The first phenomenon is the explosion of the implementation of artificial intelligence. The KPMG study shows that already 82 percent companies in Poland use AI even to a minimum, and the percentage of implementation almost tripled during the year – from 28 to 82 percent. It is worth noting, however, that one -third of these implementations are pilot (27 percent are “small implementation”), which means that companies are still testing business value models.
This experience is not only Polish. In a global McKinsey study, as much as 78 percent respondents are declared by the use of AI, but only 1 percent. He defines his generative AI implementation as “mature”. Most still do not see in financial results the full materialization of the promise of these technologies.
The list of these numbers also shows that the scale of adoption does not automatically translate on a scale of effects. Polish enterprises do not stand here from the world mainstream, but they must quickly move from the phases of the experiment to the scaling phases if they want to maintain the first traffic advantage.
2. What next with the cloud?
The second phenomenon is the saturation of the cloud market. Cloud services are used by 95 percent surveyed companies – by 24 percentage points more than a year ago. This makes the cloud the most commonly used technology in Poland. Against the background of the European Union, the rate of adoption is impressive, but the dynamic braking signals approaching the saturation limit. At the same time, Gartner forecasts that the global expenditure of end users on public cloud services will increase in 2025 to $ 723 billion, i.e. by over 21 percent. year on year. The growth is mainly driven by the demand for computing powers for AI.
For Polish companies, this means that flexibility released thanks to the cloud becomes the norm of competition, and the differentiating point is no longer “or”, but “how to” optimally manage a multiple environment and its costs. Characteristic, the fears of KPMG respondents move from security issues towards the daily efficiency of services (36 % of indications). It is a signal that The discussion moves from the “or use” level “how to guarantee uninterrupted quality”.
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3. Strategic paradox
The third application concerns a strategic paradox. The main transformation rate increased to 5.5/10, but at the same time the “digitization strategy” dimension has dropped to a historic at least 2.9 points (-1.4 points y/y).
The percentage of companies with a formal strategy document increased from 27 to 46 percent, but 27 percent. enterprises plans to limit transformation budgets, a 23 percent reduction of full -time jobs of digitization specialists. There is a similar tendency in the world. In the latest Chief Transformation Officer Study Deloitte Monitor, respondents say about a 2.5-fold increase in transformation budgets in the last two years. At the same time, they emphasize the growing pressure of rapid materialization of effects and shortening the horizons of the return.
In practice, this translates into the revision of the portfolio of many initiatives. Investments move from “Greenfield” projects to smaller, better measurable modules, which is part of the “Learning by Ding” model, described in the Polish report by KPMG as the dominant tactic of companies.
4. Safety concerns
The last phenomenon is A growing safety gap. Only 40 percent Polish leaders believe that their organization is well protected against cyber threads. This is a decrease by as much as 17 percentage points year on year. Paradoxically, the percentage of companies with a dedicated cyber security department increased to 56 percent, which proves the growing consciousness, but also that even specialized units do not keep up with the scale of risk.
The global image is equally disturbing. According to ISC2, the world is already missing 4.8 million cyber security specialists, and IBM estimates the average cost of a single violation of data at a record $ 4.88 million.
In Europe, this tension turns into regulations. Until October 17, 2024, EU countries were to introduce provisions in accordance with the NIS2 Directive, which extends the obligations to report incidents and raises penal thresholds. Poland has not met these deadlines and the relevant provisions introducing the directive have not yet been adopted. The Ministry of Digitization, responsible for NIS2 in our country, has not yet provided accurate information about when it plans to complete work on adopting appropriate laws.
Polish companies cannot, however, limit themselves to declaration. It will be necessary to formally improve risk management standards and integrate Cyber teams with AI and Cloud programs.
From the perspective of boards and supervisory boards, all four trends are in a common narrative. Specifically: technology ceases to be a separate strategy segment and becomes its skeleton. The most important will be the transition from spontaneous experiments to an ordered and flexible management model.
Otherwise, the growing costs of cyberincidal and deficiency of highly qualified staff can in a short time reduce the benefits of technological acceleration, which is provided, among others, by implementation of artificial intelligence.
Author: Grzegorz Kubera, Business Insider Polska journalist
