Bratislava, 19 June 2025 – This week’s Slovaks AI Forum 2025 marked a significant milestone in strengthening connections among Slovak professionals in the field of AI, both at home and abroad. Organized by KInIT as part of the Slovak Diaspora Project, the event aimed to foster international collaboration, share knowledge, and strengthen connections between experts abroad.
Supported by the Recovery and Resilience Plan, the forum brought together more than 80 Slovak AI experts from 20 countries, spanning academia, industry, and the public and non-profit sectors.
The forum was honored by the participation of President Zuzana Čaputová, whose commitment to inclusion and support for the Slovak diaspora continues to inspire Slovaks around the world. In her opening remarks, President Čaputová emphasized the strategic value of global collaboration, highlighting the potential of Slovak diaspora expertise to contribute meaningfully to Slovakia’s development.
She addressed the broader context of today’s global challenges, including the ongoing crisis of democracy, which is evident even in countries with longstanding democratic traditions. According to the President, this is not a recent phenomenon but a gradual process, to which the rise of new technologies has significantly contributed.
President Čaputová also pointed out that humanity often invents and adopts innovations before fully understanding their long-term social and ethical impacts, technology including artificial intelligence being no exception. For this reason, she considers the topic of regulation and ethics in AI highly relevant, and welcomed the idea that Slovak experts abroad might contribute to this agenda by sharing experience and know-how from various parts of the world towards trustworthy AI that is balanced with innovations. Such collaboration, she believes, could benefit Slovakia significantly.
A Platform for Dialogue and Collaboration
At the heart of the Slovak AI Forum 2025 were structured breakout room discussions, designed to promote meaningful engagement among participants. Across 13 moderated groups, participants collaborated to explore concrete actions to strengthen the Slovaks AI community.
The discussions produced a set of ideas aimed at catalyzing community growth and sustained engagement. The ideas and insights generated during these sessions will be used to shape the next phase of community-building efforts under the Slovak Diaspora Project.
Next steps for the slovaks.ai map
As part of the forum, participants were also presented with an overview of the planned update of the slovaks.ai map, which currently includes more than 90 Slovak professionals working in or adjacent to artificial intelligence abroad.
The update is already in progress and will focus on:
Leadership Perspective
Reflecting on the event’s impact, our CEO Mária Bieliková highlighted the significance of building long-term connections within the Slovak AI ecosystem.
Mária Bieliková, CEO
CEO at Kempelen Institute of Intelligent Technologies
In closing, the President Zuzana Čaputová thanked the participants for their engagement, openness, and willingness to collaborate in ways that support Slovakia’s development. She also appreciated the diversity of perspectives and the originality of ideas presented during the forum.
