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The Digital Poland Foundation has announced the prestigious Digital Shapers 2024 List, a compilation of leaders and innovators who stand out in shaping digital reality in Poland. In this year's edition, the seventh in succession, twenty-four representatives of companies and institutions from the world of new technologies and digitalisation were honoured.
The title of Digital Shaper is awarded to outstanding figures from the world of digitisation and new technologies. The Digital Academy - a chapter of more than 232 people representing various industries, academia, public organisations and winners of previous editions - decides who will be included in the prestigious list. The Digital Shapers awards are called the 'digital Oscars' in Poland.
"Digital Oscars" awarded
Digital Shapers are people who can effectively use technology to solve important social and business problems. The fundamental truth about digital, however, is that even the best technology solutions will not deliver the expected results without effective collaboration between people, teams and organisations. That is why this year we have introduced a new category - collaboration," said Piotr Ciski, CEO of Symfonia and also chairman of this year's Digital Academy.
As Ciski argues, in an era of artificial intelligence and automation, it is soft skills, particularly the ability to build bridges between different stakeholders, that are becoming a key factor in the success of technology projects. Areas of particular focus in the selection of Digital Shapers this year were cyber security, cloud technologies, process automation, systems integration and advanced data analytics. All are strongly linked to the development of artificial intelligence, which can significantly support the automation of decision-making processes, customer analysis and trend prediction.
It was AI that proved to be the common denominator for many of the awardees. Professor Andrzej Dragan is optimistic about its future, showing how it is changing business and society. In the Education category, researchers from the University of Warsaw, who educated the specialists working in OpenAI today, were honoured. In turn, the award for bielik.ai highlights the importance of building open language models and active communities. The chapter of the Digital Academy assessed candidates for their activities in the year prior to receiving the statuette in one of six categories: education, innovation and technology, investment, digital transformation, visionary and collaboration.
Artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly important part of our world, and the results of this year's Digital Shapers list confirm that Poland is ready to exploit this potential. This is a clear signal that Poland has the potential to become one of the AI leaders in the CEE region. We need to invest in the development of AI competences and support leaders from Poland, which will translate into further development of our economy and strengthen Poland's position on the global map of modern technologies," said Dr. Michał Boni, President of the Digital Poland Foundation.
Below is a list of this year's winners in each category
prof. Jan Madey i prof. Krzysztof Diks from Warsaw University – awarded for creating a unique training system thanks to which the university has continuously qualified for the finals of the Academic Team Programming Championships (ICPC) since 1994. In 2024, the University of Warsaw team again won the gold medal at the championships.
Ewa Gąsienica-Samek, director of the InstaKod Informatics and Mathematics Education Institution - awarded for co-creating innovative educational projects such as InstaKod and InstaLogik, which have contributed to popularising programming learning among children and young people in Poland. InstaLogik is today the largest IT competition in Poland, having attracted more than 18,000 participants in 2024.
Jarosław Łojewski, President of the Good Failure Foundation - awarded for education on constructive approaches to failure encountered in innovative projects or startups. In 2024, he co-organised the conference Failure Day.
dr hab. Grzegorz Brona, Prezes Creotech Instruments – awarded for developing innovations in the space industry sector. The company has been carrying out projects for many years, for example for the European Space Agency (ESA) or CERN. In 2024, among others, a contract was signed with the Ministry of Defence for the supply of a satellite Earth Observation System in the MIKROGLOB programme and the EagleEye satellite was launched.
Stanisław Dałek, c-founder and CTO of CloudFerro – awarded for developing cloud services technology for the space sector in Europe. The company is playing a leading role in the development of key European Earth observation initiatives. These include the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, Destination Earth Data Lake, CREODIAS.eu. In 2024, the company received funding under the European IPCEI-CIS initiative.
Krzysztof Klimczak, Marek Rogoziński i Jarosław Sygitowicz, Authologic founders - awarded for developing innovative digital identity verification and remote KYC solutions. They raised $8.2 million in a Series A funding round in October 2024.
Rafał Brzoska, Founder and CEO of InPost - awarded for the acquisition of British logistics operator Menzies Distribution for PLN 560 million.
Jakub Dwernicki, Co-founder and CEO of cyber_Folks - awarded for the acquisition of a 49.9% stake in the public company Shoper (producer of a platform for creating and operating online shops) for PLN 500 million..
Wojciech Sass i Wojciech Sobieraj, Co-founders of Aion Bank and Vodeno - awarded for the development and subsequent deal to sell the company to the UniCredit group for €370 million.
Michał Błaut i Jakub Marcinkiewicz, managers from PKO BP - awarded for the first in the banking market to implement a fully digital mortgage purchase process with UX at the highest level.
Michał Kurasiński, Head of AI Transformation, Business Intelligence and Data Analytics at Polpharma - awarded for digital transformation based on implementation of artificial intelligence and LOW/NO-CODE platform.
Szymon Wałach, VP digital and strategy at InPost - awarded for implementation and scaling of InPost Pay service.
prof. Andrzej Dragan from Warsaw University – awarded for unique insights into the development of artificial intelligence and the popularisation of knowledge of quantum physics.
Jacek Dukaj, writer – awarded for discussing and anticipating the development of artificial intelligence and its impact on culture and society.
Łukasz Jankowski, President of the Supreme Chamber of Physicians - awarded for his commitment to the development of e-health through the integration of modern solutions in medical practice, the amendment of the Code of Medical Ethics in 2024, which sets out, among other things, the rules for the use of AI, and the co-founding of the Network of Innovators Doctors (NIL IN).
Natalia Ćwik, former manager of Wikimedia Polska - awarded for supporting, with a team of experts, a community of several hundred volunteers who maintain and develop the Polish-language Wikipedia and its sister projects. She advises EdTech startups and connects sectors and communities for inclusive technological development.
Sebastian Kondracki, President of the SpeakLeash Foundation - awarded for community development of the bielik.ai project. The Polish Large Language Model (LLM) was developed in collaboration with the Academic Computer Centre Cyfronet AGH, which provided supercomputers to train the model. Hundreds of members of the Polish LLM development community are registered in the bielik.ai model community.
Kinga Stanisławska i Katarzyna Piasecki, founder and managing director of European Women in VC - awarded for developing the largest community of female investors in Europe known as 'European Women in VC'. The aim of the initiative is to foster diversity in the VC world, to develop startups founded and led by women and to make it easier for them to raise funds for further development.
The partners overseeing the accuracy of the submissions of the 7th edition of the Digital Shapers List are: Baker McKenzie, Fujitsu, Polpharma, Ringier Axel Springer Polska, Symfonia, T-Mobile Polska, TVN Warner Bros. Discovery, Visa. Patronage: Baker McKenzie. Media patronage: Business Insider Polska, Forbes Polska..
The Digital Shapers list is organised by the Digital Poland Foundation, which was established in order to increase the competitiveness of the Polish economy, with a special focus on the area of high technologies and spreading economic awareness in society, as well as promoting the idea of innovation, entrepreneurship and responsible development. It promotes knowledge on the role of innovation and digitisation in the country's economic development. It brings together companies and organisations from various sectors, encouraging them to cooperate on specific projects. The Foundation's mission is to position Poland as a leading centre of digital innovation in the world..