This article is an attempt to collect the most important activities currently undertaken in Poland in the area of AI.
An Overview of Current AI Developments in Poland
Implementing AI in Business
Various reports and studies attempt to capture the degree of AI development and adoption within the business sector.
The most comprehensive reports released so far include State of Polish AI 2021 and Map of Polish AI 2019. These reports offer an extensive list of Polish companies, even those with small AI teams. Unfortunately, much has changed over the past few years, and it’s a pity that these reports have not been updated.
Noteworthy is the list of Polish AI startups compiled by Dr. Przemysław Chojecki in mid-2023, which includes over 100 startups, as well as service companies—software houses—specializing in AI. A similar list of Polish startupswas created by Jan Szumada.
A much newer report is the EY Report: How Polish Companies are Implementing AI?. EY surveyed a large cross-section of companies (over 500) of varying sizes and from different sectors. The main conclusion: 20% of large and medium-sized enterprises in Poland have implemented AI-based systems, and 80% of companies that have completed AI implementation claim to have achieved benefits. Unfortunately, these results raise considerable doubts due to the lack of depth in the topic—what exactly do we mean by “AI implementation”?
Medical startups (170 from Poland) are thoroughly analyzed in the report Top Disruptors in Healthcare. This report is prepared by the AI in Health Coalition, which includes companies (such as COGITA) and other entities whose goal is to shape the application of artificial intelligence in the healthcare industry in Poland, benefiting patients and doctors alike.
A platform initiated by the ministry, ai4msp.pl, showcases many AI project implementations by Polish companies. It is intended to serve as a marketplace, although it is difficult to assess its current market significance.
Podcasts and interviews, such as Nieliniowy or 99twarzyAI, provide a fairly good overview of what is actually happening with artificial intelligence in Polish companies.
It’s worth noting that in the era of generative AI, companies are increasingly focusing on training their own staff (IT departments or others) and testing AI solutions internally rather than outsourcing work to qualified Data Scientists, who until recently had a monopoly on creating machine learning and artificial intelligence systems.
AI Companies Associations
Within the Polish software companies’ association SoDA, a working group on artificial intelligence—SoDA AI Research Group—was established last year, consisting of about 100 members from 30 Polish AI companies.
Two reports presented by this group are noteworthy. Human-AI Collaboration: Perspectives for the Polish Public Sector provides examples of AI projects completed in various areas of the public sector and the challenges associated with them. Meanwhile, the report Generative AI in Business (co-created by more entities than just SoDA) focuses strictly on generative artificial intelligence and presents its potential in various industries. This report is more focused on showcasing possibilities and tools rather than presenting actual AI projects implemented.
In recent months, the Chamber AI trade chamber was also established, which currently lists 44 companies dealing with AI solutions.
Courses and Communities
The last year and a half has also seen a huge increase in interest in artificial intelligence from non-technical people, programmers who have so far been dealing with other technologies, and individuals developing their own businesses.
Various groups have created noteworthy training, communities, and platforms, such as Elephant AI, AI_Devs, Campus AI, or Building AI Products. These courses vary greatly in level and outcomes, often leading individuals to join several different trainings. Some courses have thousands of participants.
In terms of industry events, long-standing cyclical, more technical initiatives continue to grow, such as Data Science Summit, ML in PL, PyData, or warsaw.ai. However, more local initiatives for AI enthusiasts are also emerging, such as AI Breakfasts, Masovian AI Fest, or GenAI Cracow.
In this category, the SpeakLeash community, which includes over 1,000 enthusiasts united around the idea of creating a large corpus of Polish language data that is then used to train Polish LLMs, is also worth mentioning.
Science and Experts
A great analysis of what is happening in Polish science in terms of AI is presented in the IDEAS NCBR Report “Retaining the Best – Trends in PhD Education in the Area of Artificial Intelligence”. It shows that in the last 3.5 years, only 200 PhDs in AI have been defended in Poland. This is a small number given the rapid development of this field.
It’s worth noting that in an era of rapid change driven by AI, authorities in this field are often individuals educated in other areas (philosophy, management) or celebrities. Such individuals gain a large audience with their loud marketing messages, offering their appearances at conferences, consultations, or training.
An example of a list that tried to select the most influential people in AI is the article “23 Most Influential Poles in AI” prepared by MyCompany Polska.
Government: Legislation and Funding
In the field of AI, government and international initiatives should also be mentioned. Since 2016, the development of the AI Strategy has been ongoing, with the milestone being the adoption of the “Policy for the Development of Artificial Intelligence in Poland from 2020″. However, this document went largely unnoticed in Polish business, making it difficult to assess its role in shaping AI-related reality.
It seems that the implementation of the EU AI Act, whose pre-consultations recently concluded, will play a much more significant role.
Since 2018, the Ministry of Digitization has operated a Working Group on Artificial Intelligence, but despite the broad cross-section of specialists and several reports, it is difficult to notice a broader impact of this group on AI-related reality in Poland.
Certainly, public funding programs such as Ścieżka Smart play a significant role in the development of companies, although they seem insufficient compared to the funds allocated for AI development in other countries.
