Chief AI Officer at Finshape · Partner at Direct People · Independent Consultant

AI that delivers business results, not just likes.

At Finshape I lead the company-wide transformation into an AI-native business and the teams building bank-grade AI products. 15+ years in strategy, innovation, and product development across finance, healthcare, media, and technology.

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15+
years in tech, strategy and innovation
40+
clients served personally
11
industries, from banks to healthcare
10+
countries, CZ · EU · US · Middle East
Project experience with
Česká spořitelna ČEZ Moneta Generali CME Linet Economia Believeco
01 /

What I do

A

Company-wide AI-native transformation

At Finshape I lead the shift to an AI-native business: embedding AI across product, engineering, delivery and operations, and into the daily work of all 700+ people. Including AI governance and EU AI Act compliance.

B

Enterprise-grade AI products

I run the teams building AI products for banks - from Financial Intelligence to agentic systems. AI integrated into banking technologies, with governance and human oversight built in.

C

AI strategy & adoption

From ambition to a roadmap with measurable outcomes. AI transformation programs, adoption initiatives, and internal champions who carry the change forward.

D

From a need to a product in market

Not just design through Human Centered Design, but building, launching, selling and driving to first business results. Consulting background from Deloitte Digital.

02 /

Selected work

Finshape

Company-wide AI-native transformation

Finshape's shift to an AI-native business and two product teams: agentic DBOS and Financial Intelligence with the Financial Assistant.

700+ people · bank-grade AI in product and operations
Leading retail bank

AI compliance monitoring (MiFID II)

AI monitoring of investment advisory calls against 12 MiFID II criteria.

94-95% match with human specialists · ROI within 1 year
Major Czech bank

Research insights chatbot

An assistant for working with research and insights across the organization.

Insights for 10,000+ employees
More projects

A PoC is not production. What counts is AI that survives the real business and shows up in the numbers.

Josef Dvorak
03 /

How I work

01

Clarify business expectations

Everything stands or falls on what the innovation or AI is actually expected to deliver. Where that is unclear, I help facilitate, calibrate and set it. Without it, success is measured by gut feeling.

02

Pragmatic strategy

In the AI era there is no point building grand strategies. We agree where we want to be this year and next, what has to happen, build a plan, sign off the expected benefit versus the investment, and go build.

03

Problem first, technology second

First pick a problem worth solving, then look for the best solution and the technology available within it. And iterate until it is solved - it does not have to work the first time, or with the first technology. Only a truly big, painful problem sustains the long-term will to keep investing in the fix.

04

Signal vs. noise

I started in the intelligence community: a national-scale analytics platform for the Ministry of Defence and a NATO working group. It taught me to evaluate information, separate signal from noise, and decide under uncertainty. In the era of AI hype, that may be the most valuable skill of all.

04 /

References

What stood out was Josef's ability to think at different levels of the business - market needs, the competitive environment, the strategic path - and then to operationalize and execute it. The team he led were action oriented and became part of the fabric of the company.

Michael Kaminski
CEO & President, LINET Americas

I have had few, if any, partners or colleagues that reached the standard set by Josef. His specific acumen with technology and AI proved highly relevant to our work, and his ability to truly impact a business is real. Any organization would be lucky to have him.

Peter Kornberg
Co-Founder & Chief Experience Officer, Catalyst

I would definitely recommend Josef personally as a manager for digitalization projects. He was the first person who truly understood both our markets and both sides' solutions, and the project management was realized in his person, very professionally.

Uwe Deckert
Director Marketing & Product Management, Wissner-bosserhoff

I gave them lots of rope to hang themselves. It turned out they didn't - the team Josef led built a bridge instead and delivered far beyond what I expected. We sold our first unit within 12 months and tripled sales versus our estimate.

Andrew Aitken
Product Director, LINET Americas
05 /

Career

From OSINT product for the Military intelligence through Deloitte ICT Consulting and product innovations for dozens of clients to Chief AI Officer at Finshape.

Full career and more about me
06 /

Thoughts and insights from practice

Jun 29, 2026 · 5 min read

The biggest mistake banks make with AI

Banks go looking for places to put AI instead of solving a real need. Why the low-hanging-fruit pilot dies first.

Read article Jun 16, 2026 · 4 min read

Sovereign AI and Europe's dependency

Availability, pricing, and now geopolitics. Why companies and Europe should think about sovereign AI infrastructure before they need it.

Read article Jun 13, 2026 · 5 min read

The closed-loop organization

Prompting agents is already obsolete. Why middle management disappears and what it does to the cost structure of companies.

Read article
All articles
07 /

Video

What is the most common mistake banks make when approaching AI? A short video from Finshape.

Watch on LinkedIn Talks & videos
08 / Contact

Let's meet.

Whether you are working on AI transformation, adoption, or a new product, I am happy to hear where you stand.

Contact me LinkedIn