Air Bank chief Štrcula: the AI race won’t be won by cutting staff

Michal Štrcula, who has headed Air Bank, part of the PPF group, since 2014, believes that in the artificial intelligence revolution the winner will not be whoever cuts staff, but whoever brings clients the greatest benefit. The 45-year-old executive is now betting on the bank not merely automating old processes, but rebuilding them around AI.

Most Czechs know the slogan “You can love a bank too”. With it, Air Bank burst into the Czech banking world 15 years ago, showing that the market had been joined not only by a convenient and straightforward service, but by a modern, assertive player. The numbers say the idea worked. In the first six months of 2026, the bank’s net profit rose by 23% to CZK 2.3 billion, and its client base grew by 53,000 to 2.1 million. For all 12 years, one man has been at the bank’s helm – Štrcula.

Before joining Air Bank he worked at GE Money Bank and Raiffeisenbank. Now, for him as for the whole industry, the key question is how to build AI into a company’s work. In his words, the main threat to banks’ current business model is that they will lose touch with clients and turn into a mere infrastructure provider of functions.

Štrcula stresses that AI adoption must be organic, with artificial intelligence becoming an integral part of how a company is organised. “The race will be won by whoever manages to structurally change processes and build them around AI so that the client gets maximum value. Not whoever simply automates an existing process,” says the Air Bank chief.

He notes that changes for which there used to be ten years to adapt now happen within a year, and the demands on people and companies have multiplied. For a manager, AI opens up the possibility of scaling work in ways that were previously unthinkable: if artificial intelligence is skilfully built into management, growth is limited only by money – “buy more electricity, burn more tokens”.

At the same time, roles need to be clearly separated: in some places AI will assign tasks to people, and in others people will assign them to AI. For that, Štrcula stresses, a secure infrastructure is needed, one that employees know how to navigate.