Czech AI Policy: A Case Study of a Medium-Sized EU Member State

In discussions on AI policy, attention often centres on the European Union’s overarching approach, or, occasionally, the positions of major Member States like France or Germany. The perspectives of the other 25 Member States are mostly overlooked.  This can be short-sighted since AI is becoming a strategically important technology, and most states are thinking about how to develop and integrate this technology regardless of a transnational entity (like the EU). This short article aims to address that gap by illustrating how a medium-sized EU Member State, with a population of roughly 11 million, approaches AI. The relevance of this topic is increasing further as Czechia is currently taking active steps to re-define EU AI policy. Therefore, this article aims to illustrate Czechia’s early first steps in the direction towards greater engagement on AI.

Czechia’s First Steps in AI Policy

Until quite recently, the straightforward answer to the question “What does Czechia think about AI?” had been: “Not much, really.” Despite its rising strategic importance, AI had simply not been an outsized topic of the public or political debate at all. It would appear in the media here and there, and people would mention it at various events, especially at topic-specific conferences. However, there was not a major, coherent public discussion about how to approach this topic strategically, and even more importantly, significant political involvement was lacking.

Like most EU countries, Czechia has its own ambitious National AI Strategy, a 78-page document that focuses on seven broad categories with 29 specific goals. The Ministry of Industry and Trade is the main actor responsible for coordinating the strategy’s implementation in cooperation with other ministries and government agencies. These efforts are supported by civil society, such as the prg.AI initiative, and private sector actors. Since the Ministry of Industry and Trade is the main government actor concerned with AI in Czechia, it recently became the National Competent Authority who is responsible for enforcing the EU AI Act. Additionally, it was granted the responsibility to prepare a national AI law so it will definitely continue working on this topic.

AI in Czech Political Circles

Due to Czechia’s relatively modest size and population and the limited number of organisations and experts dedicated to AI, the Ministry of Industry and Trade can engage with most of the relevant actors directly. The Ministry has, however, been largely missing the high-level political support, e.g. a prominent member of the government (such as a Minister) prioritising this topic and asking for fast progress and tangible results. While the Czech President did attend the Paris AI Action Summit and commented on the topic widely after the event, this was one of the rare occasions of a high-ranking Czech official or politician talking about AI directly. This unfortunate situation changed slightly in January 2025, with the appointment of a new Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Jan Kavalírek, bringing what can be described as a breath of fresh air and new ambition to work on AI.

So far, Kavalírek has promised to make Czechia one of the top 10 countries in AI globally by 2030 – a no small feat indeed. While this seems overly ambitious, considering that even countries investing disproportionately more in AI than the Czech Republic (such as the UAE) only have the ambition to be in the top 15 worldwide, insiders consider his drive as encouraging for the local AI community and has earned him the position of Czech Government Commissioner for AI. His tenure, so far lasting only a few months, may end prematurely with the general elections in October 2025. The opposition led by Andrej Babiš’ party ANO 2011 is likely to win the upcoming elections, and this would mean replacement of Kavalírek with someone more aligned with the new government. Unfortunately, the position of ANO 2011 on AI-related matters is largely unclear, though a dramatic shift from the current  position is unlikely to occur. A more likely scenario is that no one in the new government will focus on this strategically important topic.

Despite this more negative outlook, at least one Czech high-profile government official is finally talking about AI and its transformative potential, which is one more than what Czechia had before. Most importantly, his current initiatives, such as his regular videos about AI, his consistent work on the EU AI Act implementation, or recent application for an AI gigafactory in Czechia, are showing and will practically demonstrate further how much influence one active politician can wield.

Setbacks and Missed Opportunities

Despite Kavalírek’s efforts, the government’s commitment to AI has been arguably weak despite the breakneck pace of AI breakthroughs of the past few years. The current Czech government (2021–2025) used to have a Vice Prime Minister focused on Digitalisation, Ivan Bartoš. This was a promising sign that the government would take digital matters seriously. Unfortunately for the AI community, this Minister was dismissed in the Fall of 2024, leaving these topics and the people working on them in a vacuum without any political support or interest in topics, such as AI.

Bartoš’s departure has been paired with persistent worries on the industry side about the regulation discussions taking place in Brussels. Most Czech companies have been viewing the EU AI Act with caution, and they have been mostly confused about its developments. Some private sector actors are also concerned about the impact of regulation on European competitiveness and innovation, which has been cited by many across the EU, though I think the connection here is often overplayed, and there are other more important factors influencing this, such as the lack of a unified EU capital market.

The Promise of Medium-Sized States in EU AI Policy

These sentiments illustrate what can be described as a considerable detachment between the policy choices of the Brussels–based EU administration, the Member States and their domestic private sector actors. It seems that the legislation passed during the previous European Commission’s term (2019-2024) has been disconnected from the opinions and preferences on the ground. While the European Commission was focusing on the AI regulation quite early on, this also meant that the real impact of large language model-based generative AI has only been observed after the first versions of the legislation were already drafted and discussed.

The adoption of the EU AI Act thus illustrates a lack of consistent advocacy effort on the Member State level. At the same time, it creates an opening for future policy-shaping efforts, highlighting the importance of engaging with Member States and taking their national interests into account. As the case of the inclusion of nuclear energy in the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance illustrates, one member state (in this case, France) with the ability to form a coalition of like-minded partners is often able to influence the final EU policy that shapes the fate of the whole continent. Both supporters and opponents of the EU AI Act could and should do more at the Member State level to make sure the final outcome serves the needs of Europe as a whole and all of its members in the years to come.

Czechia recently began lobbying in the European Commission for a simplification of the EU AI Act and a postponement of its effectiveness by two years. While it remains unclear how many and what other Member States might support this initiative, this recent activity demonstrates that Czechia might become a more relevant actor in EU AI policy in the upcoming years.