There are already about 6,100 artificial intelligence specialists in Ukraine, and their number is growing even during a full-scale war. AI HOUSE together with the Ministry of Digital Affairs looked at who these people are, where they work, and what is missing for Ukraine to become a regional leader in AI.
There are already about 6,100 artificial intelligence specialists in Ukraine, and their number is growing even during a full-scale war. AI HOUSE together with the Ministry of Digital Affairs looked at who these people are, where they work, and what is missing for Ukraine to become a regional leader in AI.
This is evidenced by the data of the study «AI Talents of Ukraine: Experience, Challenges and Vision of the Future», which AI HOUSE conducted with the support of the Ministry of Digital Transformation; the full report is published on the organization’s website.
In two years, the number of Ukrainian AI specialists has increased from approximately 5,200 to 6,100 people (with a possible error of several percent). Half of those surveyed have been working in this field for at least three years, meaning they are no longer just students and enthusiasts, but experienced engineers. At the same time, 20% of specialists are now working abroad, and some left during the war.
The path to AI in Ukraine is quite diverse. Slightly more than half of respondents have a specialized higher education, the rest entered the industry through self-education and online courses. Every third specialist was previously a developer, so the market is actively replenished with switchers.
The study shows that Ukrainian engineers are rarely limited to one narrow direction: more than half work in several domains at once, and not only, for example, with computer vision or texts. Senior positions, such as Senior or Lead, usually require three to ten years of practice.
Some specialists are already working directly for victory. Approximately 17% of respondents have experience in DefenseTech — creating solutions for drones, intelligence and data analytics for the front. Another 41% work in product companies, and 13% — in large businesses outside of IT: agriculture, finance, telecom, industry. There are not many AI projects in the public sector yet, only about 2% of engineers are involved there, but the Ministry of Digital Affairs expects demand to grow along with the launch of state AI services and a national language model.
Science and education remain important for the community: 12% of respondents already have a PhD, and the same number are studying for postgraduate studies. The authors of the report believe that the next step is to deploy AI laboratories in universities, invest in R&D, and create large Ukrainian-language datasets on which to train your own models.
More than half of respondents believe that, given the right conditions, Ukraine can become a regional center for the development of artificial intelligence. The results of the AI HOUSE study will form the basis of the Strategy for the Development of AI in Ukraine until 2030 and should help the state understand how not to lose these specialists and turn their experience into a competitive advantage for the country.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how Vyriy Industries co-founder and CEO Oleksiy Babenko explained how the war economy, long contract cycles, and the origin of companies from volunteerism put pressure on salaries in deftech and why developers in the Ukrainian defense industry often earn less than their colleagues in the classic IT segment.
