Poland’s digital promoting trade acquired a pointed actuality test on April 3, 2026, when IAB Polska printed its “Praca w digitalu – klasa czy obciach?” report – loosely translated as “Working in digital – cool or cringe?” The findings, developed by the IAB Level of Youth initiative and analysis agency IQS, reveal that the era most immersed in digital environments can be, paradoxically, the least enthusiastic about working in them.
The report attracts on a survey of 300 Polish respondents aged 18 to 30, performed between November 13 and 16, 2025, utilizing the Omnisurv by IQS platform. Outcomes have been first introduced publicly on March 4, 2026, on the IAB ExpertPanel in Warsaw. The complete publication adopted in early April.
What the numbers say
Amongst respondents, 11% described their perspective towards digital advertising as “decidedly constructive,” whereas 34% stated “quite constructive.” The biggest share landed on impartial. Simply 6% stated “quite unfavourable” and 1% “decidedly unfavourable.” Almost two-thirds of these surveyed affiliate digital advertising with creativity and inventiveness. Essentially the most regularly cited associations – leisure, freedom, and spontaneity – recommend younger Poles see the sector as a artistic house quite than purely a gross sales machine.
However the headline quantity sits elsewhere: near two-thirds of respondents price skilled growth alternatives within the trade as “quite giant” or “very giant.” Round half see the sector as secure or quite secure. Working situations earned favorable marks from 83% of respondents – a mixture of “superb” and “quite good” assessments. Flexibility, distant work choices, and artistic scope all acquired mentions. These are stable figures. They’re additionally not translating into need.
IT wins the expertise competitors
Regardless of the constructive attributes, digital advertising doesn’t rank as probably the most sought-after profession vacation spot amongst Polish youth. IT does. In line with the report, know-how persistently tops aspirational profession rankings amongst this age group, leaving advertising to compete on secondary floor.
In line with Włodzimierz Schmidt, President of IAB Polska, this impartial positioning is just not essentially a disaster. “This impartial perspective of younger individuals towards the advertising communications sector is, opposite to appearances, a constructive sign for your entire trade. It means there aren’t any clear picture boundaries or robust prejudices that would restrict the inflow of recent expertise,” he said. Schmidt argues the trade ought to use this window strategically, constructing narratives grounded in actual competencies, innovation, and the measurable enterprise influence of digital advertising.
He additionally pushed again in opposition to the idea that advertising and IT sit in fully separate bins. “Up to date e-marketing is essentially based mostly on technical and IT competencies, requiring fixed data updates and agile navigation of a dynamically altering device ecosystem. For a lot of specialists, this will represent a pretty and developmental different to working within the IT sector – one that mixes a technological base with a strategic and artistic dimension,” Schmidt added.
The remark tracks with broader trade realities. The IAB Tech Lab’s AI in Advertising Primer recognized that digital promoting now calls for expertise spanning marketing campaign administration, viewers focusing on, efficiency evaluation, and artistic automation – a profile blurring the road between marketer and technologist. For youthful professionals already fluent in these environments, the talent overlap could also be extra seen to them than the trade has traditionally acknowledged.
Creativity issues greater than wage
One discovering stands out in opposition to typical recruitment assumptions: younger respondents ranked creativity and innovation above wage and profession development potential when itemizing the perceived advantages of working in digital advertising. In line with Paweł Kolenda, Omnisurv Director at IQS, this displays a motivational profile centered on intrinsic quite than extrinsic rewards.
“It is inventiveness that they affiliate with work on this sector, not safety, and positively not boredom and rigidity. A assure of no boredom is a crucial profit that employers ought to talk to future staff,” Kolenda famous. The implication is sensible: trade recruitment messaging that leads with wage benchmarks and profession ladders could also be focusing on the flawed psychological levers for this cohort.
Strain and the imposter dynamic
The image is just not uniformly constructive. Essentially the most regularly cited unfavourable of working in digital advertising is efficiency strain, together with the psychological burden it generates. Quickly shifting traits demand speedy responses, steady mixing of creativity with knowledge analytics, and fixed self-justification by metrics. This surroundings creates fertile floor for what the report’s authors describe as “imposter syndrome” – significantly amongst these at first of their careers.
The report notes that unclear profession paths make entry into the sector tougher than it must be. In line with its authors, organizational practices and self-aware leaders can do a lot to cut back these pressures – supplied these leaders can’t solely set targets however actively develop workforce competencies and construct environments that assist long-term development.
The relational dimension of management emerged as important. Mateusz Decyk, Strategist at Gross sales&Extra and a consultant of IAB Level of Youth, noticed that “the connection with a supervisor turns into one of many key components affecting job satisfaction – typically extra necessary than organizational advantages or formal employment situations.” Younger staff’ expectations of leaders heart on smooth competencies: clear communication, common suggestions, empathy, and psychological security. These usually are not summary beliefs – they seem as concrete differentiators between workplaces that retain younger expertise and people who lose it.
Competitors as the first barrier
When requested in regards to the largest impediment to getting into digital advertising, 35% of respondents recognized competitors. This exceeds issues about wage ranges or job availability. What drives this notion is just not a shortage of openings however quite a way of an oversaturated market mixed with restricted data of what the job really entails day-to-day.
Younger entrants report missing familiarity with particular instruments, struggling to maintain tempo with pattern cycles, and remaining unsure about what employers really count on. The formal barrier to entry is low – digital advertising options closely throughout college curricula, and short-form programs proliferate. The sensible barrier, formed by intense competitors and fast-moving requirements, is significantly greater.
In line with Krzysztof Skóra, Media Assistant at Mediafarm and an IAB Level of Youth consultant, universities have a significant position to play in closing this hole. “Universities can play a big position in decreasing boundaries similar to lack of know-how of instruments or present traits in digital. The market is more and more targeted on analytics and knowledge. Extra universities are incorporating sensible instruments into applications, similar to GA4 or AI programs. It’s clear that they’re attempting to maintain up with trade requirements,” he commented.
Gen Z workers are already demonstrating unconventional approaches to job searching, with 46% having secured jobs or internships by TikTok in research of U.S. labor markets. This behavioral sample – bypassing conventional recruitment channels in favor of platform-native discovery – suggests the expertise pipeline for digital advertising is itself evolving in methods the trade has not absolutely accommodated.
AI: double-edged and divisive
Synthetic intelligence generates probably the most polarized responses of any subject within the report. Views amongst under-30s break up sharply. One section sees AI as a pure course for trade growth and a possible accelerant for profession development. An equally robust group fears automation, discount of junior-level roles, and basic shifts in skilled identification. A major share responded “arduous to say” – indicating that the precise influence of AI on employment stays genuinely unclear to many younger individuals contemplating the sector.
The report frames AI as a twin drive: it attracts curiosity and concurrently repels. The sensible concern is concrete. AI is absorbing the repetitive, operational duties that traditionally served as pure entry factors into digital advertising careers. Marketing campaign reconciliation, fundamental viewers segmentation, efficiency reporting – these have been the constructing blocks of junior expertise. The IAB Tech Lab CEO flagged this shift directly, noting that publishers had already begun closing open junior advert operations roles as a result of “AI or agentic options help you do extra with much less.”
The structural danger runs additional. If organizations cut back funding in junior expertise below the idea that algorithms can cowl entry-level outputs, the pipeline for future senior and management expertise contracts. The report calls this a type of short-sighted recruitment considering that would produce a competency hole inside a decade.
Julia Cymerman, Junior Media Planner/Purchaser at Hearts and Science and an IAB Level of Youth consultant, challenged this logic instantly. “We hear more and more that AI will take over our work and it is higher to wager on automation than on juniors. For me, this can be a flawed assumption. Funding in juniors is just not a value, it is constructing foundations – as a result of we should do not forget that at this time’s juniors are tomorrow’s leaders of this trade. AI is a superb device, however we should be taught to make choices and perceive the market, and algorithms can’t try this for us,” she said.
This framing positions younger professionals not as a workforce vulnerability however as the required human layer atop technological infrastructure. IAB Europe’s research from September 2025 discovered that 85% of European digital promoting firms already deploy AI-based instruments, with focusing on and content material era main adoption – however governance gaps and expertise shortages stay important boundaries to realizing full worth. The people who perceive each the know-how and the strategic context stay the limiting useful resource.
IAB Poland’s framing: partnership, not pipeline
The report’s conclusion rejects the transactional framing of younger expertise as a renewable useful resource to be recruited and processed. Wiktoria Wójcik, co-founder of inStreamly and New Sport +, and an IAB Level of Youth consultant, argued that the subsequent decade of digital advertising relies upon not on instruments however on the trade’s capability for real cross-generational collaboration.
“Firms that perceive that younger individuals are not a menace, however a catalyst for change, won’t solely have the ability to survive but additionally redefine advertising,” Wójcik said. She known as on organizations to cease measuring competence by years of expertise and as a substitute consider individuals by the distinctive worth and company they carry to organizations.
The report was developed by a gaggle of younger staff from IAB Polska member firms, working throughout the IAB Level of Youth initiative, in collaboration with IQS. Analysis was performed in November 2025 on a pattern of 300 Poles aged 18 to 30. The doc is accessible without spending a dime obtain from the IAB Polska web site.
For the advertising neighborhood, the information carries implications that reach effectively past Poland. IAB Spain’s research into Gen Z brand preferences recognized aesthetic sensibility and authenticity as major engagement drivers for this age group – qualities that require human artistic judgment to provide persistently. The competency profile that makes younger individuals beneficial to digital advertising organizations is similar profile AI can’t replicate: contextual understanding, cultural fluency, and adaptive strategic considering.
The trade’s problem is just not attracting expertise that does not exist. It’s demonstrating that the profession on supply is definitely worth the competitors, strain, and uncertainty that at the moment defines entry into the sector.
Timeline
Abstract
Who: IAB Polska, by its IAB Level of Youth initiative, in collaboration with analysis agency IQS. Contributors embody Włodzimierz Schmidt (President of IAB Polska), Paweł Kolenda (IQS), and a number of other younger trade professionals representing member firms.
What: A analysis report titled “Praca w digitalu – klasa czy obciach?” inspecting how Poles aged 18 to 30 understand digital advertising as a profession. Key findings embody neutral-to-positive attitudes towards the sector, IT’s dominance over advertising in profession aspirations, efficiency strain as the first unfavourable, competitors as the primary barrier to entry, and polarized views on AI’s influence on employment.
When: Survey performed November 13-16, 2025. First introduced March 4, 2026 at IAB ExpertPanel in Warsaw. Full report printed April 3, 2026.
The place: Poland. The survey was performed on-line by way of the Omnisurv by IQS platform with a nationally consultant pattern of 300 adults aged 18 to 30. Findings have been publicly introduced in Warsaw.
Why: The report goals to supply the Polish digital advertising trade with data-driven perception into how the subsequent era of staff perceives the sector – figuring out each the alternatives and structural obstacles that may form expertise recruitment, retention, and growth over the approaching decade.
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