How is artificial intelligence developing in Ukraine? The Ministry of Digital Transformation presented a large-scale research “AI ecosystem of Ukraine: talents, companies, education”.
Today, Ukraine ranks 2nd in terms of the number of AI companies among Central and Eastern European countries. Artificial intelligence is being implemented in defense, education, and public administration. Innovative solutions of Ukrainian AI companies have long been on the international market.
Intensification of AI development
To develop future technologies even more actively, it is necessary to comprehensively analyze the state and challenges of the sector. To this end, Roosh Investment Group and the largest Ukrainian AI community AI HOUSE, with the support of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, conducted the first large-scale study of the artificial intelligence ecosystem in Ukraine.
350 specialists in artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as education experts, top managers of IT companies and investment funds, took part in the study, which analyzed
- number of AI/Machine Learning specialists and companies working with AI technologies in Ukraine
- The amount of investment in the sector
- contribution of Ukrainian scientists
- Prospects and challenges facing our AI community
- expert opinions on how to solve them.
Results of the study
In ten years, the number of AI/ML specialists has increased 5 times and amounts to 5200 professionals as of January 2024. 36% of all specialists are young people aged 21-25.
The most common professions among specialists are Data Scientists and ML Engineers, which together account for 63% of all specialists in the industry.
Currently, Ukraine ranks second in terms of the number of AI companies among Central and Eastern European countries. Over the past ten years, the number of AI companies has more than doubled from 97 to 243 as of the end of 2023.
Compared to other European countries, Ukraine has a higher concentration of AI startups in marketing, gaming, and business software. This demonstrates the accumulated expertise of Ukrainians in these areas.
There are 44 Ukrainian and global venture capital funds active in Ukraine that invest in AI startups.
There are 174 and 106 programs at 42 universities in Ukraine that are partially or fully dedicated to AI/ML, which is almost 12 times more than a decade ago.
The largest centers of AI development in Ukraine are Kyiv with 177 company offices and Lviv with 43 offices. Kharkiv, Odesa, and Dnipro also stand out among all cities with an average of 21 companies.
According to AI experts, the key challenges of the AI sector in Ukraine are: interaction with other industries, competition and ethical challenges for companies, transformation of talents and education, financial constraints, and loss of talents due to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.