Despite a difficult market environment, industrial companies do not want to put investments on hold. According to the ABB Trends 2026/2027 report, nearly seven in ten companies plan to maintain or increase their capital expenditure. One of the key motivations is high energy prices, which are cited by half of the surveyed companies. Businesses identify energy efficiency, production automation, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity as their main investment priorities.
Industry in the broad sense currently accounts for more than 20% of Poland’s GDP, around 45% of exports and 4 million jobs. However, its condition increasingly depends on companies’ ability to automate production, use data, reduce energy costs and implement new technologies. Companies that remain at the stage of isolated implementations and pilot projects may begin to lose their competitive advantage in the coming years.
“The further digitalisation process should be driven primarily by companies’ efforts to optimise costs. Digitalisation makes it possible to analyse processes and implement new, efficient solutions, which is necessary for a company to grow and maintain its competitiveness in the market,” says Stanisław Tański, President of ABB Sp. z o.o., in an interview with Newseria.
In ABB’s survey, conducted among 145 representatives of Polish industry, 51% of respondents assessed the level of automation in their organisation as minimal or low. Although almost half use SCADA/DCS systems, which are used to monitor, control and automate industrial processes, in many cases these solutions were implemented more than ten years ago. This prevents companies from managing energy and production costs with full efficiency.
“The main problem today is the situation on the energy market, related not only to energy prices, but also to the security and stability of supply. At the same time, as our survey shows, these are the main areas of planned investment,” says Stanisław Tański.
High energy and raw material costs are indicated as a problem by 48% of the surveyed companies, while 68% see them as a threat to their own profitability. Under these conditions, companies are increasingly reluctant to pass rising costs on to customers. Instead, they are looking for lasting sources of savings, primarily through the use of technology.
According to the ABB Trends 2026/2027 report, 35% of industrial companies in Poland plan to increase investment spending, while 33% intend to keep it at the current level. At the same time, 60% of respondents plan investments in the modernisation of power infrastructure.
“Energy efficiency ranks first among investment priorities due to the market situation and dynamically changing energy prices. We are responding to these needs and are ready to cooperate in this area. We have a broad portfolio of solutions that make it possible to increase the efficiency of production processes,” says Sebastian Skała, Drives Business Director at ABB in Poland.
In the area of energy efficiency, which is indicated as a priority by around 40% of respondents, investments to date have mainly covered solutions enabling ongoing monitoring of energy consumption and renewable energy sources. Much less frequently, investments have focused on high-efficiency electric motors or energy storage facilities.
Automation and digitalisation rank second among investment priorities. In the area of automation, solutions that increase process control and reduce the risk of downtime dominate. Modern SCADA/DCS systems have been implemented by almost half of companies, while remote monitoring and diagnostics of equipment have been introduced by 45%.
Experts emphasise that this shows Polish companies have already built the foundations of digitalisation, but are only beginning to use data for predictive process management and the automation of operational decisions. In this model, technologies such as artificial intelligence, data analytics and deeper integration of IT and OT systems will play an increasingly important role.
“We are also seeing visible investment in cybersecurity. This is becoming an increasingly clear trend, because automation and digitalisation require proper protection of production processes and data,” adds Sebastian Skała.
The ABB report shows that more than one third of companies have already experienced cybersecurity incidents, while almost the same proportion said they preferred not to comment on the issue. As a result, entrepreneurs naturally plan to increase investment in this area as well.
Artificial intelligence is also gaining importance, although its use remains limited. Eurostat data show that European companies still use AI to a limited extent. In 2025, less than 20% of enterprises in the EU, mostly large companies, used artificial intelligence technologies.
“AI is slowly entering the industrial sphere. This trend will develop dynamically. We just need to give it a little time,” says the Drives Business Director at ABB in Poland.
