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Week in review 30.01: the government appointed an advisory team PL/AI Artificial Intelligence for Poland
The Polish Ministry of Digitization establishes an advisory team PL/AI Artificial Intelligence for Poland, Employers of the Republic of Poland create the Polish Council of Entrepreneurs, and another wave of layoffs shakes the global IT market. What else did we live through last week?
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Summary
The Polish government has formed an advisory team, PL/AI Artificial Intelligence for Poland, led by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digitization Krzysztof Gawkowski, to develop AI recommendations for state improvement.
The Employers of the Republic of Poland have also established an advisory body, the Polish Council of Entrepreneurs, led by Rafał Brzoska, for transparent dialogue with the government and social partners.
British startup Simplyhealth uses generative AI to respond to customer emails, with personalized responses taking less time than using a template.
Meta is constructing an $800 million AI-optimized data center in Indiana, set to launch in 2026 and expected to provide about 100 jobs.
In 2023, the number of insolvent companies in Poland reached a record level of 4701, reflecting the country's overall macroeconomic situation.
The CBM Indicator survey for the Confederation of Leviathan shows mixed feelings among company managers, with 61% seeing a deterioration in business conditions, while 59% are optimistic about the future.
The Inovo team's fourth edition of the map of the Polish VC and CVC ecosystem shows market trends and the number of funds actively looking for ways to invest in Poland.
In the IT sector, the most desired skills in 2024 are knowledge of the Java language, JavaScript, SQL, Python and .NET/C#, along with AI and big data.
The technology industry experienced a surge in layoffs in January 2024, with over 24.5 thousand people losing their jobs at major companies like Salesforce, Google, Microsoft, and SAP.
Apple is making changes to its iOS offering, Safari, and App Store in the European Union due to impending antitrust restrictions, allowing customers to download software from outside the App Store, use alternative payment systems, and easily choose a new default web browser.
Private equity refers to funds invested in assets not listed on public markets, with some firms investing in startups at an early stage, while others focus on purchasing alternative assets like airports, toll roads, intellectual property rights, and carbon credits.
From the Editorial Board
The Polish government does not want to lag behind in the area of AI development. On January 29 at a press conference, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digitization Krzysztof Gawkowski established the advisory team PL/AI Artificial Intelligence for Poland. Its task will be to develop recommendations for the use of AI to improve the state. You can read more about this in the PL/AI Artificial Intelligence for Poland section.
At the same time, the organization Employers of the Republic of Poland established its advisory body - Polish Council of Entrepreneurs. Its chairman became Rafał Brzoska, and the PCE itself is to be responsible for a transparent dialogue with the government and social partners and strive to build an innovative and sustainable future for Poland. More on this topic in the Business and startups in Poland section.
In this issue of the Digitized Weekly Review, we also write about the wave of layoffs in the technology industry, generative AI responding to customer emails in real time, and about AI integration with Google Ads.
Welcome!
Weekly news review
PL/AI Artificial Intelligence for Poland
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digitization Krzysztof Gawkowski established an advisory teamPL/AI Artificial Intelligence for Poland, which will develop recommendations for the use of AI to improve specific areas of state activity. The team of top scientists, entrepreneurs, and programmers who have achieved global success in the field of AI will permanently advise the ministry. The initiator of PL/AI is Miron Mironiuk, and the team also includes: Agnieszka Mikołajczyk-Bareła, Kamila Staryga, Marek Cygan, Tomasz Czajka, Łukasz Kidziński and Karol Kurach.
– I believe that together we can make AI used to significantly improve the functioning of important administrative actions for citizens, and consequently to improve the lives of Poles – said at the inaugural conference Krzysztof Gawkowski, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Digitization.
The initiators of the group identified at the start 10 areas in which artificial intelligence has a chance to realistically and measurably improve the functioning of the state - these are issues in the field of security, education, public health, effective state and development, in which AI can increase efficiency, eliminate barriers or better planning. The team will prepare recommendations and share the knowledge of artificial intelligence practitioners with the government administration.
"120 years ago, thanks to the invention of electricity, the United States overtook Great Britain as the richest country in the world. Today, thanks to the best engineers, Poland has a chance to utilize the artificial intelligence revolution and become one of the 10 richest countries in the world by the middle of this century" - said Miron Mironiuk, the team leader, at the inaugural conference.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Generative AI in digital marketing. Google introduces the Gemini model to Google Ads
Google starts the year 2024 with a bang. At the end of January, the company announced on its blog about the integration of the Google Ads advertising system with the recently presented generative artificial intelligence model Gemini. The aim of the new functionality is to provide additional support to agencies and marketers in creating and optimizing effective content within advertising campaigns in the search engine. "The new system has been designed to support marketers in building better campaigns through conversations with our AI chatbot" - we read on the Google blog in the post by Shashiego Thakura, Managing Director at Google Ads.
The first company uses generative AI to respond to customer emails
The British startup Simplyhealth announced that it has become the first company to use generative AI to respond to all customer emails, and personalized responses take a fraction of the time needed to respond using a template. The medical industry company had previously used another AI technology to handle 20-30% of inquiries - said Dan Eddie, Simplyhealth's customer service director. However, the generative AI Einstein GPT from Salesforce - unlike technologies using ready-made templates - can understand customer questions and provide a personalized response - he stated. AI has already responded to 500 email messages sent to Simplyhealth.
Netscope: The use of AI in companies increased by 400% in 2023.
According to the latest Netskope report, currently every tenth employee of companies from various sectors uses at least one generative AI application per month. This is a 400 percent increase compared to last year. ChatGPT, on the other hand, was indicated as the most popular tool of this type, used by even 7% of the surveyed users.
Meta is building a data center entirely based on AI
Meta is building an $800 million data center in Indiana. The plant will be optimized for artificial intelligence service. The facility in Jeffersonville will house liquid-cooled equipment necessary to support the computing power of AI technologies. Meta has adapted many of its data centers for AI-based products, but this is the first time it is creating a facility specifically for this purpose. The new facility will be launched in 2026 and is expected to provide about 100 jobs.
Business and startups in Poland
The Polish Council of Entrepreneurs was established. Rafał Brzoska took the lead
The inaugural meeting of the Polish Council of Entrepreneurs (PRP) took place, which will be an advisory body to the Employers of Poland, consisting of representatives of the largest private companies in Poland. The PRP is to be responsible for, among other things, transparent dialogue with the government and social partners and strive to build a strong, innovative and sustainable future for Poland. Rafał Brzoska became the chairman of the PRP. The declaration of the Polish Council of Entrepreneurs also identified 10 actions that are to be its main objectives and principles. These include transparent social dialogue, predictability and clarity of law, and an efficient and fair tax system.
Record number of insolvent companies in Poland in 2023. What will 2024 bring?
In 2023, the Polish business sector faced a serious challenge. According to the report by the analytical company Coface, the number of insolvent companies reached a record level of 4701, which means an increase of 2 thousand companies compared to 2022. Grzegorz Sielewicz, the chief economist of Coface, notes that the increase in the number of insolvent companies in Poland is a reflection of the overall macroeconomic situation of the country. According to his analysis, 2024 may be equally difficult for Polish business. Rising operational costs pose a serious challenge for Polish enterprises, and sectors such as construction, trade, transport and production are most affected by this phenomenon.
Business Index: Companies rate the future better than the last half-year
The CBM Indicator survey for the Confederation of Leviathan reveals mixed feelings among company managers - 61% see a deterioration in business conditions, 59% are optimistic about the future, and 60% positively assess upcoming changes in the law. Over the past six months, 34% of companies have not noticed any significant changes in the conditions of their operations, with particular attention paid to regulatory and administrative aspects. Only 5% of companies noticed any improvement. Particularly negative perspective is presented by large enterprises, of which as many as 74% indicated a deterioration in conditions. This deterioration also affected 62% of small companies and 56% of medium-sized companies, indicating broadly based challenges in the business environment.
Inovo Fund presents The Ultimate Map of Polish Funding Ecosystem
The Inovo team has prepared the fourth edition of the map of the Polish VC and CVC ecosystem. The study shows market trends and the number of funds actively looking for ways to invest in Poland. The map is also intended to provide a hint for startups on which funds to approach with a cooperation proposal. Representatives of Inovo also point out the most important trends characterizing the VC market in Poland last year:
▸ 51 foreign VC funds invested in Polish startups, which is 40% less than in 2022 and 46% less than in 2021
▸ 46 local VC funds decided on equity financing, which is 25% less than in 2022 and 28% less than in 2021
▸ Only 3 new Polish VC funds were created: Avivo Capital, LSA Ventures and Radix Ventures.
Gap in implementations in Polish organizations. Blue Fox study
How many resources are wasted in the process of implementing assumptions and plans in Polish organizations? It turns out that a lot. The results of the study on the state of implementations in organizations, conducted by the Blue Fox team, indicate the main areas of gaps, barriers to effective implementation, and the tools and trends used. Key is to solve the issue of a sense of purpose, understanding, and systemic support for implementations within the organization, as well as a good diagnosis of the initial situation, a rational and engaging process of designing a strategy, plan or idea, and clear and open communication.
Job market
Work in IT. Here are the most desired skills in the industry in 2024.
At the top of the list of the most desired skills in the IT sector in 2024 is still knowledge of the Java language. It was indicated by as many as 27% of respondents - according to the latest edition of the Insights into Skills Management Assessment report created by the Polish training platform DevSkiller. Also among the sought-after skills are JavaScript (19% indications), SQL (8.5% indications), and Python and .NET/C#. A popular area, although not as much as last year's trends would suggest, is also AI and big data.
Wave of layoffs returns to the technology sector
According to data from the layoffs.fyi service, since the Covid-19 pandemic, the worst month in terms of layoffs was January 2023, when over 84 thousand people lost their jobs. Then the scale of reductions gradually fell to values below 10 thousand, but now this trend is reversing again. Just before the end of January 2024, the number of layoffs in the technology industry rose to over 24.5 thousand. The largest reductions affected global giants: Salesforce laid off 700 people in January, Google – a thousand, while Microsoft and SAP – respectively 1.9 thousand and 8 thousand people.
It's worth knowing
Apple is making changes to the App Store in the EU. It's about new antitrust regulations
Apple is making significant changes to its iOS offering, Safari and App Store in the European Union. The company has taken these steps because EU regulatory bodies will soon impose new antitrust restrictions on technology companies. Apple has announced that it will allow customers to download software from outside the App Store. It will also allow the use of alternative payment systems and make it easier to choose a new default web browser. The changes will be included in the iOS 17.4 operating system in March.
Digitized Editorial recommends
Social media traps. What is quietly sinking business?
Blindly following trends, lack of a clearly defined identity and vision or relying on too narrow success metrics. How not to fall into the most popular traps that lurk for brands on social media?
Social media traps are, in short, mistakes made by organizations in the field of marketing, public relations or advertising. They can include everything: from lack of quick response to comments or messages, to too many ads flooding users with unwanted content. Mistakes can also mean lack of engagement in relationships with followers and not using analytical tools to track campaign results. All these problems can lead to a bad user experience and ultimately a failed marketing campaign.
So what to watch out for? What to remember when responsible for the success of promotional activities on social media? And finally - how not to get caught in one of the many traps that are not talked about as often as the need for two-factor authentication?
This week we also recommend the latest video from the How Money Works? channel, in which the author explains the backstage and the way private equity funds operate.
"Private equity is nothing more than funds investing in assets not listed on public markets. The diversity of private equity companies is huge. Some of them invest funds in startups at a very early stage and provide them with money for business development and acquiring new customers. These companies usually identify themselves as venture capital funds, but it is still a type of private equity. Other private equity companies focus on buying alternative assets, such as airports, toll roads, intellectual property rights, and carbon credits. [...] There are even companies called fund of funds, which invest in other private equity funds".
More about the activities of private equity companies in the video below.
Editor-in-chief of Digitized. He has been associated with journalism for almost a third of his life; he worked for the Polish editions of Playboy, CKM and Esquire magazines, as well as Well.pl and naTemat.pl services. In his texts, he tries to understand reality and describe it objectively. He remains skeptical about many phenomena, but is not afraid to admit a mistake and change his mind. A native of Warsaw. Privately, he is a seeker of sense in nonsense and order amidst entropy. He likes wise words.
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Katarzyna Derka
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