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Poles Fear AI in the Job Market, But Believe Their Own Job Is Safe
A new Polish Labor Market Barometer reveals a disconnect: one in four workers see AI as the biggest threat to employment, but only 17 percent worry about their own profession, and most aren't training to protect themselves.
Contents
Personnel Service published the latest edition of the Polish Labor Market Barometer (Barometr Polskiego Rynku Pracy) on September 8, revealing a clear paradox in how Poles view artificial intelligence. One in four workers names AI and automation as the biggest threat to jobs in Poland, but when the question turns to their own position, the worry drops sharply.
The scale of the gap
The survey, commissioned by Personnel Service, shows artificial intelligence ranking first among concerns about the labor market, ahead of rising business costs (18 percent), foreign competition (15 percent) and a worsening economic climate (14 percent). This signals that AI has overtaken, in workers' minds, the classic economic risk factors the labor market has faced for years.
At the same time, when respondents apply the question to themselves, the picture reverses. Only 17 percent believe their profession will stop being needed within the next five years, 61 percent are not worried about this, and 22 percent have not thought about it at all. Krzysztof Inglot, founder of Personnel Service, sums up the phenomenon directly.
Poles see that AI is changing the labor market, but they believe this change will pass them by - Krzysztof Inglot, founder of Personnel Service
Declarations versus action
The barometer also reveals a gap between declared readiness for change and actual engagement in skills development. Although 31 percent of respondents declare readiness to retrain, as many as 60 percent have not taken part in any professional training in the past 12 months. Only 28 percent used training funded by their employer, and 12 percent paid for courses out of their own pocket.
Readiness for change is not measured by declarations, but by action - Krzysztof Inglot, founder of Personnel Service
Who is most affected
The data show clear demographic differences. In the 25-34 age group, 27 percent of respondents worry about their profession, in the 18-24 group it's 21 percent, in the 35-44 bracket 19 percent, and among people over 55 just 7 percent. This reverses the intuition that older workers should feel more threatened by technological change; in reality, it is people just building their careers who worry the most.
Education level differentiates both concerns and actual corrective steps. Among people with higher education, 36 percent declare readiness to retrain, compared with only 19 percent among those with basic or vocational education, and as many as 40 percent in the latter group cannot give a clear answer to the question. A similar pattern appears in training participation: 49 percent among people with higher education versus 17 percent among those with basic or vocational education.
City, countryside and gender
Place of residence also differentiates access to skills development. In large cities, 51 percent of workers took part in training in the past year, compared with just 35 percent in rural areas, deepening the risk that people from smaller towns will fall behind in the race for digital skills. By gender, women more often see AI as a threat to the labor market overall (32 percent versus 19 percent of men), but less often worry about their own profession (15 percent versus 19 percent) and more often declare readiness to retrain (34 percent versus 28 percent of men).
What this means for companies
For Polish employers, the barometer's results are a double warning sign. On one hand, workers formally accept the need for change and declare openness to retraining; on the other, they don't translate this into concrete steps until they feel a direct threat to their own position. This means training programs funded solely on a voluntary sign-up basis may reach mainly people who are already the best educated and most aware of the changes.
The results fit into a broader picture painted by other labor market studies in Poland published in recent months, which likewise point to large groups of workers exposed to the effects of automation, alongside a low level of preparedness among companies and public institutions to manage this change. Personnel Service stresses that the key test won't be survey declarations, but the actual number of people who genuinely upgrade their digital skills over the coming year.
