Cluj-Napoca/Romania, September 29, 2026– RBJ – Artificial intelligence is shifting the balance of power in software outsourcing and giving Romania access to some of the IT projects that India has won in recent years. Smaller teams of senior engineers, supported by AI, can reach total costs comparable to those of much larger offshore teams, while factors such as developers’ technical expertise, code quality, speed of execution, direct communication, and proximity to the business are carrying more weight in companies’ decisions, according to an analysis by OVES Enterprise, a Romanian technology company specializing in autonomous systems and AI-powered applications, with experience in drone development and production.
The shift comes as European companies are already reassessing their outsourcing strategies. A 2025 study by IDC, a global technology research and consulting company, found that 42% of large European enterprises plan to move from offshore to nearshore IT services over the next 18 months.
AI is accelerating this process by significantly increasing developer productivity. In a scenario analyzed by OVES Enterprise, a project previously supported by an offshore team of around 100 developers can now be handled by 25–40 senior engineers using AI coding agents, automated testing, and AI tools for documentation and other stages of software development.
“It all comes down to financials. If you can have 30 very strong developers in Romania using AI and delivering at a cost comparable to a much larger team in India, the decision changes. The client is buying the outcome of the project. Team quality, speed, communication, and the ability to understand the product become extremely important. This gives Romania a real opportunity to win back projects previously lost to India”, says Mihai Filip, CEO of OVES Enterprise.
AI reduces the advantage of very large offshore teams
India has built one of the world’s largest technology industries through its ability to deliver international projects at massive scale. In fiscal year 2025, India’s tech industry generated exports worth $224.4 billion and employed approximately 5.8 million people. AI is changing this scale-driven model. A senior developer who knows how to use AI tools can generate, review, and test code significantly faster, allowing companies to build complex projects with more compact teams.
For Mihai Filip, the quality gap between teams is becoming a decisive factor in the competition between Romania and India.
“In our experience, the quality of code delivered by many teams in India remains low, while AI already writes better code than many of the developers we encounter on these projects. A very strong team in Romania that knows how to use AI can deliver with far fewer people and at a competitive total cost. This is exactly where the game changes for Romania’s software industry”, adds Mihai Filip.
Proximity adds another advantage. A Romanian team can operate almost in the same time zone as Germany, France, Austria, or the Nordic countries, communicate with product teams in real time, and work within the same European legal framework. Coordination becomes easier, development cycles become shorter, and know-how remains within teams working closely with the client.
Romania gains access to higher-value projects
OVES Enterprise sees the biggest opportunity in projects requiring advanced expertise: AI engineering, data engineering, cybersecurity, cloud, and platform engineering. Demand is increasingly concentrated around specialized engineers in these areas, while standardized software development services are facing growing pressure from automation and productivity gains.
For Romania, this shifts competition toward an area where developer seniority, technical skills, and the ability to work directly with the client carry greater weight in procurement decisions.
“The local market has an enormous opportunity over the next few years. Romania has highly skilled developers, and AI multiplies their productivity. Teams will be smaller, expertise will become more important, and the projects they can take on will be more complex. India exports more than $200 billion worth of technology services and products every year. Even a small share of European projects moving toward nearshore delivery can generate significant growth for Romania’s IT industry”, Mihai Filip adds.
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OVES Enterprise is a Romanian technology company specialising in autonomous systems and artificial intelligence applications, with experience in drone development and manufacturing. The company was founded in Cluj-Napoca in 2015.
Since 2019, the company has expanded its operations to include complex projects for industries such as automotive, eCommerce, fintech and telecommunications, as well as for international government institutions.
In recent years, OVES Enterprise has developed the Nemesis AI platform, expanded its activities in autonomous systems and drone manufacturing, and is working on Project Sahara, an advanced cruise missile system designed for defence applications.
More than half of the company’s current revenue is generated by international projects integrating artificial intelligence and data analytics technologies. OVES Enterprise has more than 200 employees and offices in Romania, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States and Norway.
