Škoda Auto’s approach to IT and digitalisation is guided by an IT strategy aligned with the Company’s Next Level Škoda Strategy. It concentrates on the following priorities: reliability and efficiency, people and teamwork, future readiness, and sustainability.
A defining theme in 2025, echoed across the wider business, was the rollout of artificial intelligence (AI). The long-term ambition is for AI to become a natural part of everyday work, supported by the continued expansion of the Digital Delivery Centres. The year also introduced new legislative requirements, as well as fresh opportunities to broaden collaboration and advance IT education.
Artificial Intelligence
The Company uses a wide range of tools to drive innovation and efficiency. This includes artificial intelligence. Škoda Auto is no newcomer in this field: in 2019 it established the AI Competence Centre (AICC), which delivers AI services and products across all departments. Its remit includes shaping and executing the Company’s AI strategy, creating AI standards, and embedding ethical artificial intelligence in line with European Union requirements (the AI Act). These activities come together under AI Think Big, an initiative that provides the framework for advancing the Company’s AI projects.
AI Think Big
AI is already contributing to resource planning, cost–benefit analysis, selecting and deploying the most effective tools, upskilling the workforce, and introducing platforms and processes that pave the way for further adoption of AI. A further integral element of the initiative is the expansion of the Company’s Digital Delivery Centres (DDCs). Its benefits can already be measured in the order of several million euros.
Digital Delivery Centres
DDCs are decentralised competence centres within each diVision Of the Company. They strengthen the ability of individual departments to deliver AI and digitalisation solutions quickly and independently, combining domain-specific expertise with the technical capabilities required to design and develop digital products. In doing so, DDCs reduce reliance on specialist IT capacity and accelerate, streamline, and lower the cost of digitalisation.
In 2025, Škoda Auto’s Digital Delivery Centres were recognised in the Industry 4.0 Awards, presented jointly by the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Alliance for Innovation Economy (SAPIE), earning a place among the top three in the category for in-company implementation. These awards are regarded as the highest level of recognition in modern manufacturing, automation, and digitalisation.