Microsoft has announced a new AI training initiative in Poland to train one million people with artificial intelligence (AI) skills by 2025. This effort builds on the company's investment in development of the Polish Digital Valley, under which the company has already trained over 430,000 IT specialists, business representatives, partners and students, and opened the cloud computing region Azure Poland Central.
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Free Courses in Polish
Free training, also in Polish, will be available on the Microsoft AI Skills Navigator learning hub, Microsoft said in a statement on November 28. "To benefit from AI, individuals need the skills to use it," said Brad Smith, Microsoft Vice Chair and President. "This new investment in AI skilling will help ensure that people in Poland can harness this transformative technology across the economy."
The AI training will be available for free on the Microsoft AI Skills Navigator platform, with courses in Polish. Offering over 200 diverse courses from LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Learn, GitHub, and partners, the program aims to meet the growing demand for AI skills. The platform includes a variety of learning paths, from beginner-level content to advanced AI applications for developers and business leaders, according to Microsoft.
One of the courses available in Polish is the "AI Fluency" course, which includes 44 bite-sized videos covering a wide range of AI topics, available for free on GitHub. Microsoft plans to regularly update the course catalogue and collaborate with public and private sector partners to ensure nationwide accessibility.
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AI Training for All Levels
Microsoft said appropriate training will be available for people who are at the beginning of their journey with artificial intelligence, as well as developers and business leaders looking to leverage AI capabilities to grow their organisations. The AI assistant will guide the user to learning paths tailored to individual needs and goals.
"Poland is one of the key markets for us in developing artificial intelligence expertise. AI-related skills cover a wide spectrum: from quickly searching for information on the Internet, gathering data, creating a resume in Word using a suggested document structure, looking up explanations of formulas in Excel, summarizing meetings in Teams, to writing application code by developers using GitHub Copilot or using the Azure OpenAI to create advanced and custom AI applications," said Lukasz Foks, Director of AI National Skills at Microsoft.
Rising Demand for AI Talent in Poland
This initiative responds to a rising demand for AI talent in Poland. Microsoft cited the latest data from an IDC's 2024 AI opportunity study, which shows that 77 percent of organisations in Poland are already using, or will be using, AI in the next 12 months.
According to Microsoft's 2024 Work Trend Index, over half of business leaders in Poland prefer to hire candidates with AI skills, even if they have less experience. Additionally, more than half (53 percent) of business leaders in Poland would no longer hire a person without AI skills.
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According to the same survey, 61 percent of employees in Poland already use AI in their work. "Microsoft's new commitment in Poland responds to the urgent need to develop artificial intelligence skills to support the growth of business, the public sector and society," the company said in a statement.
