About 20% of Ukrainian IT specialists work abroad, while in 2023 their number increased to 65,000 from 50,000-57,000 a year earlier, according to the study AI Ecosystem of Ukraine: Talents, Companies, Education, produced by non-profit organization AI House and investment group Roosh with support from the Ministry of Digital transformation.

According to the data provided, the total number of IT specialists in Ukraine increased to 307,000 in 2023 from 285,000 in 2022.

According to Eurostat data cited in the study, Ukraine ranks second among the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in terms of the number of IT specialists, with Poland in first place with 600,700d.

At the same time, the number of AI/ML specialists has grown 5 times over the past 10 years, but as of January 2024, it is just over 1% - 5,200 people.

“The active migration of specialists abroad as a result of the war leads to a shortage of qualified personnel in the domestic market, hindering the development of the industry,” the text of the study says.

The most common professions among specialists are Data Scientists and ML Engineers, which together make up 63% of all in the AI/ML industry. It is noted that it is in these areas that the highest salaries are offered among IT specialties in the country. The average salary for a junior specialist in Ukraine is $1,000-1,500, for a senior specialist – $4,500.

Over the past 10 years, the number of product AI companies in Ukraine has grown 3.7 times and reached 183 by 2023, and service AI companies - by 46%, to 60. Over the past four years, 34 companies have opened that specialize in artificial intelligence. It is noted that 55% of the offices of Ukrainian AI companies are located in Kyiv.

At the same time, the country ranks last among the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in terms of the number of attracted venture investments over the past three years. The leaders are Poland, Lithuania and the Czech Republic, which attract 12-16 times more funding than Ukraine, the study says. The alleged reasons include the full-scale Russian invasion and the registration of Ukrainian companies in European countries or the United States.

In 2023, the volume of venture investments that 22 Ukrainian companies managed to attract decreased by 31%, to $10.8 million compared to 2022, which, according to the authors of the study, repeats the general trend regarding the reduction of such investments in the world. In addition, in war conditions, the process of negotiations between startups and potential investors to attract financing becomes more complicated.