Česká spořitelna's Future Lab branch in Prague operates around the clock as the Czech Republic's first nonstop bank branch, serving thousands of visitors yearly with a relational AI digital human that greets every visitor within seconds of entry.
"Future Lab elevates our advisory approach through AI while enabling nonstop personal branch counseling for the first time. We believe the combination of human and digital advisory remains optimal," says Daniela Pešková, Board Member at Česká spořitelna. A visitor on site described the experience: "It is open non-stop and AI avatars help in it; we visited the bank of the future."
The branch was built on a sharp tension in Czech banking behaviour. Česká spořitelna's research showed 80% of Czechs welcome new technology but 56% still prefer personal contact for complex financial decisions. The brief was a flagship space that operates around the clock, where technology serves the visitor without replacing the human banker. AI welcomes, qualifies, and routes, then steps back the moment a person is needed.
A roughly one-year collaboration with Promethist moved through four phases. Discovery and spatial design mapped branch ethnography, visitor journey, hardware siting, LED choreography, and avatar identity alongside the ČSAS brand team. The agent-and-avatar build delivered two fully custom ČSAS-branded male and female personas, conversational architecture, calendar API integration, space-control protocol, and a 20-plus language voice pipeline. Integration and hardening covered on-site hardware install, computer-vision calibration, acoustic tuning, banker notification loop, security audit, and live stress testing with real foot traffic. The fourth phase, launch and continuous ops, has run since day one with 24/7 autonomous operation, continuous learning, persona updates, and conversation analytics.
The Promethist Engage installation combines a conversational architecture with relational memory, computer vision that detects adults, children, wheelchair users, and visually-impaired visitors, and spatial audio that pinpoints genuine kiosk presence to avoid phantom triggers. The agent reads banker calendars, selects the best match, and physically calls them to the visitor with full conversation context, while orchestrating ambient lighting, LED walls, signage, and mood across the entire branch. It detects spoken language and switches instantly mid-sentence across 20+ languages with zero configuration.
The Future Lab branch on Národní třída / Na Perštýně runs AI reception 24/7 with expert staff Monday-Thursday 9-18, Friday 9-16. Every visitor is greeted within seconds with no queue, intent is qualified on the spot, and meetings are booked live against banker calendars. Česká spořitelna now treats the branch as a living lab, with on-site Future Lab experts monitoring visitor reactions and feeding insights back into the product.
Innovations proven at Future Lab feed into Česká spořitelna's 320 branches nationally and across Erste Group's seven-country network. The bank positions the model as a new standard for physical banking, where every visitor is greeted, every intent is qualified, no banker walks in blind, and the agent is the brand, not a bolt-on.