The Complete Guide to Using AI in the Financial Services Industry in Czech Republic in 2025

Financial services in the Czech Republic are at a turning point: with a National AI Strategy (NAIS 2030), growing startup activity and targeted funding, banks and fintechs are fast-tracking pilots while regulators race to align domestic law with the EU AI Act.

A 2025 legal review documents that 41% of large Czech firms already use AI (11% across all companies) across marketing, HR and customer support, and highlights big wins in fraud detection and automated document processing from local scaleups like Resistant AI and Rossum; read the full Czech AI laws and regulations briefing for details (Czech AI laws and regulations briefing (2025)).

Public funding (TWIST and OP TAK) and diplomatic attention after January 2025 export restrictions on advanced AI chips mean companies must pair speed with secure deployment - practical workplace AI skills are increasingly essential, for example via the hands-on AI Essentials for Work bootcamp.

Attribute	Details
Description	Gain practical AI skills for any workplace; learn tools, prompts, and business applications (no technical background needed).
Length	15 Weeks
Courses included	AI at Work: Foundations; Writing AI Prompts; Job Based Practical AI Skills
Cost	$3,582 early bird; $3,942 regular. Paid in 18 monthly payments, first payment due at registration.
Syllabus / Register	AI Essentials for Work bootcamp - Syllabus & Registration

“The advent of artificial intelligence represents a significant opportunity for the transformation and modernisation of Czech industry. That is why we at the Ministry have decided to assume the leading role in implementing AI into the Czech legal system and to actively support its development and practical application.”

The National Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2030 (NAIS 2030) is the Czech playbook for turning AI into an economic and public‑service advantage: approved by government resolution on 24 July 2024, it sets seven interconnected priorities - research & innovation, education and skills, legal and ethical frameworks, security, industry uptake, public administration, and labour‑market readiness - and is backed by a multi‑year action plan that is updated annually and earmarks major project investments (roughly 19 billion CZK) to build centres of excellence, test environments and European Digital Innovation Hubs so firms can trial AI in supervised conditions; read the NAIS 2030 overview here (Cedefop summary of the Czech NAIS 2030 national AI strategy).

Implementation is tightly aligned with the EU AI Act rollout and a national AI Implementation Plan led by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which foresees regulatory sandboxes, designated surveillance authorities and capacity building to help SMEs comply - part of a broader goal to have three‑quarters of businesses using cloud, big data or AI by 2030 (White & Case analysis of the Czech AI Implementation Plan and EU AI Act alignment).

Item	Detail
Approval	Government Resolution No. 520, 24 July 2024
Lead body	Ministry of Industry and Trade
Seven key areas	Research & R&D; Education & skills; Ethical & legal aspects; Security; Industry & business; Public administration; Labour market impact
Action plan	Annual updates; ~19 billion CZK in project investments
Ambition	75% of businesses to use cloud, big data or AI by 2030

“Artificial intelligence represents a huge potential for our economy and society and can significantly improve our quality of life. In order to use this potential to the maximum for the benefit of the Czech Republic, we have prepared the updated National Artificial Intelligence Strategy of the Czech Republic 2030.”

For Czech financial firms the regulatory picture is now dominated by the EU's risk-based AI framework - the Czech government has no standalone AI statute yet and is focused on transposing and operationalising the EU AI Act through its national AI Implementation Plan, led by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and backed by a CZK 232 million implementation budget for 2026–2028 (White & Case AI Implementation Plan overview).

Practically, that means banks, insurers and fintechs must treat credit scoring, recruitment and other finance‑related models as potential “high‑risk” systems under the AI Act, build end‑to‑end governance (risk management, quality data, logging, human oversight and clear documentation), and prepare for phased obligations: the Act entered into force on 1 August 2024, with governance and GPAI rules becoming applicable in August 2025 and the bulk of high‑risk obligations in August 2026 - EU AI Act overview: timeline and requirements.

The Implementation Plan also names the likely national actors (the Czech Telecommunication Office as market surveillance authority, the Office for Technical Standardization for conformity notification and the Czech Agency for Standardization to run sandboxes), and points firms toward regulatory sandboxes and EU testing facilities where, importantly, experimentation can proceed with supervisory guidance and limited protection from administrative fines if sandbox rules are followed: a practical route for risk‑heavy pilots that need to show compliance before scaling.

Item	Detail
National AI law	No standalone Czech AI statute; focus on implementing the EU AI Act
Lead body	Ministry of Industry and Trade (AI Implementation Plan)
Designated authorities	Czech Telecommunication Office (market surveillance); Office for Technical Standardization (notifying authority); Czech Agency for Standardization (sandbox operator)
Key dates	AI Act entry into force: 1 Aug 2024; GPAI/governance rules effective: Aug 2025; majority of high‑risk obligations: 2 Aug 2026

Practical compliance starts with a firm‑wide AI inventory - map every model (credit scoring, recruitment, fraud detection, document processing) and test whether it could be “high‑risk” under the EU AI Act - then triage: stop, monitor or fast‑track remediation.

Build an AI management system that embeds risk management, data quality controls, event logging, human oversight and up‑to‑date documentation (conformity files, impact assessments and versioned training data), and harden supplier contracts so third‑party models carry clear AI Act obligations; these are the same core steps advisers recommend to determine relevance and prepare for conformity assessment and market registration.

Use the Czech regulatory sandbox ecosystem and EU testing facilities to pilot risk‑heavy systems under supervision, and align governance with the national AI Implementation Plan and designated authorities (prepare to work with the proposed market surveillance and conformity bodies).

Budget and staffing matter - the Implementation Plan allocates CZK 232 million for 2026–2028 - so appoint an AI asset owner, audit continuously, and treat compliance as an operational capability (not a one‑off project) to keep pilots from becoming compliance liabilities.

For detail on the national plan and EU timeline see the Czech AI Implementation Plan overview and the EU AI Act guidance.

Step	What to do
Inventory & risk assessment	Catalog systems, identify potential high‑risk uses (credit, HR, scoring), document assessments
Governance	Establish policies, logging, human oversight, quality data and incident reporting
Supply chain	Update contracts to require AI Act compliance and evidence from providers
Testing & supervision	Use sandboxes and EU testing facilities; engage national authorities early

“The advent of artificial intelligence represents a significant opportunity for the transformation and modernisation of Czech industry. That is why we at the Ministry have decided to assume the leading role in implementing AI into the Czech legal system and to actively support its development and practical application.”

Conversational AI is already moving from pilot to production in Czech finance, most visibly at Česká Spořitelna, where a custom neural‑voice virtual agent handles routing and routine queries 24/7, uses the voice of a well‑known Czech actor to preserve brand tone, and delivers striking operational gains - 90% accuracy in call categorisation and average routing to the right help in just 22 seconds - making it easier for agents to focus on complex cases; read the Česká Spořitelna custom neural‑voice virtual agent case study for full details (Česká Spořitelna custom neural‑voice virtual agent case study).

These results mirror global conversational‑AI outcomes - higher automation and containment rates and big reductions in live‑agent load - so Czech banks can pursue measurable pilots that show ROI within months and pair them with robust delivery practices using an on‑prem MLOps & LLM production checklist to meet regulatory and security constraints (MLOps & LLM on‑prem production checklist for financial services).

The “so what?” is simple: voice and chat AI don't just cut wait times and costs - they free human advisors to add empathy and judgement where it matters most, while giving banks a fast, supervised path to scale.

Bank / Project	Key metrics
Česká Spořitelna – custom neural voice virtual agent	4.5M+ customers; 90% call‑category accuracy; 22 seconds to required help

“The strong brand reputation comes with the trust of our customers. We are pretty fast, yet careful with the innovations we implement. We even have our very own team of conversational specialists developing our virtual assistants. However, we were looking for partners who will help us with things we cannot do on our own and also someone experienced enough to guide us on our way of digital transformation. And Born Digital turned out to be an excellent option.” - Pavlína Kacrová, Call Center Routing Lead, Česká spořitelna

The Czech Republic is positioning its infrastructure and funding stack to move from pilots to powerhouse: the Ministry of Industry and Trade has backed the AI Gigafactory CZ bid - led by České Radiokomunikace (CRA) with IT4Innovations - and has convened a national Coordination Council to prepare an application to the EU, pointing Prague's Prague Gateway DC as a ready anchor site; the project could plug into Europe's larger InvestAI momentum, which aims to mobilise some €200 billion and a dedicated €20 billion gigafactory fund to build 3–5 AI “gigafactories” (each typically estimated at €3–5 billion, ~65% privately financed) and make massive compute capacity broadly available across industry and research (MPO press release on the AI Gigafactory CZ, InvestAI initiative and funding overview).

The pragmatic payoff for Czech financial firms is tangible: local infrastructure ambitions (Prague Gateway's initial 26 MW / 2,000‑rack design and staged 700‑rack go‑live) could give banks and fintechs lower‑latency, GDPR‑aligned access to huge training clusters - think cohorts of 100,000 advanced AI chips - so innovation and compliance can co‑exist in the same region rather than being outsourced overseas (Prague Gateway DC construction details); in short, the gigafactory bid is a bet that hosting European‑scale compute will attract cutting‑edge research, private investment and skilled jobs to Czechia and shorten the path from lab to regulated financial pilots.

Item	Key fact
InvestAI / EU gigafactory fund	InvestAI €200 billion mobilised; €20 billion dedicated fund for gigafactories
Per‑gigafactory investment	Estimated €3–5 billion; ~65% private financing
Prague Gateway DC (CRA)	Initial phase 26 MW; 2,000 racks; first 700‑rack building targeted by end 2027
Target compute scale	Facilities designed around ~100,000 advanced AI chips (H100‑class)

“The AI Gigafactory will enable us to become part of the European elite and bring a cutting-edge research, investment, and highly skilled jobs to the country.” - Minister of Industry and Trade Lukáš Vlček

When it comes to big AI investments in 2025, the action in Czechia has come from a mix of heavyweight tech investors already active in the market and strengthened public funding: CzechInvest's AI & Digital page highlights global names with a strong Czech footprint - Microsoft, Skype, Tieto, Red Hat, SolarWinds, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, H2O.ai and MSD IT - as proven investors in the country (CzechInvest AI & Digital - Czechia AI investment overview), while national programmes such as TWIST and the Operational Programme Technology and Applications for Competitiveness (OP TAK) are primed to channel capital and grants (TWIST offers project funding up to CZK 30 million and OP TAK's deep‑tech calls were heavily oversubscribed), creating a practical bridge from pilots to scale (Global Legal Insights - Czech Republic AI funding and policy (2025)).

The “so what?” is clear: international firms with local operations can plug into Czech public support and a steady pipeline of nearly six thousand ICT graduates a year, turning one-off trials into regulated, bank‑ready deployments that insurers and banks can actually use.

Category	Examples / Facts (from research)
Notable investors in Czechia	Microsoft, Skype, Tieto, Red Hat, SolarWinds, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, H2O.ai, MSD IT (CzechInvest)
Public funding & programmes (2025)	TWIST (up to CZK 30m/project); OP TAK deep‑tech calls (oversubscribed)

Outlook for Czechia's AI industry in 2025 is cautiously optimistic: strong pockets of talent and rapidly growing startups (Resistant.ai, Rossum and others) and a clutch of global investors already on the ground suggest a runway to scale, while national plans (NAIS 2030) plus targeted funding (TWIST, OP TAK) are steering public money into testbeds and incubators; read the comprehensive legal and market picture in the Global Legal Insights briefing (Global Legal Insights: AI, Machine Learning & Big Data Laws and Regulations - Czech Republic (2025)).

Key trends to watch: generative AI and conversational systems moving from pilots to measurable ROI, an urgent push for upskilling and new compliance roles as EU rules bite, and an investment-led push to anchor compute and research nearshore (Prague and Brno remain hotspots).

Headwinds matter: US export controls on advanced AI chips in January 2025 could throttle large‑scale LLM training, so local compute projects and investor interest - highlighted by CzechInvest's AI & Digital work - will be decisive (CzechInvest AI & Digital overview - Czech Republic AI initiatives).

The net effect for financial firms is clear: expect steady, regulated adoption with wins in automation and fraud detection, but plan for higher compliance costs and an accelerated drive to on‑prem and domestic compute to keep models both performant and compliant.

Indicator	2024/2025 Snapshot
Government AI Readiness (Oxford Insights)	Rank ~28th (2024), score 70.23
IMF AI Preparedness Index	0.65 (slightly below EU avg 0.66)
Enterprise AI adoption	41% of large firms; 11% overall
Key funding instruments	TWIST (up to CZK 30m/project); OP TAK deep‑tech calls (oversubscribed)

“The advent of artificial intelligence represents a significant opportunity for the transformation and modernisation of Czech industry. That is why we at the Ministry have decided to assume the leading role in implementing AI into the Czech legal system and to actively support its development and practical application.”

Governance and ethical oversight are becoming front‑and‑centre as Czech financial firms and supervisors move from pilots to production: the Bank Board of the Czech National Bank - the body that sets monetary and macroprudential policy - provides the institutional backdrop for careful, values‑driven adoption (Czech National Bank (CNB) Bank Board overview), while Governor Aleš Michl has loudly framed AI as a tool that must sit inside strong ethical guardrails and organisational culture change; the CNB is running pilots (Microsoft Copilot, xAI's Grok, Anthropic's Claude and RAG systems) and plans supervisory uses of machine learning and even automated decision‑making as part of that shift (Aleš Michl 2025 speech on AI, values and supervision).

That creates practical talent and governance work: the CNB has hired IT experts and reshaped teams, emphasising “morality and ethics” alongside technical skills, and its pilot programme shows why boards and compliance teams must coordinate on oversight, accountability and safe procurement.

A telling detail: culture changes were signalled not just by hires but by gifts - The Mind card game - used to stress team alignment as the bank embraces algorithmic tools.

Area	From research
Governance body	CNB Bank Board sets monetary & macroprudential policy
AI pilots & tools	Microsoft Copilot, Grok (xAI), Claude (Anthropic), RAG systems
Organisational change	Hired IT experts; branch operations staff reduced; culture shift emphasising ethics

“Imagine a world where algorithms and technology assist us, but our values keep us firmly grounded.”

Conclusion - for Czech financial firms the path forward is pragmatic and urgent: start by doing a formal internal audit and gap analysis to map AI use across credit, AML, recruitment and customer interfaces, then translate that inventory into a governance playbook (risk assessments, logging, supplier clauses, human oversight) much like the co‑created framework used in PwC's Czech finance engagement (see the AI governance framework case study Building AI governance: A strategic partnership in finance); pair that with a four‑pillar rollout - strategic value, technical MLOps readiness, embedded compliance and change management - to move pilots into production without losing control, as recommended by enterprise implementation guidance.

Stay on the regulatory timeline (DORA, PSD3, MiCA and the phased EU AI Act) and use ARROWS' checklist to prioritise DORA incident readiness, AI Act risk classification and PSD3 gaps legal obligations guidance.

Protect runway against chip export uncertainty (Jan 2025 controls) by planning for on‑prem or nearshore compute and by tapping NAIS/TWIST funding for testbeds; and accelerate staff readiness with practical upskilling such as the hands‑on AI Essentials for Work bootcamp.

Treat governance as continuous monitoring, not a one‑time checklist - a single well‑logged incident can teach more than a year of theory, and the firms that build that muscle now will convert pilots into compliant, measurable value fast.

Attribute	Details
Description	Gain practical AI skills for any workplace; learn tools, prompts, and business applications (no technical background needed).
Length	15 Weeks
Courses included	AI at Work: Foundations; Writing AI Prompts; Job Based Practical AI Skills
Cost	$3,582 early bird; $3,942 regular. Paid in 18 monthly payments, first payment due at registration.
Syllabus / Register	AI Essentials for Work bootcamp - Syllabus & Registration

“The advent of artificial intelligence represents a significant opportunity for the transformation and modernisation of Czech industry. That is why we at the Ministry have decided to assume the leading role in implementing AI into the Czech legal system and to actively support its development and practical application.”