AZ EXPERTUM articles
What is happening in technology, artificial intelligence and the IT labour market, and what it means for companies and specialists.
Artificial intelligence
The figure that 95% of AI pilots fail comes from a preliminary MIT NANDA report, but its data shows something else. What surveys by MIT NANDA, BCG and Deloitte and a Gartner forecast say about why companies try AI but do not get it into production.
Labour market
In the UK, 89% of companies were still on a shorter week a year after the trial. A German trial, one of the few with a control group, measured less stress and longer sleep, but no change in financial results. What the trials showed and what they did not.
Technology
Mainstream maintenance for SAP ECC with enhancement packages 6 to 8 ends on 31 December 2027; for older releases it ended in 2025. The system keeps running, but without paid extended maintenance the legal updates stop. In the DSAG survey, more companies now use S/4HANA than ECC.
Labour market
16.9% of employed people in Czechia work from home, below the EU average. Unlike in the EU, though, the share is higher than in 2021. In information and communication, more than 85% of employees worked from home at least occasionally in 2024.
Technology
Data centres used 17% more electricity in 2025, and those built for AI 50% more. Meanwhile the energy needed for a single AI task has fallen at least tenfold a year in recent years. No data came from Czechia in the first EU reporting round.
Labour market
Foreign ICT specialists in Czechia have a median wage 28% higher than Czech nationals. Of the EU Blue Cards issued in Czechia, 43% go to IT, and Indian citizens receive the most. More than 30% of students in IT programmes are foreigners.
Technology
In a spring 2025 trial, experienced developers worked 19% slower with AI while believing they were 20% faster. Other studies measured speed-ups of a quarter or more. Here is what the controlled experiments can actually tell us.
Labour market
Women make up 12.9% of ICT specialists in Czechia, the lowest share of any EU country. Over ten years the number of women in IT grew by 84% and the number of men by 35%. Even so, the gap to the rest of Europe is not getting smaller.
Labour market
A typical ICT specialist in the private sector (mainly companies) earned over CZK 90,000 gross a month in 2025, more than 90% of employees in that sector. In the public sector the median is 40% lower. 2025 is so far the last year with medians by occupation.
Artificial intelligence
In 2025, 17.6% of Czech companies with ten or more employees used artificial intelligence, roughly three times as many as in 2023, though a broader definition accounts for part of the rise. Czechia is still below the EU average, but uses text and code generation more often than the EU.
Technology
Rival AI companies put the building blocks of agents under shared governance, the Czech government backed a bid for a European AI gigafactory, and makers of connected devices have had new obligations since September. What has happened in technology since May 2026.
Labour market
Seven in ten Czech companies that looked for ICT specialists in 2023 had trouble filling the roles. According to Eurostat, that is the second highest share in the EU. As a share of all companies, however, it is just under 6%.
Artificial intelligence
Companies that use AI must support the AI literacy of their staff. A milder wording has applied since 27 July 2026: companies need not guarantee a specific level of literacy, and the regulation requires neither a certificate nor mandatory training.
Ways of working together
Employment agencies reported more than 238,000 employees assigned to user companies in 2025. How agency employment works in IT, what the agreement with the agency must contain, what comparable conditions mean and what labour inspectors focus on.
Labour market
According to Eurostat, more than 248,000 ICT specialists worked in Czechia in 2025, 4.7% of all people in employment. Their number grew by roughly 40% over ten years, but across the EU it grew faster.
Ways of working together
An employee suits a long-term role that you manage yourself, a self-employed contractor suits defined work with a clear brief, and an agency worker suits a temporary boost to a team you manage. What decides it is mainly how long you need someone and who will direct the work.
Ways of working together
With hourly capacity you buy the work of vetted people: you set the brief and priorities, and you are responsible for the project outcome. With project delivery you buy an agreed result, and the supplier is responsible for delivering it.
Artificial intelligence
Since 2 August 2026 most provisions of the AI Act have applied and, according to the European Commission, enforcement has begun. After this year's amendment, however, the rules for high-risk systems have moved to December 2027 and August 2028.
