cent) and those performing stationary duties (34 per cent). Paradoxically, the greatest freedom is declared by hybrid workers.

    Moreover, this pressure increases with career level. Senior managers complain about control far more often (38 per cent) than professionals (26 per cent). This suggests that the problem lies not in the technology itself, but in the organisational culture. As the ADP experts note, it is not ‘digital Big Brother’ that is most troublesome, but pervasive micromanagement. Frequent status meetings, the need for constant reporting and a long list of addressees in company emails create an atmosphere of mistrust. For executives, this is compounded by pressure from investors and boards, which cascades down to the lower levels of the organisation.

    The report also reveals important demographic differences that should be a wake-up call for Diversity & Inclusion departments. The feeling of being controlled is clearly stronger among ethnic minorities. Although in Poland this disparity (14 percentage points) is smaller than in Italy or Germany, it remains significant. There is also a noticeable correlation with age – the youngest employees (Gen Z and younger millenials) feel surveillance much more acutely than their older colleagues in the 55+ group, which may be due to a different definition of autonomy at work.

    For business leaders, the lessons are clear: investing in productivity monitoring tools can be counterproductive if not accompanied by a culture of trust. In the modern working environment, it is becoming crucial to move away from process verification to assessing actual results.

  • Labour market 2026: Companies unlock budgets but bet on surgical selection

    Labour market 2026: Companies unlock budgets but bet on surgical selection

    The start of 2026 brings a marked thaw in the mood of Polish employers, although the numbers may be misleading to an observer accustomed to the recruitment boom of a few years ago. The ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey, published today, indicates a Net Employment Outlook of +22% for the first quarter. This is a solid rebound – up 11 percentage points quarter-on-quarter and 7 points year-on-year. However, beneath the surface of this optimism lies a fundamental shift in strategy: the end of the era of mass recruitment in favour of surgical precision in staff selection.

    The data shows that the market is entering a phase that can be described as ‘talent density’ – a focus on the density of talent in an organisation. More than a third of companies (36%) are planning to recruit, but almost half (47%) intend to maintain their current workforce. Tomasz Walenczak, CEO of ManpowerGroup in Poland, points out a key nuance. Opening budgets in the new year does not mean a return to fighting for every candidate. Companies have the resources, but they invest them selectively, preceding decisions with detailed audits of competency gaps. Priority is being given to analytical, technological and operational skills that are expected to translate directly into competitive advantage and serving new markets.

    What is significant for the technology industry and the partner channel is that the IT sector is exercising restraint. While automotive (+43%), finance (+35%) and trade and logistics (+32%) are announcing an aggressive scramble for staff, the IT technology and services area is recording a forecast of +13%. This may suggest that this sector, previously a growth leader, is now being hit hardest by automation and saturation, focusing on optimising processes rather than expanding teams.

    The geographical map of the Polish labour market is interesting. The North (+31%) and the North-West (+30%) are emerging as new centres of recruitment activity, distancing the cautious South (+7%). This signals that investment, particularly in logistics and operations, is shifting towards ports and trade routes. Significantly, the drivers of employment are no longer just the giants. The greatest optimism is shown by medium-sized companies (employing between 50 and 249 people), where the forecast reaches +32%, which exceeds the plans of the largest corporations.

    In the wider European context, Poland is consolidating its position as an operational safe haven. With a score better than the average, we are second only to the Netherlands and Ireland, while at the same time overtaking our regional neighbours. Operational stability and a still high quality workforce mean that, despite rising labour costs, advanced business processes continue to be relocated to the Vistula. We therefore begin 2026 not with a race for the number of jobs, but with a competition for the quality of competencies, where the winner will be the one who best defines its talent gaps.

  • The end of cheap labour in IT. How is AI forcing a redefinition of the junior role?

    The end of cheap labour in IT. How is AI forcing a redefinition of the junior role?

    For decades, the career path in IT and the modern services sector looked similar. A young employee started with simple, repetitive tasks – reporting, initial research or creating simple code snippets – to learn the business by osmosis. This model is just now becoming a thing of the past. According to Gi Group Holding’s latest ‘Labour Market Barometer’, more than 41.6% of companies in Poland are already using AI tools, and automation is effectively displacing duties that were previously a testing ground for juniors. For the industry, this means that talent deployment systems need to be completely remodelled.

    Artificial intelligence has ceased to be just a technological curiosity, becoming a firm part of operational strategy. Almost half of companies declare implementations, with logistics and industry leading the way. This dynamic is hitting the employment structure of entry-level positions directly. According to Business Insider, large technology companies in Poland hired 25% fewer graduates in 2024 than the year before. The reason is prosaic: algorithms perform simple tasks faster and cheaper than interns. Karol Boczkowski of Grafton Recruitment notes that the career start has become more difficult because of this. Nowadays, a candidate is expected not only to be willing to learn, but to think analytically and to be independent from the first day on the job. The ‘safety buffer’ of simple tasks on which mistakes could be made is disappearing.

    The paradox of the current situation is that technology is hitting the best-educated group of workers. A report by the Polish Economic Institute shows that of the 3.68 million people in occupations exposed to automation, as many as 82% have a university degree. A university degree is no longer a guarantee of a secure start. What’s more, despite the fact that Generation Z is regarded as digital natives, their competences are often at odds with the needs of business. Research by Talent Days and Microsoft shows that although 97% of young people use AI privately, only 12% feel ready to use these tools in a professional environment. The competency gap is clear – according to PARP, only 35% of 25-34 year olds have digital competencies beyond the basic level.

    For employers and IT managers, this means a new challenge. Agata Jemioła of Grafton Recruitment stresses that companies need to stop treating implementation as learning from scratch and start seeing it as a process of adaptation to work with an algorithm. The junior can no longer just be an executor of commands, he must become an operator and verifier of machine-generated content. In the IT industry, senior professionals treat AI as a lever to increase their efficiency, while for newcomers it is often an insurmountable barrier without proper mentoring.

    The job market is not shrinking, but radically transforming. By 2030, 78 million new jobs are expected to be created worldwide, mainly in the areas of data analytics and cyber security. For today’s juniors, however, the message is clear: the time of simple tasks is gone forever. In order to survive, they need to offer what an algorithm does not (yet) have – critical thinking and the ability to connect the dots in a complex business context.

  • Loyalty is dead, long live meaning. How to manage in IT when ‘fruit Thursdays’ no longer work

    Loyalty is dead, long live meaning. How to manage in IT when ‘fruit Thursdays’ no longer work

    Just a decade ago, overtime in the IT industry was worn like a badge of honour. Staying after hours to ‘prove’ a project was the easiest way to promotion and recognition in the eyes of the boss. Today, managers are surprised to see their best people closing their laptops punctually at 5 p.m. Is this laziness? No. It’s a systemic changing of the guard, with loyalty to the company giving way to loyalty to oneself.

    The technology industry, which for years was synonymous with innovation and speed, has collided with a wall. The faster technologies develop – from the cloud to AI – the clearer the limits of human biological endurance become. As a result, IT leaders are facing a challenge that cannot be solved with another pay rise or a fruit Thursday. They must confront a new definition of work.

    It’s not weakness, it’s “Self-Care”

    Many leaders raised in the cult of ‘delivery’ struggle to understand today’s employees. What was not long ago considered a weakness or lack of commitment – such as refusing to take on an extra project or assertively setting boundaries – is now becoming known as self-care.

    In an IT environment where change is the only constant and agile (Agile) is often mistaken for chaos, employees are in a state of constant overdrive. Constant restructuring, new tools and parallel projects lead to exhaustion. Teams do not fail because they lack skills. They fail because they are overloaded.

    In this context, an employee’s assertiveness is not a rebellion. It is a warning signal. It is a defence mechanism against a system that has lost stability. A wise leader should not fight this phenomenon, but take it as feedback: our structures are too unstable for people to feel safe in them.

    Conflict of generations or conflict of values?

    Tension within IT teams is often reduced to a simplistic narrative of ‘claimant Zetas’ and ‘ossified Boomers’. In reality, there is a deeper worldview conflict. The older generation of employees and managers are still looking for stability, predictability and loyalty at work. Younger talent seeks meaning, self-determination and creative freedom.

    Both perspectives are legitimate, but without mutual understanding they lead to an impasse. Boards require efficiency and constant availability. Employees require autonomy and answers to the question “why are we doing this?”. This tension only becomes a business risk if it is ignored. The role of modern leadership is not to take sides, but to build bridges. A leader must be able to translate the two languages: translating business goals into the sense of purpose that teams crave.

    Energy instead of pressure – the mistake of coloured offices

    For years, the IT industry has tried to buy employee engagement with benefits. Game rooms, free lunches and colourful employer branding campaigns were supposed to build company culture. Today, these methods are losing their effectiveness. Employees have become immune to marketing slogans, especially when these do not match reality.

    True productivity in intellectual work does not come from pressure, control or office presence. It takes from energy. If you want to lead people in the IT world, you have to teach them the importance of their work. This is not achieved through a ‘nice office’, but through honest communication and tangible values.

    The modern professional is quicker to forgive a boss for a lack of free coffee than for a lack of clarity on priorities. When everything is a priority, nothing is – and that’s the shortest way to burn out creativity.

    A leader with a steady hand

    Faced with these changes, many managers have fallen into the trap of ‘soft management’. In flat structures and agile teams, they are afraid to make unpopular decisions. They want to be liked, confusing partnership with lack of decisiveness. The result? Projects stall because no one wants to take responsibility and meetings drag on forever.

    Meanwhile, employees are not looking for a buddy. They are looking for credibility. In volatile times, they need a leader who acts according to the principle of *Manus Agere* – leading with a sure hand.

    It means having the courage to make decisions and being able to justify them. It means setting a clear framework. It also means the ability to say ‘no’ – to both the client and the team – when a major objective or people’s wellbeing is at stake. The leader’s sovereignty, which stems from his or her inner attitude and not from his or her position, gives the team what it lacks most: orientation on the ground.

    Stability is the new currency

    Generational conflict and the redefinition of IT work are not problems to be ‘waited out’. They are an opportunity to transform management styles. Companies that rely solely on processes and tools will lose people. The winners will be those organisations where leaders understand that in an industry that feeds on change, stability has become the greatest value.

    Leadership always starts with the attitude of the leader. If he or she can be calm, clear and empathetic, he or she will create an environment where ‘work-life balance’ is not an empty slogan, but a foundation for efficiency.

  • Professional burnout in IT. How to combat it? – Risk analysis for key specialisations

    Professional burnout in IT. How to combat it? – Risk analysis for key specialisations

    Professional burnout in the tech industry has ceased to be a taboo subject and has become a systemic crisis that threatens the foundations of innovation and the stability of the entire sector. It is no longer a matter of individual fatigue, but a silent epidemic of alarming proportions.

    The research is clear: almost three-quarters (73%) of developers have experienced burnout at some point in their career. Earlier studies, such as the 2021 Haystack Analytics report, indicated an even higher percentage, reaching 83%.

    The problem is just as acute in the Polish market, where symptoms of burnout affect as many as 70% of IT workers to varying degrees, with up to 42.1% of respondents at high risk.

    When such a vast majority of the population experiences a negative phenomenon, it ceases to be an individual problem and becomes a systemic challenge. This normalisation leads to a vicious circle: new employees perceive burnout as ‘buying in’ to the industry, and companies may under-invest in prevention.

    To add weight to this discussion, it should be noted that occupational burnout has been officially recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and included in the ICD-11 International Classification of Diseases as an occupational syndrome.

    Anatomy of burnout: The 3 dimensions of crisis

    To effectively address burnout, it is essential to understand its nature. The WHO defines it as ‘a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been effectively managed’. It is a phenomenon closely related to the work context.

    The most influential model describing this syndrome, the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), distinguishes three fundamental dimensions.

    1. Emotional exhaustion: This is the central element of the syndrome, characterised by a feeling of complete depletion of energy resources. In the IT context, it manifests itself with thoughts such as: “I’m exhausted at the mere thought of starting another sprint” or “The morning status meeting is sucking all the energy out of me for the rest of the day”. It’s a sense of emptiness that doesn’t go away after the weekend.
    2. Cynicism and depersonalisation: This dimension describes a growing mental distance from work, accompanied by a negative or cynical attitude. In the IT world, cynicism can sound like: “Why make the effort and write clean code when this feature will be removed in six months anyway?”. Depersonalisation is treating colleagues and customers as anonymous objects, leading to a loss of empathy.
    3. Reduced sense of professional efficacy: The third pillar is a sense of lack of competence and personal achievement. The employee begins to evaluate his or her effectiveness negatively and feels that his or her contribution does not matter. In the IT industry, where progress is crucial, this dimension is particularly painful and can take the form of imposter syndrome, where even experienced technical leaders feel they are underperforming.

    These three dimensions form a vicious circle. Usually it all starts with emotional exhaustion. To cope with it, the individual develops cynicism as a defence mechanism. However, this detachment leads to a decline in the quality of work, which becomes fuel for the third dimension: a reduced sense of efficacy.

    The employee now has objective evidence that he is ‘failing’, which in turn exacerbates his exhaustion, closing a destructive cycle.

    Battlefield analysis: risk factors in key IT roles

    Each speciality has a unique ‘risk profile’ that shapes the day-to-day experience of professionals.

    DevOps and SRE: engineers on constant call

    DevOps and SRE specialists are the backbone of modern systems, but the role comes with a huge workload. The main stressor is the 24/7 work culture and ubiquitous on-call duties that blur the boundaries between work and personal life.

    Another factor is the enormous complexity and fragmentation of tools – engineers manage an ‘endless jigsaw’ of technologies such as Terraform, Kubernetes and Jenkins. Added to this is the constant context switching, which can reduce productivity by up to 40%.

    The burnout mechanism here is driven by chronic stress resulting from hyper-sensitivity and cognitive overload.

    Cyber security: watchdogs on constant alert

    Cyber security professionals operate in an environment with zero tolerance for error. A unique stressor is so-called ‘alert fatigue’ – fatigue caused by a constant barrage of alerts, most of which are false alarms.

    The pressure is immense, as one mistake can lead to catastrophic losses. The situation is exacerbated by a global shortage of staff, meaning that existing teams are permanently overstretched.

    This creates a sense of asymmetrical struggle: the defenders need to secure everything and the attackers need only one success. Burnout here is the result of operating in a long-term ‘fight or flight’ mode.

    Project manager: conductor of an orchestra of chaos

    PMs function at the intersection of different interests: the team, the client and management. The main source of stress is managing multiple projects at the same time, with more than half (52%) of PMs managing between two and five projects at once.

    Equally taxing is emotional labour, i.e. absorbing frustrations and managing expectations. The constant need to make decisions leads to decision fatigue (decision fatigue).

    The key element here is the disconnect between the enormous responsibility and the limited control over budgets, resources or changing requirements.

    Developer (Frontend/Backend): between creativity and technological debt

    The role of a software developer is saturated with unique stressors. One is the constant learning curve in the face of rapidly evolving technologies. But the strongest demotivator is the sense of wasted effort when weeks of work on functionality are rejected by the product department.

    Added to this is the high cognitive load associated with working on a complex legacy code. The burnout mechanism is fuelled by the frustration of feeling that the work is more about fighting the system than creating real value.

    QA / Tester: the quality guardian at the end of the chain

    The role of the quality specialist is often underestimated, yet under enormous pressure. The biggest stressor is the position at the very end of the software development cycle. Any delays accumulate, drastically reducing the time for testing.

    The role also suffers from a sense of undervaluation – the tester’s work remains ‘invisible’ as long as everything works, but when a bug makes its way into production, the QA department is most often blamed. Burnout in this role is the result of a toxic mix of high pressure, huge responsibility and low recognition.

    The common denominator for the roles most at risk of burnout is a fundamental imbalance between responsibility and control. The DevOps engineer is responsible for the stability of the system, but does not always have control over the quality of the code being deployed.

    The Project Manager is responsible for the delivery of the project, but does not fully control the resources. The tester is responsible for quality but has no control over the schedule. This discord is one of the most powerful chronic stressors in the workplace.

    How do you build resilience against burnout?

    Combating burnout requires a two-pronged approach: strengthening individual resilience and, more importantly, fundamental organisational change.

    • Conscious boundary-setting: It’s more than ‘work-life balance’. It’s about actively managing your own energy, scheduling blocks for deep work and regular digital detoxes. In doing so, it is important to remember that although 70% of developers code at weekends for pleasure, this can lead to blurred boundaries and prevent full recovery.
    • Managing cognitive load: Methods such as the Pomodoro Technique or the conscious reduction of context switching can reduce daily overload.
    • Normalising seeking support: Open communication with a supervisor and the use of psychological support are signs of maturity, not weakness.
    • Build a culture of psychological safety: An environment must be created where employees can talk openly about problems without fear of punishment. Leaders need to model healthy behaviour – taking leave and respecting working hours.
    • Process and tool optimisation: Investments in simplifying the tool chain (DevOps), automating testing (QA) and systematically reducing technical debt (Developers) are direct attacks on sources of stress.
    • Ensuring a balance between responsibility and control: The level of responsibility must go hand in hand with an appropriate level of autonomy and control over one’s own work. Regular feedback helps to correct any imbalances.
    • Actively promote regeneration: Companies should realistically encourage the use of holidays (and not contact employees during them) and offer flexible working arrangements.

    Professional burnout is a signal that legacy working models in IT have reached their limits. It is time to stop treating employees’ mental health as a cost and start seeing it as a key investment in the most important resource the technology industry has: human talent, creativity and a passion to create.

  • Is the IT industry getting older? Age structure of ICT professionals in Poland and the EU

    Is the IT industry getting older? Age structure of ICT professionals in Poland and the EU

    In the business narrative, the technology industry is synonymous with youth, dynamism and a constant influx of new talent. The common perception of the IT sector as the domain of people under 30 is so strong that the question of its ageing sounds almost like heresy. However, the latest Eurostat data sheds a whole new light on this picture, revealing a fundamental paradox that has direct implications for Polish companies, especially in the SME sector.

    Analysis of data from the last decade (2014-2024) brings a surprising conclusion: the European IT sector as a whole is not ageing at all. On the contrary, it shows remarkable demographic stability. In 2024, the share of ICT (information and communication technology) professionals aged 35 and over across the European Union was 62.8%. A decade earlier, the figure was marginally higher at 62.9%. However, this almost zero change (-0.1 percentage points) is not a sign of stagnation, but of a dynamic equilibrium.

    This stability is the result of two powerful forces clashing. On the one hand, the ICT industry is growing at a rate unmatched by the rest of the economy. Between 2014 and 2024, the number of ICT professionals employed in the EU increased by as much as 62.2%, while total employment in the EU grew by only 10.6%. Such massive growth generates a constant demand for new staff, met mainly by graduates, which naturally rejuvenates the sector. On the other hand, the powerful base of professionals hired a decade or two ago is naturally maturing, moving into older age groups. At an EU-wide level, these two trends are almost perfectly balanced. The IT sector in Europe is therefore a mature market – where almost two-thirds of the workforce is over 35 – but thanks to expansion, as a whole, it is not ageing.

    However, this pan-European balance masks ‘contrasting national trends’, and Poland is one of the clearest examples of this divergence. While the share of ICT professionals aged 35+ declined in the EU, in Poland it increased by as much as 10.4 percentage points over the same period. This places Poland among the top countries with the fastest maturing technology workforce, alongside Slovakia (+18.6 p.p.) or Romania (+13.4 p.p.).

    This does not mean that the Polish sector is ‘old’, but that it is maturing at a rapid pace. There are several factors behind this phenomenon. Firstly, it is the effect of the maturing of the market. The generations that fed into the industry en masse during the recruitment boom of the 2000s and 2010s are now collectively crossing the threshold of 35 and 45 years of age. Secondly, this trend is reinforced by the overall unfavourable demographic situation in the country. Poland is an ageing society at a rapid pace , which translates into a shrinking pool of young talent across the labour market. Finally, the market itself has started to favour experience – the observed slowdown in the recruitment of juniors goes hand in hand with a growing demand for experts, including in the context of the development of AI.

    As a result, the Polish IT sector is losing its former ‘youth’ advantage. The age structure of the industry, visualised in the form of a pyramid, would show a clear ‘convexity’ in the 25-34 and 35-44 age cohorts, which contrasts with the much older and flatter structure of the total workforce in the Polish economy.

    For Polish SME companies, this rapid demographic shift creates a fundamental conflict: a clash between cultural stereotypes and market reality. The organisational culture of many technology companies, both globally and in Poland, is steeped in ageism, or age discrimination. Stereotypes perceiving older workers as “less adaptable” or “unwilling to learn” are still common. Polish studies show glaring disparities: candidates aged 28 receive twice as many invitations to interviews as people over 50, with identical qualifications.

    With demographics forcing a reliance on older staff, this cultural ageism is becoming a strategic mistake. Companies that continue to use platitudes about a ‘young, dynamic team’ in their recruitment communications , are actively scaring away the largest and most experienced talent pool in the market. In an era when more than half of EU businesses report difficulty filling ICT vacancies , this is a business barrier that raises recruitment costs and increases turnover.

    Adapting to this new reality requires SMEs to immediately revise their strategy. Competing for a growing pool of experienced experts cannot be based on salary alone. It becomes necessary to implement conscious Age Management strategies. This means focusing on critical areas for a mature workforce. Firstly, on the strategic transfer of knowledge. Experienced specialists (50+) are often the “first generation” of Polish IT, possessing invaluable knowledge of key systems. Their departure without a succession plan, e.g. through mentoring or workshops, means an irrevocable loss of critical ‘know-how’. Secondly, SMEs can gain an advantage by offering values valued by seniors: employment stability , real flexibility and attention to work-life balance.

    Redefining development and upskilling is becoming equally important. Investing in the development of a senior looks different to that of a junior. It is no longer just about learning a new framework, but about developing competences that multiply the value of their experience. Companies need to create formal technical development paths (e.g. Staff/Principal Engineer) that allow for promotion and salary increases without moving to a managerial path. This is a development towards technical leadership , systems architecture and taking full responsibility for a product area.

    Finally, this internal strategy must be reflected in the company’s external communication, i.e. in its Employer Branding. It is time to audit recruitment language and eliminate ageist language from it. Instead, communications should consciously showcase and celebrate experienced employees as mentors and innovation leaders.

    The question “is the IT industry ageing?” has a complex answer: in Europe – no, in Poland – yes, and rapidly. The Polish IT sector has ceased to be a “young industry” and has become a mature market. The competitiveness of SMEs in the coming decade will not depend on the ability to attract the youngest, but on the ability to strategically retain, effectively develop and fully utilise the potential of the growing number of professionals over 35. The greatest competitive advantage will be gained by those companies that are the first to abandon stereotypes and adapt their culture to the demographic reality.

  • IT costs are freezing digitalisation? How high IT salaries are blocking innovation

    IT costs are freezing digitalisation? How high IT salaries are blocking innovation

    A paradox has become entrenched in the Polish business landscape. On the one hand, the media report a normalisation and cooling in the IT labour market, which could suggest an end to salary pressures. On the other hand, finance and HR leaders budgeting for digital transformation see a different reality: the cost of acquiring and retaining technology talent has stabilised at a level that is becoming an insurmountable barrier for many companies.

    The thesis is unequivocal – high IT personnel costs have become a hidden tax on innovation, which is measurably inhibiting key digitisation projects in Polish companies.

    A new, expensive balance

    Analysis of hard market data debunks the myth that the era of expensive professionals is over. Although wage growth has clearly slowed down, this does not mean a return to pre-boom levels. Instead, a new high equilibrium has taken shape.

    According to the Hays Poland salary report for 2025, only 16% of technology companies are planning raises of more than 10%, a drastic change compared to 2021-2022. However, the slowdown does not mean a reduction in costs, only their stabilisation at a very high level.

    The scale of the challenge is best illustrated by comparing salaries in IT with the rest of the economy. Data from the Central Statistical Office shows that in July 2025, the average salary in the ‘Information and Communication’ sector reached PLN 14,307 gross.

    At the same time, the average salary in the business sector was PLN 8,266. This means that IT specialists earn on average more than 70% more than the average employee. This gigantic salary premium, perpetuated by years of boom, is not diminishing, making digitalisation projects disproportionately expensive compared to other business initiatives.

    It is also crucial for budgeting to understand that the highest costs are generated by the most desirable, experienced professionals, often working on B2B contracts. In the first half of 2024, as many as 74% of senior offers included a proposal to work in this model.

    When the cost of talent becomes a barrier

    High staff costs have ceased to be a mere statistic and have become a major brake on transformation. Market research leaves no illusions. A report by Polcom indicates that for Polish companies in the SME sector, the two biggest barriers to digitalisation are the shortage of IT specialists (indicated by 66% of companies) and the high cost of implementations (46%). These two factors create a vicious circle: the limited supply of talent drives up their price, while high costs limit companies’ ability to compete for them.

    This means that every IT project carries a huge amount of risk. In a typical technology implementation, 70% to as much as 90% of the budget is human costs – the time of developers, analysts and managers. This structure means that even a small overrun or delay in a project can negate the projected return on investment.

    The most serious consequence, however, is strategic paralysis. The decision to postpone a project because personnel costs are too high is not neutral. In fact, it leads to an accumulation of technological debt.

    Outdated systems, on which half of Polish companies still work, are becoming more and more expensive to maintain and are blocking innovation. Apparent savings today therefore become a high-interest loan taken out for the future.

    Wykres 3

    Strategic responses to bottlenecks

    Instead of engaging in a debilitating war for talent, business leaders can take a more sophisticated approach, based on three complementary pillars.

    The first is smart sourcing, i.e. diversifying sources of competence. Instead of relying solely on recruiting full-time employees, companies can build a flexible talent ecosystem. This includes strategic outsourcing and nearshoring, but also effective relationship management with B2B contractors.

    Data from the Central Statistical Office (CSO) and CEIDG show that as many as 70.3% of entities in the ‘Information and Communication’ sector are sole traders. This is a huge market of flexible experts that allows project teams to be dynamically scaled according to needs.

    The second pillar is the democratisation of technology through Low-Code/No-Code (LCNC) platforms. These tools enable business applications to be built using visual interfaces, allowing solutions to be created by business analysts or managers, referred to as ‘citizen developers’.

    This drastically reduces implementation time from months to weeks, reduces costs and relieves permanently overburdened IT departments. The growing popularity of this approach is a fact – according to the NoCode Poland report, as many as 77% of companies plan to implement LCNC technology in the next 12 months.

    The third key element is the use of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) as an efficiency lever. The aim here is to free up financial and human resources, which can then be reinvested in strategic projects. AI implementations can deliver operational cost reductions of 25-40%, and technologies such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can increase the productivity of teams by up to 40%.

    New game plan

    The high cost of IT competence is not a passing trend, but a new, structural feature of the market. Attempts to ignore it lead directly to a loss of competitiveness. Instead of seeing IT as a cost centre, CFOs should treat it as an investment portfolio in digital capabilities, diversifying it between strategic staffing, a flexible network of external partners and technologies that increase productivity across the organisation.

    The role of HR, in turn, is evolving from that of a recruiter to an architect of the talent ecosystem that builds and nurtures relationships with various competence providers. In the new market reality, the advantage will be built not by those companies that hire the most expensive developers, but by those that most cleverly reduce the need to hire them, achieving the same business goals faster, cheaper and with less risk. This is the essence of strategic leadership in the digital age.

  • 38% of IT companies plan hiring, 27% cutbacks – IT job market before the end of the year

    38% of IT companies plan hiring, 27% cutbacks – IT job market before the end of the year

    At the finish of 2025, the IT job market in Poland is entering a phase of cautious selective recruitment. According to the latest ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey, 38% of companies plan to increase hiring in Q4, but at the same time 27% are considering reductions and 32% intend to maintain current employment levels. The hiring outlook is +12% – the lowest in the industry for all of 2025, showing a cooling off after the intense demand of previous years.

    The main motivations of recruiters remain developmental: almost half of companies (48%) point to organisational expansion and 39% to technological advances generating new positions, especially in the areas of AI, cyber-security, cloud, data engineering or low-code. In the background, the pressure to diversify competencies and enter new markets remains – although these are more strategic than short-term goals.

    However, in parallel, there is a growing group of defensive companies. Staff reductions are mainly driven by economic challenges (31%) and process automation (31%), which signals that some organisations are entering a phase of cost optimisation and project extinguishment. 25% of IT companies say they have no plans to replace departing employees, which can be read as growing financial caution after a period of overheating in the labour market.

    Although the deceleration in momentum is evident, the IT job market is not headed for stagnation. Demand for specialists in critical domains – particularly security, cloud infrastructure and data analytics – remains above the market average. Salaries for such roles remain stable: PLN 10-15k gross for mid-levels and even PLN 25-40k for experts and managers.

    Against a global backdrop, the Polish sector is part of the ‘technological selection’ trend: companies are cutting back on mass recruitment, but investing in competencies that are key to business scalability and resilience. The IT industry may enter 2026 no longer with the question “who to hire?”, but “what to invest in: people or automation?”.

    This shift in emphasis from quantity to quality of staff may prove to be one of the most important turning points in the history of the Polish IT market.

  • IT jobs: from eldorado to crisis. How the market has changed in three years

    IT jobs: from eldorado to crisis. How the market has changed in three years

    Until a few years ago, the IT job market resembled an eldorado. Professionals dictated terms and conditions, companies competed for talent with benefits and pay rises and the demand for digital competences was growing rapidly. Today, the situation is quite different: more and more companies are downsizing, and instead of a boom, the market is in a state of crawling stagnation.

    The change is radical – and painful for both workers and businesses. Figures show that redundancies are becoming more common and the pace of technological transformation is forcing adjustments on the labour market that many were not prepared for.

    From a market of the worker to a market of uncertainty

    The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital transformation. Between 2020 and 2022, companies massively implemented remote solutions, developed e-commerce systems and invested in process automation. The IT industry was the beneficiary of this trend – this was when professionals were free to choose their offers and average salaries grew much faster than in other sectors.

    “Not so long ago, employees dictated the terms,” Dr Iwona Jaroszewska-Ignatowska of the law firm People & Law emphasised in Forbes. Indeed, the shortage of programmers or data engineers meant that companies were prepared to pay more and more just to attract talent.

    This situation, however, did not last long.

    Symptoms of crisis

    From 2023 onwards, news of cutbacks became increasingly frequent. Technology giants – from Google and Meta to Amazon – announced massive layoffs, explaining them by the need to optimise costs and focus on strategic growth areas. They were followed by smaller companies, including Polish IT firms.

    “We are definitely facing a more difficult moment for many companies. We are seeing a creeping stagnation. Group layoffs are occurring more frequently than two or three years ago,” – said the expert.

    Statistics confirm these observations. According to the Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, by mid-2024, county labour offices had received applications for layoffs of more than 80,000 workers – more than in 2020, when the pandemic paralysed the economy.

    Economy and technology side by side

    There are several reasons for the change. The first is cost pressure. The increase in the minimum wage – currently PLN 4666 gross and from January 2025. PLN 4806 gross – is heavily impacting companies’ budgets.

    “Redundancies are often the result of plant closures and the relocation of production abroad, which occurs, among other things, because of the high increase in the minimum wage,” Jaroszewska-Ignatowska explained.

    The second factor is technology. Artificial intelligence, which has dynamically entered business in the last two years, is starting to realistically displace some tasks previously performed by humans.

    “This is a direct result of the entry of new technologies, above all artificial intelligence”. – the expert pointed out, citing the example of an IT company where up to 80 per cent of the workforce had been made redundant.

    AI is changing the employment landscape faster than expected. Tools that automate coding, generate content or analyse data allow companies to cut costs. From the perspective of companies, this is a natural step – from the perspective of employees, however, it means a loss of stability.

    Who loses and who gains?

    At the forefront of the risk are jobs involving repetitive activities. Automation hits copywriters, marketing or technical support specialists. Some experts point out that the legal professions – hitherto immune to technology – could also experience profound changes due to the development of tools for document analysis and opinion preparation.

    This does not mean, however, that the IT labour market is heading for collapse. Its structure is changing. Companies increasingly need specialists in AI model management, data security or cloud deployment. Areas such as cyber security, AI governance or algorithm development are becoming key fields for investment.

    New rules of the game

    For employees, this means the need to upgrade their skills and be flexible in their approach to their careers. Investing in learning new technologies, certifications and development in areas that are difficult to automate is now becoming an essential condition for remaining competitive in the labour market.

    Companies, in turn, need to redefine their business models. Simply providing software services or outsourcing IT is not enough if competitors with lower labour costs and access to automation offer similar quality more cheaply. The opportunity lies in specialised services, high-margin projects and innovative implementations where human competence and AI technology work together instead of excluding each other.

    End of the eldorado, beginning of the transition

    In just a few years, the IT labour market has moved from a ‘worker’s market’ to a period of profound uncertainty. However, the change is not just a crisis – rather, it is a process of adaptation to new economic and technological realities.

    Not so long ago, there was talk of a golden age of IT. Today, the market resembles a testing ground for companies seeking a balance between cost and innovation. This is not the end of the industry, but the beginning of a new era in which those who are quickest to learn to cooperate with technology – rather than compete with it – will win.

  • Cyber security in crisis: European companies without people to defend themselves

    Cyber security in crisis: European companies without people to defend themselves

    New data from ISACA’s State of Cybersecurity 2025 report confirms that the digital security skills deficit problem is taking a systemic form in Europe. Two out of three companies are unable to fill cyber security vacancies and more than half complain of difficulties in retaining specialists.

    At the same time, the pressure of attacks is increasing, with almost 40 per cent of IT and security professionals saying the number of incidents is up on last year, and another 27 per cent seeing levels maintained.

    This combination of staff shortages and escalating threats is resulting in a significant cancer in the digital resilience of many organisations. Only 38% of respondents say they have full confidence in their organisation’s ability to effectively detect and respond to attacks. The remainder – either perceive gaps or are unsure how far reaching they are.

    Where the source of the problem lies

    1. maintenance vs. acquisition

    The recruitment deficit is widely known, but equally important – although less discussed – is the problem of retention. More than half of organisations are facing the departure of professionals, further exacerbating the staffing gap.

    There is often talk of a ‘war for talent’, but less often about the fact that organisational structures in a large proportion of companies are not ready for a parallel battle: providing development paths, meaningful distribution of responsibilities, training or psychological support. Reported problems include overload, lack of work-life balance and insufficient competence of teams.

    2. recruitment requirements do not correspond to market realities

    A surprising paradox: 19% of companies admit that even for positions that do not require experience or a degree, it is difficult to find candidates. However, the problem is not just a lack of applicants – bias is often embedded in the recruitment process. It is an examination to require certificates, apprenticeships, formal diplomas when real day-to-day tasks depend more on ability than documents.

    Respondents signal that professional certifications (84 %) and practical training (73 %) are most important, more so than a university degree alone (55 %). So the potential lies in opening up alternative pathways into the industry – bootcamps, ‘bottom-up’ programmes, opportunities for internal promotion.

    3. the growing role of AI in expectations of security teams

    The survey indicates that 51% of European professionals are involved in the development of AI management frameworks in their organisations (previously 36%) and 46% are involved in their implementation (27% in 2024). AI is becoming an operational foundation in the areas of threat detection, endpoint security and automation. This makes AI and model management competences particularly desirable – and at the same time scarce.

    At the same time, organisations have to navigate an increasingly complex regulatory environment (e.g. NIS2 Directive, EU AI Act), which forces a synergistic approach to risk, compliance and technology.

    4 Pressure, stress, burnout

    Almost two-thirds (68 %) of experts say their job is more stressful today than it was five years ago, and the pressure is not easing. More than half report unrealistic expectations, 48 % point to a poor work-life balance and 36 % report a lack of appropriate competencies in the team. Worse still, 22 % of organisations have not implemented any measures to prevent burnout.

    According to additional data, as many as 73% of European IT professionals experience stress or burnout, largely due to an excess of responsibilities (61%) and a lack of resources (43%)

    Scale of the problem in the face of global trends

    Industry reports suggest that the skills gap in cyber security is global – up to 4.8 million roles may remain unfilled globally, resulting in increased incident costs and response times. In Europe, security teams are regularly described as ‘overworked and underfunded’.

    In turn, the strategic analysis indicates that despite growing awareness of the role of cyber security in the competitive value of companies, barriers remain: limited resources, cultural resistance and a lack of consistent commitment from business leaders.

    What organisations can do – and what they should do

    A. Redesign the HR process and recruitment models

    • Reduce barriers to entry – e.g. through internship programmes, apprenticeships, bootcamps with mentoring.
    • Bet on competences instead of formal diplomas: the ability to analyse, to make decisions, to adapt – these are qualities that often matter more in everyday work.
    • Implement systems to recruit internally and develop talent already in the organisation.

    B. Invest in culture and wellbeing

    • Introduce procedures to counteract burnout: limit overtime, task rotation, breaks, psychological support.
    • Teach leaders to understand the risks of the ‘security hero’ ethos – That one person cannot be responsible for the whole organisation.
    • Support the development of soft skills – communication, critical thinking, coping in a complex environment.

    C. Improve efficiency through tools and automation

    • Automate repetitive tasks: log analysis, correlations, monitoring – to leave space for specialists for strategic tasks.
    • Consolidate and discipline tools to reduce operational costs and technological chaos.

    D. Collaborate at the ecosystem level

    • Industry organisations, government initiatives and educational institutions must work together to increase the candidate pool.
    • Public programmes (e.g. in the EU) already support such activities, which can have an effect, subject to coordination and long-term budgeting.

    E. Prioritise strategic oversight

    • Cyber security must not be seen as a costly add-on – it must be an integral part of the board’s strategy.
    • Budget, recruitment and technology decisions require synergy with business risk, not ad hoc responses.

    Europe today faces a dilemma: organisations have more and more reasons to invest in cyber security (growing threats, regulation, AI), but staff shortages and organisational deficits prevent the pace from catching up quickly.

    In practice, it is security professionals who are working at the limit – often becoming the bottleneck in the digital resilience architecture of entire companies. If HR processes, management culture, technology strategy and incentive systems remain divergent, the talent shortage will worsen and the risk of incident spikes will increase.

    The key is not just “more” – but “smarter”: targeted recruitment, adaptive development paths, automation tools, and systemic support for people – these are the foundations that can shift the balance away from crisis towards resilience. Otherwise, the cost of the gap can be expressed not only in budgets, but in the lost trust and operational continuity of the organisation.

  • Polish software house market: between record exports and internal correction

    Polish software house market: between record exports and internal correction

    For more than a decade, the Polish IT sector has been synonymous with uninterrupted, dynamic growth. It has established itself as the technological heart of Central and Eastern Europe, attracting global investment thanks to its huge talent pool and reputation as a reliable partner in nearshoring and outsourcing projects. The narrative of a ‘golden decade’ for Polish IT, driven by thousands of software houses and skilled developers valued worldwide, has become almost an axiom. However, in the past several months or so, this optimistic picture has begun to crack and the market has started to send deeply contradictory signals that have sown the seeds of uncertainty.

    On the one hand, hard macroeconomic data paints a picture of a sector in peak form. The value of Polish IT services exports is breaking new records, demonstrating extraordinary strength and global competitiveness . Poland sells more IT services abroad than such technological powers as Japan or South Korea, which testifies to the maturity and sophistication of the solutions offered . On the other hand, there are increasingly loud signals from inside the industry about a cooling of the economy. Industry portals and labour market reports report a slowdown in recruitment, job cuts and a general sense of ‘adjustment’ after years of unbridled boom . This clash of two radically different narratives creates a fundamental paradox.

    Are we witnessing the beginning of a stagnation that will end an era of spectacular growth? Or is this just a temporary breathlessness, a natural consequence of the global economic slowdown? Or, as seems most likely, are we seeing something much deeper – a fundamental process of market maturation and restructuring that is separating innovation leaders from companies basing their model on simpler services?

    Market fundamentals: Between impressive scale and growing pressure

    In order to understand the current state of the software house market, it is first necessary to look at its foundations – the number and structure of the companies that make it up. Registration data from the Central Statistical Office (CSO) and the Central Register and Information on Economic Activity (CEIDG) provide key information about the scale and dynamics of this ecosystem.

    The analysis of the Polish IT sector is based on the Polish Classification of Activities (PKD), where the key role is played by Section J, Division 62: ‘Computer programming, consultancy and related activities’ . This category covers a wide range of activities, from code writing (PKD 62.01.Z), to IT consultancy (PKD 62.02.Z), to other information and computer technology services (PKD 62.09.Z). It is these subclasses that largely define the software house ecosystem in Poland.

    Data from the REGON register, maintained by the Central Statistical Office, shows the impressive scale of the market . Industry reports estimate the number of technology companies in Poland at over 60,000, and between 500,000 and even 850,000 people work in the IT sector. This huge number of active entities testifies to the extraordinary density and vitality of the market. It is a landscape dominated by micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, which on the one hand testifies to the low barriers to entry and entrepreneurship, and on the other makes it more susceptible to economic fluctuations.

    However, the sheer size of the market is only one side of the coin. The other, much more dynamic, is hidden in the CEIDG data, which records the fate of sole proprietorships (JDG) – a legal form extremely popular with contract programmers and small IT companies. An analysis of the number of deregistrations and business suspensions sheds light on the pressure this segment of the market has come under. The data from the last few years are clear and point to increasing pressure. In 2022, CEIDG received 9.6% more applications to close a sole proprietorship than the year before. In the first half of the other year analysed, the increase was even more dramatic at nearly 26% year-on-year. These figures are hard evidence that market conditions have become much more difficult for many smaller players.

    The reasons for this phenomenon have to be sought in a combination of macroeconomic and regulatory factors. The global slowdown, high inflation, rising costs of doing business and changes in the legal and tax environment, such as the introduction of the Polish Deal, have hit the smallest entities in particular . However, these figures should be interpreted with caution. The high number of closures and suspensions in CEIDG is not only a symptom of the crisis. It also reflects the nature of the IT industry, which is dominated by project work. The CEIDG system is designed to make it easy to set up, suspend and close a business. For a contractor programmer, closing down a company can simply mean the end of one major project and moving to a contract of employment, and suspending a business is a common tool to manage liquidity in between assignments.

    Global driving force: Exports as a barometer of success

    While data from the domestic market point to increasing pressure, analysis of international trade paints a very different picture. The Polish IT sector has become a real export powerhouse in recent years, and the growth rate of foreign sales is a key argument against the stagnation thesis.

    The figures speak for themselves. The value of Polish exports of services in the ‘telecommunications, IT and information’ category has increased from around PLN 33.1 billion in 2019 to more than PLN 70.7 billion in 2023 . This represents a more than doubling in just four years. Since 2010, exports of IT services have grown at an average annual rate of more than 20%, more than twice as fast as exports of all services in general . As a result, the share of IT services in total Polish services exports has increased from around 5% a decade ago to nearly 13% in 2022 .

    According to data from the Polish Development Fund, based on Eurostat statistics, at the end of 2022 exports of IT services from Poland reached a value of EUR 11.66 billion, generating a significant trade surplus . Importantly, there has not been a single year of decline in this category since 2010, demonstrating the unrelenting demand for Polish digital competencies . This impressive trend fits into the wider European context. Eurostat data shows that telecommunications, computer and information services are one of the fastest-growing export categories for the European Union as a whole, with their share of total services exports (outside the EU) increasing by 7.2 percentage points between 2013 and 2023 .

    This growth is not only quantitative, but above all qualitative. The Polish IT industry is breaking away from the image of a ‘digital assembly plant’, where the main competitive advantage was the lower price of software services. Increasingly, Polish companies are becoming strategic partners for global corporations, providing complex and technologically advanced solutions. Exported services are no longer just simple software development, but also advanced research and development (R&D) projects, strategic IT consulting, cloud services, cyber security and data analytics . This evolution is evidence of Poland moving up the global value chain. The main directions of this expansion are the world’s most demanding markets: the European Union countries (with Germany at the forefront), the United States, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.

    Market reality: the end of the eldorado and a changing of the guard

    The period when recruiters vied for every candidate and companies outdid each other in offering ever higher salaries is over. The last two years have seen a marked cooling and normalisation in the IT job market, which many observers describe as the ‘end of the eldorado’ . Reports from recruitment portals clearly indicate a shift in the balance of power.

    The number of job offers published has fallen significantly compared to the peak years of 2021-2022 . At the same time, the number of applications per position has increased dramatically, with an average of 44 applications per offer in 2024, compared to 40 the year before . The most noticeable consequence of this change is the drastic reduction in opportunities for juniors. Companies, seeking to optimise costs and minimise risk, prefer to invest in experienced seniors who can deliver business value from day one . This turnaround in the market also comes at a human price – reports indicate increasing levels of stress, job burnout and feelings of job insecurity.

    The cooling in the labour market is a direct consequence of the global economic downturn, which has forced software house clients to review their budgets . Inflation and economic uncertainty have prompted companies around the world to take a more cautious approach to technology investments . Customers, looking to save money, are freezing less critical projects and scrutinising every purchasing decision much more closely . For Polish software houses, this means longer sales cycles and the need to prove return on investment (ROI) at every step. The data from the SoDA report are telling here: small companies (up to 50 people) reduced an average of 26% of their IT specialists in the last year, while in large organisations (more than 300 people) this percentage was 12% . This shows that the market correction is hitting smaller, less stable players hardest.

    New market requirements – Specialisation as the key to survival

    The current market environment acts as a powerful evolutionary filter. In the boom times, demand was so high that almost every company, even those offering uncomplicated outsourcing of programmers (‘body leasing’), could count on orders. Today, the situation is radically different. The market places a premium on specialisation, deep domain knowledge and the ability to deliver complex, measurable business solutions.

    Demand is shifting away from generalist programmers towards experts in niche but rapidly growing fields. An analysis of job vacancies shows that even with an overall decrease in the number of advertisements, areas such as Artificial Intelligence (AI/ML), Cyber Security, Data Analytics (Data & BI) and Cloud Engineering are still seeing increases in demand and offering high salaries . A company that today simply offers ‘Java developers’ is competing in a market that is becoming a commodity, susceptible to price pressure. By contrast, a company that provides ‘certified cyber security experts for the financial sector’ or ‘AI engineers with experience in logistics optimisation’ is selling a unique, high-margin solution.

    This transformation is painful, but in the long term healthy for the sector as a whole. The market correction is not killing the industry, but accelerating its transition from a labour arbitrage-based model to one based on knowledge and innovation. This is a classic symptom of the industry’s transition from a phase of explosive growth to a phase of mature, more sustainable competition.

    Not stagnation, but maturing through correction

    Analysis of the data leads to a clear conclusion. What the Polish software house market is experiencing is not stagnation. It is a complex and multifaceted maturation process that is taking place through a profound, albeit painful, market correction.

    Record exports and internal slowdown are not contradictory phenomena, but two sides of the same coin. Spectacular export success is being driven by leading players who have successfully moved to the next level of technological sophistication. The same process, however, raises the bar for the market as a whole. An internal adjustment, manifested by a slowdown in recruitment and pressure on smaller companies, is a natural consequence of this evolution.

    The “golden decade” of easy, undifferentiated growth is irrevocably over. The future of the Polish IT sector will be shaped by new paradigms:

    • Deep specialisation: Survival and growth will depend on the ability to build unique expertise in niche but strategically important areas. Companies must become experts in specific technologies (AI, cyber security, cloud) or industry verticals (fintech, healthtech, e-commerce).
    • Business maturity: Skills in sales, marketing, financial management and strategy building will become crucial. Software houses need to evolve from technology workshops into mature, efficiently managed businesses .
    • The AI revolution: artificial intelligence is becoming a fundamental tool to be integrated into your own processes to increase efficiency and reduce project delivery times. Companies that ignore this trend risk losing their competitiveness .

    Although the current period is challenging, the outlook for the Polish IT sector remains optimistic. As it goes through this transformation, the industry is becoming stronger, more diverse and resilient to shocks. The adjustment, although painful, is a necessary stage in the evolution that is transforming the Polish IT sector from a regional talent basin into a mature global technology leader capable of competing at the highest global level .

  • AI will shake up the IT industry more strongly than others. What does this mean for professionals?

    AI will shake up the IT industry more strongly than others. What does this mean for professionals?

    Just a few months ago, generative artificial intelligence was a technological curiosity, a topic for coffee conversations and after-hours experimentation. Today, it is a powerful tool that has become a permanent part of the business landscape and is revolutionising the way we work.

    Behind the media hype around language models, however, is a fundamental question that everyone in the IT industry is asking themselves: “How will artificial intelligence affect my career?”. Indeed Platform’s latest report sheds new light on this question, providing concrete answers and identifying the IT sector as the epicentre of the changes to come.

    Is this a cause for concern or an unprecedented opportunity?

    Analysts from Indeed Hiring Lab conducted an in-depth analysis of more than 2,800 job skills to assess their vulnerability to the impact of generative AI. The conclusions are unequivocal and should come as no surprise to anyone in the industry – technology is changing itself first and foremost.

    It is IT people, who will feel this transformation most strongly. The results of the research paint a stark picture of the scale of this phenomenon. It turns out that more than half of all job-related skills in the technology sector are highly exposed to the transformation.

    When we look at the competences with the highest potential for near-total change, we see that almost three out of five of them are strictly technological skills. This trend affects developers the hardest, as the competences mentioned in a staggering 82% of developer job offers are among the group most susceptible to deep change.

    However, before anyone starts spinning science-fiction visions, it is worth quoting a key counterpoint from the report. The analysts point out that less than 1% of all skills surveyed are rated as fully replaceable.

    It is not a revolution that will wipe us out of the job market, but a profound evolution that will redefine roles in IT.

    Why is it that IT has found itself in the eye of the cyclone? The answer lies in the nature of the work. Generative AI, contrary to appearances, is not a creative entity, but an extremely sophisticated tool for recognising and replicating patterns in huge data sets.

    It excels wherever there are clear rules, logic and structured information. The work of a programmer is a perfect example of this. Programming languages are based on strict syntax and precise rules.

    Processes such as writing standardised code, refactoring, finding bugs or creating unit tests are largely repetitive in nature. These are tasks in which GenAI already demonstrates superhuman efficiency.

    Tools such as GitHub Copilot have ceased to be a novelty and have become a daily support for millions of developers around the world. GenAI is simply another, more powerful step along the same path.

    Now that we know what is changing and why, it is time to ask the most important question: what does all this mean for you? First and foremost, it signals that the role of the IT specialist is evolving. Skills that were valued just five years ago may soon become secondary.

    The ability to write simple, repetitive code or manually sift through tests will increasingly be delegated to machines. However, this does not mean that the demand for experts is declining. On the contrary, the demand for higher-level competences is growing.

    AI becomes our personal assistant, a coding partner that frees up our time and potential, allowing us to focus on what humans are irreplaceable at.

    The new role of the specialist requires a shift in emphasis from being a doer to being a strategist and architect. Professional value will depend less and less on the ability to write line-by-line code and more and more on the ability to design robust, scalable systems, deeply understand business objectives and select the right technologies to solve real-world problems.

    This strategic shift naturally entails an increase in the importance of soft skills. Effective communication with the team and the customer, a creative approach to the obstacles encountered and the empathy to translate human needs into the language of technology is a domain where AI will not be able to compete with humans for a long time to come.

    At the same time, mastering cooperation with artificial intelligence itself becomes a practical requirement. It must be treated as an extremely capable but initiativeless assistant, which means learning to formulate commands precisely, so-called ‘prompt engineering’.

    Ultimately, in this new working model, it is the human expert who remains in the key role of verifier and curator. The ability to critically assess the results generated by the machine, catch subtle errors and take full responsibility for the final product becomes absolutely fundamental.

    The Indeed report is not a prediction of the professional apocalypse. Rather, it is a roadmap of the changes to come and a valuable guide for anyone who wants to consciously shape their career. Transformation in IT is inevitable and will be more profound than in any other sector.

    However, this does not mean the end of work for professionals, but rather the beginning of an exciting new era. The question we need to ask ourselves is not “will AI take my job?”, but “how can I use AI to make my work more creative, valuable and effective?”.

    The future belongs to those who will stop seeing AI as a threat and start treating it as the most powerful tool in their arsenal. It is time to start learning it.

  • AI gold rush. 4 specialisations where demand has exploded

    AI gold rush. 4 specialisations where demand has exploded

    You probably know the feeling. You’re trying to solve a problem on a website, and you’re greeted by a chat window. After a few exchanges, you get stuck in a loop of the same, useless answers, and your frustration grows.

    This limited, often annoying chatbot is a symbol of the ‘old era’ of artificial intelligence, which is now coming to an end. Before our eyes, AI is ceasing to be just a passive interlocutor and is becoming a proactive agent – a digital assistant capable of performing complex, multi-step tasks.

    This fundamental change, confirmed in the latest AI Workforce Consortium report, is causing a real revolution in the IT labour market. The analysis of offers from the G7 countries leaves no illusions: the demand for professionals able to build, secure and manage the next generation of AI is growing at a rate of almost 300%.

    Let’s look at four key roles that will shape our industry in the coming months.

    The breakthrough is based on moving away from systems that merely respond, to ones that realistically work. The revolution is based on granting AI new capabilities. Above all, it gains autonomy, allowing it to act autonomously to achieve a set goal. Added to this is proactivity, whereby it initiates actions on its own, rather than just passively waiting for commands.

    A key element completes the whole: access to tools such as external applications, APIs, calendar or payment systems. The simplest analogy? A chatbot is like a hotline employee reading a ready-made script. An AI agent is like a personal assistant who, upon hearing ‘find me a flight to Lisbon for next weekend’, will independently compare prices, book a ticket and order transport to the airport.

    Powerful new technology requires new architects and gatekeepers, as hard market data confirms. The first and fastest growing area is AI security, where demand for experts has increased by as much as 298%. This is an entirely new branch of cyber security, focused on unique threats such as data poisoning (poisoning of training data) and prompt injection (injection of malicious commands).

    Its crucial importance stems directly from the new role of agents. Since an intelligent system can operate our finances, securing it against manipulation becomes an absolute priority. In practice, this means work for high-level specialists who, like digital security officers, test the resistance of AI systems to attacks and build advanced defences for them.

    Another pillar of this transformation is multi-agent systems, an area where the demand for talent has jumped by 245%. It involves designing complex ecosystems where multiple specialised AI agents work together to solve a problem.

    The future lies in specialisation – one agent books the flights, another the hotels and a third plans the tour, together creating a coherent and optimal plan. The architect of such systems is an engineer with unique skills who ensures smooth communication, coordination and resolution of potential conflicts between autonomous programmes.

    Adaptation of base models is becoming equally important, as evidenced by a 267% increase in demand. This process, known as fine-tuning, involves fine-tuning huge, generic models for very specific, niche tasks, such as the analysis of magnetic resonance images.

    A business does not need a ‘know-it-all’ philosopher, but a precise expert in his or her field, and adaptation makes it possible to transform a generic model into just such an expert. This is a job for machine learning engineers who, like digital craftsmen, precisely ‘sculpt’ the underlying models to achieve maximum efficiency.

    Finally, as systems become more autonomous, their ethical oversight becomes essential. Hence the powerful 256% growth in the field of responsible AI. Experts in this domain ensure that autonomous systems operate transparently, fairly and free of bias.

    With great autonomy comes great responsibility, so it is necessary to audit AI decisions to make sure that the agent granting credit or recruiting an employee is not discriminating. This is a role for interdisciplinary experts who create an ethical compass for thinking machines.

    The shift from chatbots to agents is not a cosmetic change, but a fundamental redefinition of our interaction with technology. The labour market is not waiting. The surge in demand for the specialisations discussed is the strongest signal yet that the future belongs to those who can build and manage autonomous technology.

    The question for 2025 is no longer “will AI affect my job?”, but “how quickly will I gain the competence to create and supervise the agents that will define our digital reality?”.

  • New bottleneck in IT. Companies are fighting not just for talent, but for the cognitive performance of their teams

    New bottleneck in IT. Companies are fighting not just for talent, but for the cognitive performance of their teams

    For years, the technology industry has focused on the battle for talent, assuming that attracting the right professionals is the key to innovation and growth. However, beneath the surface of this rivalry there is another bottleneck that is more difficult to diagnose.

    It is not a shortage of manpower, but the declining mental and cognitive resilience of teams already in place that is becoming the silent brake on growth. Cognitive exhaustion ceases to be a problem for HR departments and becomes a strategic challenge for the whole business.

    Invisible overload

    In the IT industry, where speed, focus and the constant solving of complex problems are the cornerstones of operations, the effects of mental overload are particularly acute. When cognitive fatigue rises, projects slow down, creativity fades and the whole organisation loses momentum. This is not a matter of lack of motivation, but a fundamental depletion of mental resources.

    Cognitive performance, understood as the ability to think clearly, be emotionally stable, make sound decisions and prioritise tasks, is being transformed from a ‘soft’ ability into a hard, measurable resource.

    In environments where developers, analysts or product managers must constantly juggle tasks, the ability to manage one’s own attention is crucial to maintaining productivity.

    The problem is that, unlike physical fatigue, cognitive exhaustion is difficult to observe. Many employees externally function flawlessly, while internally they have been working on cognitive debt for a long time.

    Instead of being proactive, they go into reactive mode, putting out fires and losing sight of strategic goals.

    Research provides evidence for a physiological basis for this phenomenon. Chronic cognitive stress leads to an increase of the neurotransmitter glutamate in the lateral prefrontal cortex, which, as shown in studies using magnetic resonance spectroscopy, directly impairs cognitive function.

    Other studies indicate that employees in digital work environments show measurable stress responses, such as reduced heart rate variability (HRV), which is an early sign of nervous system overload.

    Sources of mental friction

    The problem lies not in individual factors, but in the systemic nature of modern IT work. The erosion of cognitive productivity is due to several interrelated causes. One of the main sources is digital tool overload.

    The constant stream of notifications from instant messaging, emails and system alerts forces the brain to constantly switch context. This generates a state of permanent vigilance, making it impossible to enter the state of deep focus needed to solve complex problems.

    This digital chaos is compounded by the frequent lack of clear priorities. Fluctuating demands, vaguely defined goals and fuzzy responsibilities add to the psychological pressure, leaving employees living with the constant feeling that whatever they are doing, they are probably neglecting something more important.

    The situation is further complicated by the isolation of remote working. While hybrid models offer flexibility, they often lead to the disappearance of informal interactions and the weakening of team bonds, undermining the sense of psychological safety that is crucial for effective collaboration.

    From problem to strategy: investing in mental capital

    Companies that recognise this trend are beginning to treat cognitive performance as an asset that needs to be consciously managed. Successful strategies are based on actions at several intersecting levels. The foundation is clarity-oriented leadership.

    Managers play a key role in protecting the cognitive resources of their teams by being ruthless in setting priorities, creating a clear framework of expectations and modelling healthy communication habits.

    In parallel, it is necessary to reduce operational friction. Every extra tool, unnecessary meeting or ill-defined process is a cognitive cost for the team. Companies can reduce it by optimising their technology stack and introducing strict rules on meeting efficiency.

    Complementing these structural changes is the introduction of recovery rituals, which create space in the organisational culture for mindful breaks. These can be structured ‘focus blocks’ without notifications, short reflection sessions or regular workload check-ins.

    The conclusion is simple: in an age of constant change and increasing technological complexity, organisations need not only technical excellence, but above all mental stability. Companies that understand this invest not in a ‘soft’ topic, but in the backbone of their future profitability. The difference between exhaustion and creating innovation starts in the head.