Human capital and the digital determinants of artificial intelligence uptake in Poland against the background of the european union (2015– 2024)

Abstract

This article examines whether, in the period 2015–2024, Poland was narrowing the gap separating it from the European Union in the areas of human capital, digitalisation, and the potential for artificial intelligence uptake. The empirical basis comprises ten indicators grouped into four domains - human capital, digital infrastructure and maturity, innovation potential, and economic outcomes - drawn from the World Bank Open Data API, OECD databases, and OECD.AI, each juxtaposing Poland with the Union aggregate. Descriptive statistics are employed: terminal values, the absolute gap, a catching-up index (the ratio of the national to the Union value), and the compound annual growth rate, deliberately forgoing econometric modelling. The results indicate pronounced yet heterogeneous convergence: Poland has steadily narrowed the gap in the domain of enabling conditions - research personnel, R&D expenditure, basic digital infrastructure and the digital maturity of enterprises, and labour productivity - while diverging in the adoption of frontier technologies, including the direct use of artificial intelligence in firms. The findings are interpreted in the light of the general-purpose technology concept and the absorptive capacity of the economy.