Total liabilities in the IT segment reached PLN 317 million (€75 million) at the end of April, up almost 20 percent year-on-year, according to KRD.
More than 7,000 tech firms are in arrears; one-person consultancies owe about PLN 122 million, while limited companies account for the remaining 195 million.
Analysts told the newspaper that repayment would be easier if small vendors could recover overdue payments from cash-strapped clients, but rising borrowing costs and a slowdown in corporate IT spending are squeezing margins.
“A sector long viewed as crisis-proof is now losing its reputation for stability,” Rzeczpospolita wrote, adding that larger firms may start acquiring troubled smaller rivals.
The debt surge coincides with growing adoption of generative-AI coding assistants that can produce or test software faster than junior programmers.
Although Poland has so far avoided the mass layoffs seen at some U.S. tech giants, a French outsourcing company operating in Bydgoszcz may cut up to 200 positions, the paper said, without naming the firm.
Recruiters expect demand to shift toward specialists who design, train and maintain AI models rather than routine coders.
Warsaw-based consulting group SoDA said Polish IT exports still rose 12 percent last year but warned that the skills mix will have to change rapidly to stay competitive.
The Polish IT industry employs roughly 500,000 people and contributes about 8 percent of GDP, according to government data. The sector boomed during the pandemic on cloud-migration projects but has since cooled as Western clients trim budgets and domestic interest rates climb to 20-year highs.
(jh)
Source: PAP, Rzeczpospolita