Prague Airport improves productivity by bringing AI into everyday work with Microsoft 365 Copilot

Prague Airport operates the busiest international airport in Czechia, handling almost 16.4 million passengers last year. It is expected to handle up to 18 million passengers in 2025. With more than 4,000 employees across the entire Prague Airport Group, including subsidiaries, and a broader ecosystem of about 14,000 workers, the airport plays a central role in connecting travelers across Central Europe.

As part of its long-term vision to grow passenger numbers, increase revenue from non-aviation services, and shape the development of Airport City, Prague Airport began exploring the possibilities of artificial intelligence (AI). “AI tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot can take over mundane tasks, like taking notes during meetings, freeing people to focus on the discussion and make decisions and that helps us advance on our strategic goals,” shares Ondřej Horký, M365 Team Leader at Prague Airport.

Laying the groundwork for security

A major concern from the outset was regulation and data security—understandably so in a highly regulated environment like an international airport. It was crucial to prevent accidental data sharing. “Employees were already seeing AI tools emerge and looking for ways to use them,” says Marek Janeček, Chief Information Officer at Prague Airport. “We knew we had to provide a secure, sanctioned solution—otherwise, they would’ve found their own workarounds.”

Fortunately, the airport had already adopted Microsoft 365 E3, giving employees access to productivity tools backed by enterprise-grade security. That foundation made the transition to Microsoft 365 Copilot a natural next step. “Because Copilot is built on services we already trust, it was much easier to make the case for our cybersecurity team,” Janeček adds.

Building awareness through experience

It wasn’t just about giving people access to AI—it was about inspiring them to actually use it. “We saw tremendous potential in AI and decided to pursue it. The fact that we became one of the first organizations to adopt this approach demonstrates that we are on the right path and succeeding,” explains Tomáš Brožek, M365 System Engineer at Prague Airport. “We wanted our staff to think of AI as the first option, not the last resort.”

With support from SoftwareOne, Prague Airport built dedicated Copilot websites, created internal training materials, and launched a series of workshops. “We leveraged an existing community of digital ambassadors, originally formed during the adoption of Microsoft 365 services, to help new users learn how to use Copilot,” shares Horký. Early users came from different departments to test a variety of use cases and assess their impact.

Making everyday work more efficient

Adoption steadily grows to this date. Today, Copilot is available to more than 300 employees, allowing them to work confidently and securely with sensitive data—without ever leaving familiar Microsoft apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Power BI. The ability to use the platform in Czech has been a game-changer. “Copilot’s Czech-language capabilities are incredibly strong,” notes Janeček.

The most common use cases include generating meeting notes in Teams, drafting and triaging emails in Outlook, searching internal documents, and summarizing past communications in preparation for meetings.

During a company-wide seminar with over 150 participants, staff from various departments shared more individual examples. A project manager showcased how he could generate a PowerPoint presentation from a Word document in seconds. Other employees used Copilot to find answers to common IT questions, like how to turn off notifications.

Prague Airport also began applying AI to more complex tasks, like analyzing unstructured data. Using Azure AI Services, the airport analyzed customer feedback from its restaurant, using models to classify comments by category such as food quality, amount, taste, and type. “We plan to automate categorizing this process,” recalls Janeček. “Now, Azure AI makes everything much faster.” Another use case focused on document processing. With Azure AI Vision, the team can extract data from documents and classify them. The extracted data flows into a SharePoint list, where Azure Logic Apps triggers follow-up actions.

The airport also encourages employees to build AI agents that address specific team needs. One use case started with document-heavy departments. “One team deployed a SharePoint AI agent that helps them fetch the right document by asking a simple question,” Brožek adds. Another team has rulebooks for equipment and aircraft repair procedures. “They wanted a chat-style interface to interact with those procedures, and an AI agent was the perfect fit.”

Faster execution, sharper results

Prague Airport saw measurable gains right from the start. “Our staff reported a boost in task efficiency and saved up to two hours a week with Microsoft 365 Copilot,” says Janeček. “In an organization of our size, that alone justified the investment, and adoption has only grown since, likely pushing those numbers even higher.”