Polish companies are implementing artificial intelligence slower than the European average, even though we do not yet have any regulations in this regard; we need to accelerate investments and promote AI, said Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs Dariusz Standerski on Tuesday at the European Forum for New Ideas (EFNI).
As the deputy minister pointed out during the debate “Trends in the labor market – how to accelerate technological transformation”, in Poland, approximately 500,000 people leave the labor market every year, e.g. retire, and at the same time only 300,000 enter it. “The growing gap in the labor market must therefore be the first goal of implementing AI in our companies,” Standerski assessed. He added that new technologies should be implemented faster, because labor shortages are currently more severe than in previous decades.
He noted that Polish companies are implementing artificial intelligence “too slowly”, similarly to the European Union compared to global leaders such as the US or China, and it is not “just a matter of regulation”. He pointed out that Poland has not yet passed a law on AI, and yet our level of implementation is below the European average.
In the US and China, there have been huge public and public-private investments in AI infrastructure and in support for companies implementing this technology, the deputy minister emphasised. Sometimes this happened in parallel with the introduction of AI regulations, which – according to Standerski – in China are much stricter than the EU's Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act).
“This is exactly what the European Union was missing,” said the deputy minister, expressing his satisfaction that the situation had changed: the European Commission and the member states had begun to invest intensively in artificial intelligence.
A good step is the creation of the EU AI Factories and Gigafactories program, he pointed out. The computing power provided by AI factories will be available directly to companies, and a given company will be able to ask the factory to adapt the AI solution specifically to its needs or for its sector, he emphasized.
“The support from the EU must be maximised in every possible way; we must accelerate our investments, and I hope that we will do this consistently in the European Union,” said the deputy head of the Ministry of Digital Affairs (MC).
He pointed out that in addition to investments, the government also needs to promote the implementation of AI and new cybersecurity solutions, especially where there is a shortage of workers – both specialized and unskilled. He added that in Poland we need 100,000 additional IT and cybersecurity specialists by the end of the decade.
“This way we can face the challenges on the labour market. That is why I am glad that the situation in which Europe is lagging behind is slowly coming to an end,” concluded Standerski.
As the European Commission indicates on its website, Artificial Intelligence Factories are dynamic ecosystems that support innovation, cooperation and development in the field of AI. The Commission has considered their creation a priority and has planned to launch the first factories in 2025. In December 2024, the EC selected the first seven locations, and in March this year another six. Additionally, in February this year, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announced that the EU fund InvestAI, with a budget of EUR 20 billion, will finance four artificial intelligence gigafactories in the EU. In Poland, the first Artificial Intelligence Factory is being built at the Academic Computer Center Cyfronet AGH, the second, called Piast-AI, is to be built in Poznań.
EU regulation 2024/1689, the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), entered into force on 1 August last year with some exceptions. In August 2026, the entire act will apply except for one article. It will become fully applicable in 2027. The first draft of the act implementing the AI Act was published by the Ministry of Digital Affairs on 15 October last year. The ministry presented another one on 11 February this year, after taking into account the comments submitted during the consultations. The draft was again submitted for consultation. (PAP)
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