New report finds AI salaries up to $19,000/month with up to 47% growth across global markets.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, October 22, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Qubit Labs, a reading staff augmentation company, announced the release of the AI Developer Hubs Report – Countries, Salaries, and Perspectives. The report covers AI salaries for core roles in 2025 and 2026, shows salary trends over the year, provides overviews of the AI ecosystem across eight countries, shares Qubit Labs’ unique insights by location, includes founder insights on building AI teams, and offers salary projections for 2027.

The global AI talent gap remains significant, with 1.6 million open positions competing for a pool of just 518,000 qualified professionals. This report helps companies understand where the concentration of AI talent is the highest, how salaries have shifted since 2025, and what to budget for as compensation evolves through 2027.

Key Findings

The report highlights the top eight countries with well-developed AI talent ecosystems. It identifies Poland, Romania, and Ukraine as leading outsourcing hubs, with AI salaries ranging from $5,000 to $9,000 for AI engineers and from $5,000 to $9,000 for LLM specialists in established hubs. Ukraine remains the most cost-efficient option, with rates between $3,400 and $6,000 for AI and LLM professionals.

Poland is the most popular location for securing AI and LLM experts, with a talent pool of over 50,000 engineers proficient in NLP/LLMs, computer vision, Industry 4.0, retail AI, and Gen AI. The estimated time-to-hire in the country is 34 days. Romania provides access to over 32,000 engineers with broad experience across LLM, GenAI, and healthcare AI. Companies can secure top Romanian specialists within 38 days.

Compared with Poland and Romania, Ukraine has a smaller talent pool of over 5,200 specialists with strong data science, ML engineering, and NLP expertise. However, it offers the most attractive rates across the region.

- Across the year, Poland saw 47% AI salary growth, the highest in Eastern Europe and 15% higher than the US, where salary increases reached 32% in 2026. This may reflect intensifying competition for AI engineers and specialists with LLM and GenAI expertise.

- In Romania, salaries grew 25%, suggesting demand for AI talent is pushing compensation up, though less sharply than in Poland.

- In Ukraine, growth reached 14%, suggesting more restrained salary adjustments, potentially due to tighter hiring budgets.

- In comparison, the UK recorded just 6% growth, suggesting that compensation growth is less pronounced than in emerging tech hubs.

What the Report Covers

- Overviews of AI ecosystems and talent pools across eight countries.
- Country-by-country comparisons with unique hiring considerations and valuable hiring tips from Qubit Labs.
- Monthly salary benchmarks for AI and LLM engineers by level and year, reflecting clear salary dynamics.
- CEO’s tips on building and scaling AI teams.
- Qubit Labs’ salary projections for AI specialists in Eastern Europe for 2027.

Who Should Read the Report

- Tech leaders and startup founders comparing AI talent markets and hiring costs before scaling.
- HR and recruitment teams benchmarking salaries and mapping AI talent to refine hiring and retention plans.
- Investors identifying emerging AI hubs with strong growth potential.

AI Developer Hubs Report – Countries, Salaries, and Perspectives is available now as a free download at qubit-labs.com.

About Qubit Labs

Qubit Labs is a technology staffing and recruitment company connecting global companies with deep tech and software talent across Eastern Europe. With offices in Estonia, the UK, Canada, Sweden, and Poland, Qubit Labs supports more than 40 clients in 18 countries through dedicated team augmentation, R&D center setup, and recruitment process outsourcing.

Oksana Zabolotna
Qubit Labs
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