According to job platforms rocketjobs.pl and justjoin.it, demand for artificial intelligence specialists continues to grow rapidly. The AI/ML segment is expanding at a remarkable pace, with the number of job offers more than tripling in one year — from 432 to 1,326. Companies are particularly looking for senior AI specialists, most often in IT, finance, engineering and marketing. Candidates are also applying in large numbers, with applications up 156% year on year, attracted by some of the highest salary ranges in the market, reaching nearly PLN 100,000.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are now among the fastest-growing segments on both job boards. Between Q1 2025 and Q1 2026, the number of job advertisements in this area increased more than threefold, from 432 to 1,326. Growth is visible across all levels of experience, but it is strongest among senior roles, where the number of offers rose by 228%, and C-level positions, which recorded a 460% increase. This is a clear signal that companies are no longer mainly looking for people who are just starting their AI journey, but for mature specialists capable of delivering business results from day one.
The structure of applicants shows a similar shift towards experience. The share of senior candidates in the total number of applications rose from 28% to 43%, while the share of junior candidates fell from 27% to 16%. The AI/ML market is therefore not only growing rapidly, but also clearly maturing, driven by increasingly experienced professionals.
“According to our data, AI/ML is no longer a niche for enthusiasts. A more than threefold year-on-year increase in the number of job offers signals that organisations which previously built AI strategies ‘on paper’ now need to fill real positions and deliver measurable results. This is one of the factors explaining the shift towards senior specialists. Companies are looking for someone who has built a production model, understands infrastructure, can communicate with business stakeholders and does not need to be guided by the hand. The growing share of senior candidates reflects increasing pressure to generate ROI from AI investments,” says Przemysław Depka Prondzinski, Head of Customer Success at justjoin.it and rocketjobs.pl.
“On the other side, we have junior candidates, whom the market is quickly verifying. The hype has attracted many people, but the technical requirements are unforgiving. The AI/ML category is maturing faster than any other IT segment, and data from justjoin.it confirms this quarter after quarter,” he adds.
Not Just IT: Who Is Hiring AI Specialists?
Contrary to common belief, demand for AI specialists has long since moved beyond the narrowly defined IT sector. Data from the platforms shows that AI talent is most frequently sought by employers from four sectors: IT, finance, engineering and marketing. This reflects the direction in which artificial intelligence implementation is heading — from back-office process optimisation, through recommendation and scoring systems, to marketing campaign automation and predictive analytics.
Specific roles dominate the job offers: AI and machine learning engineers, AI developers, AI system architects, data scientists and automation engineers. Job descriptions are also increasingly mentioning skills related to MLOps, integration of generative models and working with AI agents — roles and competencies that only a few quarters ago were practically absent from the labour market.
Record Salaries
AI/ML is now one of the best-paid categories in Poland’s IT labour market. The average salary in this area is PLN 16,400 gross under an employment contract and PLN 19,500 net under a B2B contract. However, the upper salary ranges in many job advertisements are significantly higher. Last year’s salary record stood at PLN 75,000 under an employment contract and as much as PLN 99,490 under a B2B contract — the highest maximum rate across the entire IT industry.
AI Skills in Other Areas: Still Marginal, but Growing
Although AI skills are increasingly expected outside strictly technological roles, they still account for a clearly marginal part of the labour market. Job offers that include requirements related to knowledge of tools such as ChatGPT or other generative models currently represent around 4% of all advertisements published on rocketjobs.pl and justjoin.it.
This shows that while the narrative of “AI for everyone” is strongly present in the media and in corporate communication, the formal inclusion of such requirements in actual recruitment advertisements is still at an early stage. However, this share can be expected to grow steadily as companies organise their competency expectations around the use of AI tools in everyday work.
The year 2026 is shaping up to be a period in which AI/ML definitively ceases to be an experimental niche and becomes a mature, though highly specialised, segment of the labour market. Triple-digit growth in demand, a clear shift towards senior professionals, record salaries and expansion beyond traditional IT are all signs that companies have entered the phase of real AI implementation.
