Poland Ranks 24th in EU Business Environment Index as AI Adoption Drags Score Down

Poland placed 24th out of 29 ranked countries in the "Doing Business in Europe" 2026 report from Leadfeeder, the lowest position among the European Union's large economies. One of the main reasons is weak adoption of artificial intelligence among Polish companies.

What the Ranking Shows

The Leadfeeder ranking scores European countries on nine weighted indicators grouped into four categories, covering digital technology use, employment quality, innovation as measured by patent counts, and the level of business investment. The data comes from Eurostat, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and The Conference Board.

Sweden topped the list with a score of 74.8 points, ahead of Denmark (69.2) and the Netherlands (64.6). Finland and Germany round out the top tier. The report's authors point to Sweden as the country with the most balanced business environment and the highest share of workers in specialist knowledge occupations, reaching over half of the workforce.

Where Poland Loses Points

Poland's results vary sharply across categories. In cloud computing use it ranks 12th with a score of 54.7 percent, placing it in the middle of the European pack. It fares similarly in employment, where a 78.8 percent score puts it 13th, and in patents per million residents, where Poland ranks 14th with a score of 110.9.

The picture is far worse in two areas directly tied to investment in new technology. Fixed asset investment as a share of GDP puts Poland in 28th place out of 29 ranked countries, at 17.1 percent of GDP. Artificial intelligence adoption among businesses fares even worse: just 8.4 percent of companies report using AI, placing Poland 27th in the ranking.

Denmark Leads on AI, Poland Far Behind

By comparison, Denmark leads Europe in AI adoption, with 42 percent of businesses using AI technologies, five times the rate in Poland. Denmark also ranks 2nd overall, showing that high AI deployment tends to go hand in hand with a strong overall business position, though Sweden itself, at the top of the ranking, does not have the highest AI adoption rate.

The gap between Poland's relatively solid position in cloud computing and its very weak AI adoption score suggests that Polish companies are migrating infrastructure to the cloud without translating that step into widespread deployment of AI tools. Low fixed asset investment further limits the ability to finance that transformation.

What This Means for Polish Companies

The Leadfeeder findings fit a broader pattern that shows up regularly in other rankings comparing Poland's economy with the rest of the European Union on AI readiness. Low AI adoption alongside solid access to cloud infrastructure suggests the barrier isn't the technology itself, but rather the pace at which company leadership rolls it out, the availability of investment capital, and team skill levels.

For technology and consulting firms operating in Poland, the report is another signal that demand for AI implementation services may be growing faster than the supply of skilled teams, now that access to cloud infrastructure alone is no longer the main bottleneck. The European Union's largest economies, Poland included, continue to trail smaller but more digitized Nordic and Benelux countries.