Over the past ten years, the number of AI/ML specialists in Ukraine has grown fivefold, reaching 5,200 professionals as of January 2024. Despite the ongoing war, Ukraine ranks second in the number of AI companies in Central and Eastern Europe. This is evidenced by the results of a joint research by the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, AI HOUSE, and Roosh.
- In total, there are more than 240 companies working in the field of artificial intelligence in Ukraine.
- Among them, the most famous Ukrainian startups are Grammarly, Preply, and People.ai.
- Since 2019, two Ukrainian AI companies have become “unicorns” (Grammarly and People.ai), and the three largest Ukrainian AI startups are valued at more than $14.5 billion (Grammarly, Preply, and People.ai).
One of the key factors of Ukraine’s success in this field is the growth of the number of specialists in the field of AI, which has grown fivefold in ten years. The current number is reaching 5,200 professionals as of January 2024.
- Nevertheless, the number is quite small compared to other IT specialists. Ukraine has the second highest number of IT specialists (307,000) among CEE countries, while the number of AI specialists is still less than 1%.
- The most prevalent age group among specialists in the AI/ML industry falls between 21 and 25 years old.
- Data Scientists and ML Engineers stand out as the predominant professions among specialists, representing 63% of all professionals in the AI industry. Notably, these fields offer the highest average salaries among all IT specializations in Ukraine.
According to Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation Fedorov, in order to increase the number of specialists, 106 educational programs in AI have already been opened in Ukraine. He also noted that a key step for training strong specialists should be establishing cooperation between universities and AI companies so that students have access to practical knowledge and experience.
