Why Poland Attracts High-Value IT, SSC & GBS Investments – Europe’s Best Talent Arbitrage in 2026
Executive Summary: Poland has rapidly emerged as Europe’s premier destination for high-value IT, Shared Services Center (SSC), and Global Business Services (GBS) investments. In 2026, global enterprises and investors increasingly view Poland as Europe’s best talent arbitrage – offering world-class tech skills and business services at a highly competitive cost. This strategic advantage, combined with Poland’s nearshoring benefits, robust infrastructure, and innovation-friendly environment, has made it a magnet for advanced digital projects, IT staff augmentation, software development centers and operations setup. Poland’s evolution from a low-cost outsourcing locale to a strategic EU tech hub is underscored by data-driven insights: a vast skilled talent pool, strong economic fundamentals, and a track record of successful GBS and IT investments. The following analysis provides a 2026 perspective on why Poland continues to attract high-value IT, SSC, and GBS projects, blending strategic insight with clear data points to inform global B2B leaders, GBS executives, IT decision-makers, private equity partners, and transformation leads.
Poland: Europe’s Best Talent Arbitrage Opportunity in Tech and Business Services
Poland in 2026 continues to shine brightly on the global map of business services and IT investments. The country’s appeal lies in a unique combination of strong economic fundamentals, a large pool of skilled labor, and supportive investment incentives. As of 2025, Poland is the sixth-largest economy in the European Union based on GDP (PPP – a significant economic power trailing only Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands. Two decades of steady growth (with GDP triple the 2004 level) have transformed Poland into a stable, modern EU market with a highly innovative economy. Such stability and maturity give foreign investors confidence that their nearshoring projects and operations setup in Poland will benefit from predictability and a pro-business climate.
Crucially, Poland delivers what can be called “talent arbitrage”: companies gain access to top-tier human capital at a lower operational cost than Western Europe and USA. This is not simply outsourcing for cost savings – it is about value for money. Poland’s educated workforce and lower salary levels allow firms to optimize budgets without compromising quality. In fact, IT and software development services in Poland typically cost 30–40% less than in Western Europe (and even more compared to the US), while maintaining world-class output. This cost-quality balance means enterprises can scale up high-value functions – from advanced IT R&D to complex GBS processes – more efficiently in Poland than in higher-cost countries. The result is a compelling business case: Poland offers Western-quality capabilities at Central European cost, making it Europe’s best talent arbitrage locale for tech and business services in 2026.
Not surprisingly, global rankings reflect Poland’s rise as a premier investment hub. A recent Deloitte global survey ranked Poland as the world’s second most popular location for companies to establish service centers, behind only India. Poland is the top choice in Europe, outpacing traditional locales like Ireland or Spain. Key reasons cited include access to qualified experts, positive service delivery experiences, and Poland’s EU membership guaranteeing data security and regulatory compliance. In essence, Poland has evolved from a cost-focused outsourcing option into a strategic nearshoring partner for high-value operations – a country where GBS centers are “not just back offices for cheap processing, but true business partners” driving innovation. For executives mapping out global expansion or transformation, Poland offers a proven, data-backed value proposition: a stable EU base with unmatched talent-to-cost advantages poised to deliver strategic impact.
Deep and Diverse Talent Pool Powered by World-Class Skills
At the heart of Poland’s attraction is its deep talent pool and the exceptional quality of its human capital. Poland is the most populous country in Central & Eastern Europe and one of the largest in the EU, which translates into a significant demographic advantage for investors. Over 58.3% % of Poles are of working age, ensuring a strong labor supply, and approximately 6% of the population aged 25-34 holds a higher education degree – a metric of educational attainment on par with Western Europe. This foundation yields hundreds of thousands of skilled professionals ready to support IT, SSC, and GBS operations. In fact, Poland’s ICT workforce exceeds 650,000 tech professionals, the largest in the CEE region. Each year, Polish universities and technical schools add tens of thousands of graduates to this pipeline: about 40,000+ IT and engineering graduates annually, including specialists in fields like computer science, data analytics, and engineering. Such volume and renewal of talent ensure that companies setting up software development or service centers in Poland have a steady stream of qualified candidates to hire.
Quality of talent is where Poland truly differentiates itself. Polish engineers and developers have a sterling reputation globally. Various benchmarks consistently place Poland among the world’s elite in tech skills and problem-solving. For example, Poland maintains a top-3 global ranking for programming skills (based on international coding competitions and rankings). Moreover, in the Emerging Europe Future of IT 2023 report, Poland was ranked #1 in Europe for tech talent availability – reflecting not just quantity but readiness and breadth of skills in the labor market. Companies that engage Polish IT teams often note their strong fundamentals in computer science and ability to tackle complex challenges. This is echoed by international accolades: Polish programmers have repeatedly scored top honors in contests like Google Code Jam and the ACM ICPC, showcasing world-class algorithmic thinking and creativity.
Language and cultural skills further boost Poland’s talent appeal. Polish specialists are known for excellent English proficiency and multilingual capabilities, often speaking two or more languages – a vital asset in GBS and support roles. (Poland consistently ranks in the top tier of global English proficiency indices, indicating a “high” level of English skill nationally.) Equally important, years of close cooperation with Western firms have instilled Western business culture acumen in the workforce. Polish professionals are comfortable with international management practices and agile methodologies. This means a nearshoring team in Poland integrates smoothly with global operations, requiring minimal cultural adjustment. As a PAIH investment officer aptly noted, “ultimately it is people who determine the success of a venture”, and Polish people bring innovative thinking, adaptability to new technologies, and a deep understanding of international standards. From software engineers to financial analysts, the talent in Poland combines technical excellence with soft skills and business savvy – exactly what high-value IT and GBS functions require.
Crucially, Poland’s talent base is also diverse and future-proofed. The country leads Europe in the number of women pursuing STEM degrees, reflecting an inclusive pipeline of tech talent. Additionally, an influx of foreign professionals has augmented Poland’s talent pool in recent years – nearly 1 million foreign workers, including highly educated individuals from Ukraine, Belarus and beyond, have come to Poland, contributing skills and alleviating labor shortages in IT and engineering. All these factors ensure that in 2026, Poland’s investors have access to a wide, sustainable supply of skilled professionals who can drive both current operations and future innovations.
Cost-Effective Talent Without Compromise on Quality
While talent quality is world-class, Poland’s cost structure provides a compelling salary arbitrage for companies – the core of its “talent arbitrage” appeal. Hiring in Poland allows organizations to reduce operating costs by 20-40% compared to Western Europe and even more to USA for comparable IT and business roles. For example, the fully loaded salary of a software developer or data engineer in Poland can be one-third lower than that of an equivalent professional in Germany or the UK. This gap is driven by Poland’s lower cost of living and average wage levels, as well as favorable exchange rates, yet Polish engineers deliver output on par with their Western counterparts. The bottom line: Poland offers cost-efficiency without sacrificing quality.
This cost advantage extends across functions. In the software development and IT services domain, rates in Poland are significantly more competitive than in high-cost tech hubs. Companies report that contracting a Polish development team or augmenting staff locally can save substantial budget, allowing them to reinvest savings into innovation or hire additional talent. Similarly, in the GBS/SSC sector, Poland’s salary levels for finance, HR, analytics, and customer support roles remain considerably lower than in Western Europe and USA, enabling 24/7 multilingual support and complex process delivery at a fraction of the cost of onshore teams. Notably, office space and infrastructure costs in Poland’s major cities also tend to be lower than in Western capitals, further improving the total cost of operations for investors establishing centers.
However, what makes Poland’s cost proposition especially attractive is that these savings do not come with a trade-off in output. Businesses often find that Polish teams are highly productive, thanks to strong work ethics and robust technical training. Lower attrition rates in Poland (relative to some other outsourcing destinations) also contribute to cost-effectiveness – teams remain stable, institutional knowledge is retained, and recruitment/training costs are minimized. Moreover, Poland’s government actively supports cost-efficiency for high-value projects through incentives. Companies investing in new centers or R&D operations can benefit from generous state aid – in some cases up to 50% of eligible investment costs – and special economic zone tax breaks. There are also R&D tax relief programs that effectively subsidize research and innovation staffing. These mechanisms, along with EU structural funds for skills and infrastructure, enhance the ROI of locating projects in Poland.
In sum, Poland enables a form of smart arbitrage: leveraging a cost base that is significantly lower than Western Europe’s while tapping a talent pool of equal caliber. This is a key reason why high-value operations – from cutting-edge software engineering teams to advanced analytics hubs – have flourished in Poland. Enterprises can optimize costs and maintain stringent quality standards, a combination that directly boosts competitiveness. As one industry analysis noted, Polish developers provide “exceptional value” by combining competitive costs with superior quality, making Poland an attractive alternative to expensive Western markets. In 2026’s economically cautious climate, this balance of cost and quality positions Poland as a strategically smart choice for executives aiming to do more with their budgets without compromise.
Thriving IT & Digital Ecosystem Fueling Innovation (Cloud and Data Strengths)
Beyond cost and labor supply, Poland offers a thriving IT ecosystem and innovation culture that add long-term value for tech investments. Over the past decade, Poland’s IT sector has expanded rapidly, creating an environment where both global tech giants and homegrown startups prosper. By 2025 the country’s ICT market was valued at roughly USD $31 billion, reflecting strong demand for software, services, and technology solutions. There are now thousands of IT companies in Poland – from nearly 1,300 software development firms catering to international clients to numerous product startups making their mark in fintech, AI, gaming, and other domains. This ecosystem means that investors setting up operations in Poland join a mature network of tech vendors, innovation partners, and experienced service providers. It’s easy to find collaborators, whether you need a cloud consulting partner or a UX design studio, within Poland’s tech community.
One of Poland’s standout strengths is in cloud and data capabilities, which are critical for modern digital operations. Global cloud providers have recognized Poland’s potential: Microsoft is investing $1 billion to establish its first Central European data center region in Poland, and Google has pledged to make Warsaw the “cloud capital of Europe” by building its largest cloud engineering hub on the continent there. These landmark projects not only bring cutting-edge infrastructure (local Azure and Google Cloud regions for faster services and compliance) but also spur development of cloud-skilled talent. Indeed, Poland is now home to tens of thousands of cloud architects, DevOps engineers, and data specialists certified on AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. The availability of such skills means companies can confidently undertake complex cloud migrations or big data deployments by leveraging local Polish expertise.
Poland also excels in the broader data science and AI realm. According to industry estimates, the country now hosts over 50,000 professionals in AI, data engineering, and data analysis – putting Poland among Europe’s leaders for advanced data talent. Many Polish engineers are proficient in modern data tech stacks (e.g. Apache Hadoop, Spark, Kafka, Snowflake, and various machine learning frameworks). This is reinforced by a vibrant data science community, with frequent hackathons, meetups, and strong academic programs focusing on AI and big data. As a result, companies outsourcing or augmenting data engineering tasks to Poland find teams that can hit the ground running with the latest technologies. From building cloud-native analytics platforms to developing AI algorithms, Polish tech teams are delivering innovation for global clients. Notably, 90% of business service centers in Poland have now implemented AI or intelligent automation in some form, underscoring how deeply digital transformation is embraced in the Polish operations landscape.
The culture of innovation in Poland is further evidenced by its startup success stories and R&D achievements. Cities like Warsaw, Kraków, and Wrocław host dynamic startup scenes – producing tech companies in fields like edtech, SaaS, and biotech that attract international investment. Meanwhile, many multinational corporations have located their R&D labs and innovation centers in Poland to capitalize on local genius. For example, Visa chose Poland for a major global technology & product hub (announced to create 1,500 specialist jobs), and Intel cosiders launching a $4+ billion semiconductor facility in Poland – each a vote of confidence in the country’s tech prowess. Polish cities compete to brand themselves as tech hubs: Kraków is known for its prowess in data science and finance IT, Wrocław for engineering and automotive IT, Tri-City (Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot) for digital and fintech, etc. This regional spread means investors can select locations within Poland that align best with their industry focus while still tapping the national pool of innovation. Overall, Poland’s thriving IT and innovation ecosystem – from cloud infrastructure to skilled talent and startup energy – provides fertile ground for companies seeking not just cost savings, but a platform for growth, digital transformation, and cutting-edge development in Europe.
Booming SSC and GBS Sector Moving Up the Value Chain
Poland’s success is perhaps most visible in its booming SSC/GBS sector, which has become one of the country’s economic pillars. Over the last 15+ years, Poland has grown into a global hub for shared services and business process centers, hosting operations for many Fortune 500 firms across finance, IT, analytics, and more. As of early 2025, Poland was home to 2,081 business service centers owned by 1,258 investors from 50 countries – a number that continues to rise. For perspective, more than 480,000 people are directly employed in these IT/SSC/GBS centers, up 6.2% year-on-year despite global economic uncertainties. If one includes allied service teams outside formal centers, the total employment in Poland’s broader business services sector reaches an estimated 2.3 million. These figures underscore Poland’s status as the largest GBS talent pool in Europe.
What’s truly noteworthy is how the nature of work in Polish centers has evolved. Poland’s GBS and outsourcing industry has decisively moved up the value chain in recent years. No longer focused on basic BPO tasks, a majority of services delivered from Poland are now knowledge-intensive and advanced. Nearly 59% of services provided by the sector today are classified as knowledge-intensive – encompassing areas like complex financial planning, marketing analytics, R&D support, and more. Over 54% of processes handled are mid-office or high-complexity tasks such as multi-dimensional planning, cybersecurity, and advanced data analytics. This marks a sharp shift from a decade ago, and it “perfectly illustrates the ongoing evolution of Poland’s image – from a market competing on low costs to a strategic location for highly specialized projects,” as one industry leader observed. In practical terms, global companies now entrust their Polish centers with critical functions: e.g. a center in Kraków might manage worldwide cloud operations, while a Warsaw GBS hub might develop AI-driven risk models for the enterprise. The talent arbitrage here is not just about cost, but about tapping into expertise that adds value to the business.
Poland’s leadership in the GBS arena is recognized worldwide. It consistently ranks among the top three global locations for GBS investments, alongside giants like India and the US. This is an astonishing feat for a country of Poland’s size, and it speaks to reliability and results delivered by Polish centers. Significantly, Poland’s centers have become innovation partners: many have expanded beyond back-office work to include R&D labs, Centers of Excellence, and product development teams under the same roof. A common trajectory is that a company sets up an SSC for processes, then, impressed by performance, adds new functions such as an engineering design center or a data science unit in Poland. Indeed, investors who “placed their trust in Poland” often expand their footprint – adding production plants or R&D operations – and even relocate global roles to Poland because of the talent and efficiency found here.
Another strength of Poland’s SSC/GBS sector is its geographical spread and scalability. While Warsaw and Kraków are the two most mature hubs (each now boasting over 100,000 service sector jobs), at least nine other Polish cities host more than 10,000 service sector employees each. Cities like Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk (Tri-City), Łódź, Katowice, and others offer robust infrastructure, universities, and their own talent pools. This multi-city model means investors can choose a location that best fits their needs (costs in smaller cities can be even lower) while still accessing Poland’s overall talent network. The fact that 55 new service centers opened in 2024 alone, plus 6 more in Q1 2025, including in various regions, shows the continued confidence and capacity for growth across the country. Supported by organizations like ABSL (Association of Business Service Leaders) and government agencies, the GBS sector in Poland has a strong ecosystem for knowledge sharing and best practices, ensuring new investors hit the ground running.
In summary, Poland’s SSC/GBS sector is a high-value, mature industry that offers investors a ready-made platform for operational excellence. By 2026, Poland is not just absorbing low-level tasks; it is designing solutions, innovating processes, and leading global operations from its service centers. For GBS and transformation leaders worldwide, this means Poland is an ideal location to consolidate or upscale complex operations – with confidence that the necessary talent and expertise are readily available.
Nearshoring Advantages: Proximity, Cultural Fit & Collaboration
One of Poland’s greatest appeals for European and transatlantic firms is the clear nearshoring advantage it provides. Located in the heart of Europe, Poland offers geographical, temporal, and cultural proximity that facilitates seamless collaboration with Western headquarters. For companies in Western Europe, Poland is just a short flight away (2 hours from London or Paris to Warsaw, for example), making it easy for executives to visit teams or for Polish staff to travel for on-site training. The time zone is virtually the same as continental Europe and only one hour ahead of the UK, ensuring real-time communication with minimal inconvenience. Even U.S. East Coast operations find a significant workday overlap with Poland, far better than with Asian outsourcing locations. This proximity enhances agility – cross-border teams can communicate in-sync, solve problems quickly, and maintain a unified company culture.
Culturally, Poland aligns closely with Western business norms. As an EU member for over 20 years, Poland shares the legal frameworks and standards of Western Europe. Data protection (GDPR compliance), intellectual property laws, and business regulations in Poland match those in other EU countries, giving companies a high degree of comfort and governance certainty. Furthermore, Polish professionals are culturally attuned to Western work practices, as noted earlier – they value transparency, punctuality, and initiative in ways that mesh well with UK, US, or German teams. This cultural fit reduces the “distance” in offshoring; many firms report that their Polish nearshore teams feel like a natural extension of the home office rather than an outsourced vendor. Language is also a non-issue: English is the de facto business language in Poland’s IT and GBS sector, and many Poles also speak German, French, or other European languages, enabling multi-country support from one location.
When it comes to IT staff augmentation, Poland’s nearshoring edge is particularly evident. Companies can rapidly extend their development or IT support teams with Polish talent, either by hiring contractors or partnering with Poland-based IT service providers. The close time zone means augmented Polish engineers attend daily stand-ups, planning meetings, and troubleshooting sessions alongside their Western colleagues with ease. Unlike far-off outsourcing, nearshore staff augmentation in Poland allows for tight integration – from agile software sprints to DevOps cycles – without delays or late-night coordination calls. Additionally, the physical closeness means team members can periodically meet face-to-face. It’s not uncommon for a UK fintech, for instance, to have Polish developers fly in for a week of design workshops, or vice versa, strengthening team cohesion. This collaborative ease is a key reason Poland is preferred over more distant outsourcing locales for high-complexity IT projects that require ongoing interaction and agility.
Poland’s central location also offers practical operational advantages for running a business. The country lies at a logistical crossroads of Europe, enabling efficient distribution and regional support. Many companies using Poland as a base can serve both Western and Eastern European markets promptly. Poland’s infrastructure – highways, rail, and airports – has been modernized extensively with EU funds, meaning moving people and goods is straightforward. In a GBS context, being in the EU means no barriers to handling EU customer data or processes, which can be critical for compliance in finance or healthcare services. Moreover, Poland’s position and history make it adept at working with both Western European and emerging Eastern markets (such as in CIS or Middle East), giving companies a bridge for broader EMEA operations.
In short, Poland embodies the principle of “distance matters” in global operations – or rather, how minimizing distance adds value. Nearshoring to Poland combines the cost benefits of offshoring with the control and connectivity of a nearby team. The result is often superior outcomes: projects stay on schedule, quality remains high due to fewer communication gaps, and corporate culture is easier to maintain. For any European firm contemplating IT expansion or for American firms looking for an EU-based team, Poland’s nearshoring advantages translate into execution speed and managerial peace of mind that are hard to achieve with far-flung locations.
Robust Infrastructure and Business Climate for Seamless Operations Setup
Poland complements its talent and location advantages with a robust infrastructure and a business-friendly environment that make setting up operations (be it an R&D center, an SSC, or a cloud data hub) relatively straightforward. Over the past decade, Poland has heavily invested in modernizing its urban infrastructure to support the thriving business services industry. Key Polish cities boast high-quality office spaces and tech parks; in fact, between 2015 and 2025, total office space in Poland doubled from about 7 million to over 13 million square meters. International companies entering cities like Warsaw, Kraków, or Gdańsk find Grade A offices, co-working hubs, and technology campuses readily available to house their teams. Outside the capital, secondary cities have also developed attractive business parks often with lower rents and local incentives – ensuring real estate is not a bottleneck when scaling operations.
Telecommunications and digital infrastructure in Poland meet or exceed European standards. The country enjoys widespread high-speed internet connectivity (both mobile 5G networks in major cities and fiber broadband), which is vital for IT and BPO operations. Power and utilities are reliable in all the major industrial and office zones. These factors combined mean that companies can maintain 99.99% uptime for their service centers and IT systems in Poland, supported by local data centers and cloud regions (as noted, global cloud providers have established local infrastructure, further boosting resilience and performance for operations in Poland). For organizations considering cloud and data-heavy operations, Poland’s evolving tech infrastructure – including planned new hyperscale data centers by Microsoft and others – ensures they can deploy advanced workloads locally with confidence in security and latency.
Poland’s business climate and government support are another pivotal draw. The government, along with regional investment agencies, actively welcomes foreign direct investment and has put in place a range of incentives and facilitation measures. For instance, companies launching new investments can tap into the Polish Investment Zone incentives, which may include multi-year tax exemptions or grants, especially for projects in high-tech or in less developed regions. As JLL research highlights, Poland’s permissible level of state aid is among the highest in the EU, allowing, for example, large enterprises to receive support covering up to 50% of eligible costs for a new project. Additionally, special Economic Zones and innovation clusters dot the country, offering infrastructure and tax benefits to IT parks, R&D centers, and manufacturing plus services campuses. Many investors under-utilize these incentives due to unfamiliarity, but Poland provides clear application procedures and institutional support to guide companies in obtaining aid.
The regulatory environment in Poland is aligned with EU norms, which simplifies compliance for international companies. There are strong legal protections for investors – Poland ranks favorably in indices of ease of doing business in terms of things like starting a business, enforcing contracts, and trading across borders. It also has relatively low corporate tax (19%) and special lower tax rates for certain activities (like 5% IP Box for intellectual property-derived income) which can benefit tech firms. Importantly, Poland offers specific R&D incentives such as tax deductions for R&D expenses and cash rebates for innovative projects, making it one of the more competitive OECD countries for R&D tax treatment. As noted by industry experts, these fiscal measures, combined with Poland’s push towards e-government and digitization (e.g. the new National e-Invoice System), demonstrate a commitment to creating an investor-friendly, modern business environment.
Finally, Poland’s political stability and security as a NATO and EU member add an intangible but crucial layer of confidence for investors. In an era where geopolitical risk can disrupt far-off operations, Poland offers the reassurance of being in a secure, democratic country integrated within European structures. This stability, alongside controlled inflation and a solid banking system, means operational risks are minimized. Companies setting up operations can focus on execution rather than worrying about sudden political or economic upheavals. Moreover, Poland’s public institutions like the Polish Investment and Trade Agency (PAIH) actively assist new investors with site selection, workforce recruitment, and understanding legal processes, essentially serving as one-stop partners for successful setup. All these elements – infrastructure, incentives, stability, and support – contribute to an environment where establishing and running high-value operations in Poland is not only feasible but optimized for long-term success.
Outlook 2026: Poland’s Strategic Role in Nearshoring and Digital Transformation
As we step into 2026 and beyond, Poland’s role as a strategic hub for IT, SSC, and GBS investments is set to become even more pronounced. Several trends point to Poland’s continued rise. Firstly, the persistent tech talent shortage across Western Europe makes Poland’s talent arbitrage more valuable than ever. Many Western economies face aging workforces and digital skills gaps; by contrast, Poland’s combination of a young, educated population and talent inflows from its eastern neighbors will remain a vital talent reservoir for Europe. Companies driving digital transformation initiatives – in cloud, AI, and data analytics – will increasingly turn to nearshoring in Poland as a way to fill critical skill gaps in a timely manner. With the number of ICT specialists in Europe growing but still unable to meet demand, Poland’s ability to supply top-notch programmers, data scientists, and engineers at scale positions it as a strategic ally in Europe’s innovation drive.
Secondly, Poland’s internal development suggests it will keep climbing the value chain. The business services sector’s momentum towards specialization is likely to accelerate. By the end of 2025, exports per employee in Poland’s business services had already risen over 50% compared to a decade prior – a sign that each job is generating much higher value. Projections show this figure increasing further in 2026, indicating growing productivity and sophistication. The widespread adoption of AI and automation (over 74% of centers using intelligent automation) also means Polish operations will handle greater scope and complexity without proportional headcount increases, focusing human talent on higher-order tasks. We can expect Polish GBS centers to evolve into global centers of excellence in areas like cybersecurity, process re-engineering, and data-driven business insights. This aligns with a broader trend: Poland becoming not just a participant in digital transformation, but a leader in developing and implementing cutting-edge solutions for global enterprises.
The investment pipeline remains strong as well. Despite global FDI fluctuations, Poland has consistently ranked among the top European destinations for greenfield projects – in recent years even placing in the global top five by project value. In 2025, PAIH (Poland’s investment agency) facilitated a record number of investment projects, and this trajectory is expected to continue. Notably, the mix of investments is diversifying: while manufacturing (like automotive and electronics) grows, high-value service projects are also at an all-time high. As companies reconfigure supply chains and seek resilience, having a strong base in an EU location like Poland becomes part of the strategy. Global Business Services, IT R&D centers, and cloud infrastructure investments will keep flowing into Poland, drawn by the proven success of earlier entrants. We are already seeing big names expanding: for instance, Mastercard in late 2025 announced new professional services centers in Poland (Warsaw and Gdańsk) to leverage local talent pools. Such expansions by industry leaders send a signal that Poland will remain a prime location for high-value operations in the years ahead.
From a macro perspective, Poland’s government and business community are not complacent – they aim to reinforce the country’s strengths in the digital economy. Initiatives are underway to further improve STEM education, encourage more foreign tech specialists to relocate to Poland, and invest in emerging industries like electromobility, biotech, and green IT. Poland’s Vision 2030 and Digital Poland programs focus on nurturing innovation and closing any gaps (for example, continuing to improve ease of doing business and judicial efficiency). These forward-looking policies suggest that Poland’s ecosystem in 2026 and beyond will only get stronger for investors and partners.
In conclusion, Poland offers an exceptional mix of attributes that make it the go-to nearshoring and investment destination in Europe for technology and business services. Its large and skilled workforce, cost advantages, thriving IT/GBS ecosystem, and favorable business climate yield a talent arbitrage that savvy companies are leveraging for strategic gain. As of 2026, Poland is not just competing on cost – it’s competing on excellence, while still delivering cost efficiency. For global business leaders, GBS heads, IT strategists, and investors looking to optimize operations and drive transformation, Poland presents a compelling, future-proof platform. By capitalizing on Poland’s strengths in nearshoring, IT staff augmentation, software development expertise, operations setup, and cloud/data capabilities, organizations can position themselves to innovate faster and operate smarter in the coming years. The momentum is clear: Poland’s star will continue to rise as Europe’s premier high-value talent hub, making it a critical piece in the puzzle of global enterprise success in 2026 and beyond.
About Itelence
Itelence is an IT and BPO service provider from Poland specializing in IT staff augmentation, data engineering, managed services, and multilingual IT support. We deliver value through flexible cooperation models — from dedicated engineers to full managed teams — helping our clients scale efficiently and innovate faster.
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Poland: European key player in the business services sector
Itelence – Why Outsource Data Engineering to Poland
Poland world’s second most popular service centre location among global firms | Notes From Poland
Poland’s Most Prominent Tech Hubs Overview 2026 – Agiliway
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Deloitte – Most preferred location for global shared services
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PAIH – The Information Communication Technology Sector in Poland