In 2026, Poland’s IT labor market will undergo another wave of change. According to the Hays Salary Guide for IT Contracting, as many as 82% of companies in the sector plan to recruit, though they will approach candidates more selectively. Employers will focus primarily on experience, deep technical expertise, and competencies related to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). While shifting business needs create new development opportunities for specialists, ongoing changes in the market are also fueling concerns about professional prospects.
Technology companies plan to continue hiring in 2026, yet they report mixed signals from the labor market. Sixty-six percent say more candidates are applying for jobs, while 25% still believe there is a shortage of specialists. Market pressure and the AI revolution are reshaping recruitment needs. The strongest demand is for AI/ML engineers, cybersecurity specialists, and data science professionals. Demand for these roles significantly exceeds supply, driving up rates.
Only 47% of IT professionals view their career prospects for 2026 positively—10 percentage points less than last year. This decline reflects changes in the labor market: fewer job offers, rising employer expectations, and the rapid development of AI, which is transforming how work is done across the technology sector.
“Poland’s IT industry has shown resilience amid constantly changing business conditions. On the one hand, 2025 brought economic growth and a dynamic rebound in investment, allowing for cautious optimism about the future. Another positive sign is the continued flow of talent and the flexibility of companies and specialists striving to keep pace with rapidly evolving technologies—particularly AI. On the other hand, a sense of uncertainty persists in the IT market, influencing candidates’ attitudes and career decisions,”
says Arkadiusz Wargin, CEE Executive Director – IT & Engineering Contracting at Hays.
Like previous years, 2025 was marked by uncertainty in the IT sector stemming from geopolitical and macroeconomic factors. Companies remained cautious when launching new investments and recruitment initiatives, basing decisions on careful analyses of needs and capabilities. Job supply remained moderate, prompting greater flexibility among employees and contractors, who actively sought new career opportunities.
IT Specialists Feel Uncertain
The Hays Salary Guide 2026 – IT Contracting clearly shows that employer selectivity and a limited number of job offers are fueling concerns among IT specialists. More than 50% assess their career prospects this year as uncertain or negative. For comparison, this share was 10 percentage points lower in 2025 and 21 percentage points lower in 2024.
According to Arkadiusz Wargin, this is driven not only by current labor market conditions—which are less favorable for IT professionals than a few years ago—but also by concerns surrounding the development of AI.
“Specialists see that AI can replace humans in an increasing number of tasks, including those performed in IT roles. This raises concerns about the future, but at the same time encourages investment in existing skills,”
comments the Hays expert.
This is reflected in declarations about professional use of AI. Seventy-one percent of IT professionals already use AI at work—10 percentage points more than a year ago. Yet only 24% believe that AI will create more job opportunities for them in the labor market.
Companies Seek Experts in Specific Fields
Technology organizations are not freezing recruitment. Among those planning to hire, 53% expect increased activity in hiring permanent employees, and 60% anticipate greater use of contractors.
Hays experts emphasize, however, that companies approach recruitment decisions with strong analytical rigor, while expectations of IT talent continue to rise. This translates into significantly fewer offers than during the sector’s boom years, alongside growing demand for specific competencies.
Planned recruitment will focus primarily on skills in AI and machine learning (75%), IT infrastructure and support (63%), data analytics and data science (56%), and cybersecurity (44%).
As in the previous year, companies in 2026 will clearly favor experienced candidates with expert-level skills. At the same time, demand for soft skills—such as adaptability, communication, decision-making, and emotional intelligence—continues to grow.
“In today’s IT market, technical knowledge alone is increasingly insufficient. Soft skills are no longer just a nice addition to an impressive project portfolio. Recruitment failures often result not from a lack of technical skills, but from poor team fit. When two candidates have similar technical competencies, soft skills usually determine the final choice,”
notes Paulina Szczotka, Senior Recruitment Partner at Hays.
Wage Growth Is Slowing—With Certain Exceptions
The year 2026 opens with noticeable changes in both recruitment structures and pay levels. Technology specialists remain among the most valued professionals in the labor market. However, the rise of AI and shifting business priorities are altering employer expectations regarding experience and skill sets.
More than 90% of IT companies assume that any pay increases in 2026 will be limited to a few percent—or will not occur at all. More substantial rate increases will be granted primarily to individuals with skills for which market demand clearly exceeds supply.
According to the Hays IT Contracting Salary Guide 2026, the highest growth in B2B contractor rates was recorded in data analytics and AI (especially data science specialists and AI/ML engineers), IT security (SOC analysts and cybersecurity engineers), and project management (PMO Managers and Senior IT Project Managers).
“Wage trends indicate that in 2026 we should expect the continued rise in importance of roles related to data analytics, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and project management. A growing number of technology investments and increasingly complex business challenges will support ongoing pay increases in key areas—particularly where innovation and security play a critical role,”
emphasizes Łukasz Nowakowski, Recruitment Manager at Hays.
About the Report
The Hays IT Contracting Salary Guide presents pay levels for over 100 positions, supplemented by insights from surveys conducted among IT companies and professionals, as well as commentary from labor market experts. The report is based on the expectations of more than 15,000 IT contractors and draws on data collected from recruitment projects carried out by Hays Poland in 2025.
