AI Adoption in Poland Reaches 39.8%. How Does It Compare With the Rest of Europe?

Nearly 40% of people in Poland aged 16–74 used artificial intelligence tools in the three months preceding the country’s latest survey, according to new data published by Statistics Poland (GUS) on October 21, 2026. The figure rose from 22.7% in 2025 to 39.8% in 2026, while AI adoption among Polish enterprises more than doubled to 17.8%. Across the European Union, Eurostat’s latest available data also shows widespread use of generative AI for personal activities, work, and education. What do these figures reveal about changing consumer behavior, business adoption, and the future of AI-powered search?

AI Adoption in Poland Rises Sharply in 2026

According to Statistics Poland’s latest report, Information Society in Poland in 2026, artificial intelligence has become substantially more common among Polish consumers.

In 2026, 39.8% of people aged 16–74 reported using AI tools during the previous three months, compared with 22.7% in 2025.

That represents an increase of 17.1 percentage points in a single year, equivalent to approximately 75% relative growth.

The report also highlights major changes in business adoption.

Key findings include:

• 39.8% of people aged 16–74 used AI tools during the three months preceding the survey.
• 72.5% of people aged 16–24 reported using AI.
• 17.8% of enterprises used AI technologies, compared with 8.7% in 2025.
• 11.1% of enterprises used AI in marketing and sales.
• 9.6% of enterprises used AI in office tasks, business management, and decision-support processes.

The findings suggest that AI is becoming part of everyday digital behavior while businesses are increasingly integrating the technology into their operations.

However, the survey measures AI use over a three-month period. It does not indicate that 39.8% of Polish residents use AI every day.

How Does AI Adoption in Poland Compare With Europe?

Poland is not the only European market experiencing rapid growth in AI adoption.

Eurostat’s latest available EU-wide figures show that 32.7% of people aged 16–74 used generative AI tools in 2025.

The percentage varied considerably between countries.

Source: Eurostat, Individuals’ Use of Generative AI Tools, 2025.

These results demonstrate substantial differences in the adoption of generative AI across European markets.

Countries such as Denmark, Estonia, and Malta reported particularly widespread use, while adoption remained considerably lower in Romania, Italy, and Bulgaria.

Is Poland Ahead of the European Average?

Poland’s newly reported 39.8% figure is higher than the EU-wide 32.7% figure published for 2025.

However, these figures should not be interpreted as a direct comparison of Poland and the European Union in 2026.

Poland’s figure relates to a 2026 survey, while the EU benchmark comes from 2025. The publications also use different descriptions of AI technology coverage.

The new Polish data demonstrates strong year-over-year growth, but a reliable assessment of Poland’s current position relative to the EU requires harmonized 2026 data.

For international businesses, the key insight is that adoption is changing rapidly and differs significantly between national markets.

What Do Europeans Actually Use Generative AI For?

One of the most valuable findings in Eurostat’s research concerns the purposes for which people use generative artificial intelligence.

In 2025, among people aged 16–74 across the EU:

• 25.1% used generative AI for personal purposes.
• 15.1% used generative AI for professional or work-related purposes.
• 9.4% used generative AI for formal education.

These percentages refer to the overall population aged 16–74, rather than exclusively to AI users.

The categories also overlap because one person may use generative AI for several purposes.

Personal Use Is the Most Common

Personal activities represented the most common reason for using generative AI in the EU.

These tools can support a wide range of everyday tasks, including answering questions, explaining unfamiliar topics, generating content, and organizing information.

However, Eurostat’s headline breakdown does not show how many people specifically use generative AI for shopping, product comparisons, or brand recommendations.

This distinction is particularly important for marketing professionals.

The fact that consumers use generative AI does not automatically mean they use it to discover products or make purchasing decisions.

More specific research is needed to determine the share of AI interactions connected to commercial intent.

AI Is Increasingly Part of Professional Life

In 2025, 15.1% of EU residents aged 16–74 reported using generative AI for work.

Professional use can involve content creation, information analysis, coding, documentation, and administrative support.

The actual distribution of these activities varies by occupation and industry.

For businesses, this signals an increasingly important role for AI in everyday workflows.

It also creates new opportunities to improve productivity and introduce AI-assisted processes, provided that implementation is accompanied by appropriate security, quality, and governance controls.

Education Plays a Major Role Among Younger Users

Across the entire EU population aged 16–74, 9.4% reported using generative AI for formal education.

Among people aged 16–24, however, the proportion reached 39.3%.

This highlights the particularly strong relationship between AI adoption and younger generations.

For businesses targeting younger audiences, it is worth understanding how familiarity with AI-generated information may influence expectations about digital experiences.

Young Europeans Are Leading AI Adoption

Eurostat’s figures reveal significant differences between age groups.

In 2025, 63.8% of EU residents aged 16–24 used generative AI tools, almost twice the rate reported for the overall population aged 16–74.

Among younger Europeans:

• 44.2% used generative AI for personal purposes.
• 39.3% used it for formal education.
• 15.8% used it for professional purposes.

Adoption was particularly widespread in Greece, Estonia, and Czechia.

In Poland, the latest national statistics show that 72.5% of people aged 16–24 used AI in 2026.

The figures indicate that AI is particularly familiar to younger audiences, although differences in survey year and technology definitions should be considered before comparing national rankings.

For marketers, these changes raise an important strategic question: how will brands remain visible as younger audiences increasingly interact with AI-powered digital environments?

European Businesses Are Adopting AI, but at Different Speeds

Consumer adoption tells only part of the story.

According to Eurostat, 20% of EU enterprises with at least 10 employees used AI technologies in 2025, compared with 13.5% in 2024.

Adoption varied significantly between countries.

Source: Eurostat, Use of Artificial Intelligence in Enterprises, 2025.

In Poland, Statistics Poland reported that enterprise AI adoption rose to 17.8% in 2026.

The year-over-year increase suggests that Polish businesses are accelerating their adoption of the technology.

However, differences in business size, sector, and survey coverage need to be considered when comparing national and European figures.

What Do European Companies Use AI For?

Eurostat’s 2025 findings show that European businesses used AI technologies primarily for:

• Analyzing written language: 11.8% of EU enterprises.
• Generating images, videos, or audio: 9.5%.
• Generating written or spoken language: 8.8%.
• Converting spoken language into machine-readable formats: 7.2%.

These categories describe types of AI technology used by businesses. They do not directly measure business results or profitability.

The Polish data adds another perspective.

According to Statistics Poland, marketing and sales were the most common business application areas in 2026, with 11.1% of enterprises using AI in these processes.

Office tasks, business management, and decision-support activities followed at 9.6%.

For marketing teams, the distinction is important: using AI to produce content or automate internal activities does not necessarily mean a business has developed a strategy for visibility in AI-powered search.

What Does Growing AI Adoption Mean for SEO and Digital Marketing?

The rapid spread of artificial intelligence is changing the broader digital environment in which brands communicate with customers.

Traditional search engines, social platforms, and online marketplaces remain important discovery channels.

At the same time, AI-powered experiences such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity introduce additional ways for users to find information and evaluate alternatives.

From Delante’s perspective, several areas deserve attention.

1. AI Search Creates Additional Brand Discovery Opportunities

Users can interact with AI tools through detailed questions and follow-up prompts.

For example, someone researching a new software solution could ask an AI assistant to explain available options, compare providers, and identify relevant capabilities.

This type of interaction creates opportunities for brands to be included in AI-generated responses and comparisons.

However, the adoption statistics presented by Eurostat and Statistics Poland do not establish how frequently these commercial scenarios occur.

Businesses should investigate actual search behavior within their target audiences rather than assuming that every AI user is a potential customer.

2. Brand Visibility Needs to Be Measured Beyond Traditional Rankings

Search engine rankings and organic website traffic remain essential performance indicators.

However, they do not provide a complete picture of how a business appears across AI-generated answers.

Companies should consider tracking:

• Brand mentions across relevant AI platforms.
• Inclusion in product or service recommendations.
• Comparisons with competing brands.
• Accuracy of AI-generated information.
• References and citations to their content.
• Traffic and conversions attributable to AI-powered experiences, where measurable.

These are central elements of AI Search Optimization (AISO), which focuses on improving how brands are represented in AI-powered search environments.

3. Reliable Content and Product Information Matter

AI systems may draw on information available across websites and other accessible sources when generating answers.

For brands, this makes the quality, accuracy, and consistency of published information particularly important.

Businesses should review whether their websites clearly communicate their products, services, expertise, pricing conditions, and competitive advantages.

The objective is to make reliable information available to both users and the systems helping them find it.

4. International SEO Strategies Should Consider Local AI Adoption

The differences between European countries show why international businesses should avoid treating Europe as a single, uniform market.

Consumer behavior, technology adoption, language, competition, and platform availability can all vary.

An effective international search strategy should evaluate AI visibility and traditional SEO performance market by market.

A company operating in Denmark, Poland, and Italy may face different levels of AI adoption and different customer expectations.

At Delante, our AI Visibility Audit helps businesses assess how their brands appear across AI-powered search environments and identify areas for improvement.

Does Increased AI Adoption Mean More AI-Driven Purchases?

This is one of the most important questions for e-commerce and digital marketing teams.

The European statistics confirm that more people are using AI, particularly for personal activities.

They do not, however, show how many consumers use AI to:

• Research products before purchasing.
• Compare retailers or service providers.
• Build shopping shortlists.
• Look for brand recommendations.
• Complete purchases through AI-powered shopping experiences.

These activities may be relevant to the future of AI-powered commerce, but their prevalence cannot be established from general AI adoption data alone.

Businesses should therefore avoid using consumer AI adoption as a direct proxy for AI-driven shopping demand.

A more reliable approach combines broader market research with brand-specific AI visibility analysis, website analytics, and conversion data.

For an introduction to these changing search experiences, see our article on AI SEO and its impact on business visibility.

What Should Businesses Do Next?

The latest statistics from Poland and the European Union point toward growing familiarity with artificial intelligence across consumer and business environments.

For companies planning their digital marketing strategies, the immediate priorities should include understanding their audience’s use of AI, evaluating how their brand appears in AI-generated answers, and maintaining strong technical and content foundations.

For international businesses, it is particularly important to distinguish market-wide technology adoption from customer behavior within specific countries and industries.

The main takeaway is that AI adoption is expanding rapidly across Europe. But successful marketing strategies will depend on understanding how people actually use these tools, which interactions create commercial opportunities, and how businesses can measure their impact.

Sources

1. Statistics Poland (GUS), Information Society in Poland in 2026, October 21, 2026.
   https://publikacje.new.stat.gov.pl/en/publications-portal/information-society-poland-2026
2. Eurostat, 32.7% of EU People Used Generative AI Tools in 2025, December 16, 2025.
   https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20251216-3
3. Eurostat, 64% of 16–24-Year-Olds Used AI in 2025, February 10, 2026.
   https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-eurostat-news/w/edn-20260210-1
4. Eurostat, 20% of EU Enterprises Use AI Technologies, December 11, 2025.
   https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20251211-2
5. Eurostat, Digitalisation in Europe – 2026 Edition.
   https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/interactive-publications/digitalisation-2026