“As GenAI and AI begin to drive real transformation, we must be ready to take advantage.” EPAM Systems management announced major investments in AI, and noted that Ukraine, despite the war, is operating at a high level of profitability

«Ukraine is an interesting case to follow given the geopolitical environment. While headcount remains flat year-over-year, in the fourth quarter we saw consistent net additions for the first time since the Russian invasion. We believe this is a positive signal that indicates the comfort level of our customers and their desire to return to some of our traditional locations,» Peterson said. Ukraine, he said, is still operating at a high level of profitability. «So we feel good about the business overall, but the pricing situation is still putting pressure on our gross margin and ultimately our adjusted operating income,» he noted.

Arkady Dobkin added that the growth of the team in Ukraine is a positive signal that indicates the level of comfort of the company’s clients and their desire to return to some of the company’s traditional regions. Recall, in Ukraine, EPAM Systems is the largest IT company by the number of employees. However, since January 2022, the company has reduced its workforce by 4,230 employees. In the second half of 2024, the outflow of specialists from EPAM Ukraine almost stopped. The company hired more than 1,000 specialists, of which 508 are juniors and 590 are mids, according to DOU. Before that, it filled vacancies mostly with internal personnel, attracting only niche experts from outside.

The company only released aggregated figures for Europe (27,850), America (10,050) and Asia (9,900), with India (7,300) being singled out.

Arkady Dobkin also spoke about the company’s further strategy for development and investments in AI technologies.

«We understand that investing in GenAI is a big investment in training, changing the mindset of the development team, how our new software will be built. It is in a transitional period when the market itself does not bring too many stable solutions for creating a new type of software. We believe that we cannot lose this investment now. Because as soon as GenAI and AI start to drive real transformation, we must be ready to take advantage of this,» Dobkin emphasized.

He also spoke about the financial achievements from the implementation of AI solutions. According to Dobkin, in the fourth quarter of last year, the company received about $50 million from the implementation of such programs, while in previous quarters, revenues were significantly lower.

According to Dobkin, EPAM is currently one of the few AI service providers «that can demonstrate large-scale programs with proven ROI in artificial intelligence.»

Meanwhile, during 2024, EPAM Ukraine attracted more than 70 new clients. Partly, thanks to AI projects. «Interest in artificial intelligence among our clients has grown exponentially,» said regional delivery manager Nazariy Popov in May 2024.

Previously, dev.ua reported that EPAM’s global staff grew due to the expansion of the Indian office and M&A.

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