ABSL DIAMONDS

Winners 2025

In the Business Innovation category, the award went to Siemens Global Business Services for its Bionic Agent solution, representing a breakthrough in customer support. Customer service teams handle thousands of inquiries every day, generating millions of service tickets, emails, and documents each year that require manual processing. The cloud-based Bionic Agent solution now fully automates these repetitive tasks. It leverages generative artificial intelligence (AI), including the latest large language models (LLMs), agent-based AI, and natural language processing (NLP) to manage and interpret both structured and unstructured data from incoming requests.
It can process various queries, extract relevant information, initiate appropriate workflow processes, and autonomously provide responses to customers. The solution has been operating for several years as a virtual extension of the customer support team and is now used by 32 teams. To date, Bionic Agent has processed over 1.4 million requests and saved more than 70,000 hours of human work. It brings higher efficiency, lower costs, and an improved customer experience while paving the way for a new era of intelligent service automation.

In the Customer and Operational Excellence category, Siemens Global Business Services was recognized for its comprehensive three-year CEE Agile Transformation Journey program. Its goal is to streamline processes, improve customer experience, strengthen employee engagement, and initiate a change in mindset and acceptance of new innovative solutions. The program currently actively involves 127 participants from all Siemens Global Business Services (GBS) CEE business lines, working in 10 teams. The program is complemented by the CEE Hackathon, during which 80 participants from Siemens Global Business Services, customers, and third-party experts from across the region are able to develop specific solutions to real customer challenges in just 72 hours. As a result, 80% of the ideas implemented saved 6,600 hours of work and generated savings of over €561,000. The project shows that innovation and agility can go hand in hand with customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

Two companies were recognised in the Employee Engagement and Development category. Commerzbank received the first diamond for its #Students4Students project, which focuses on cooperation with secondary schools and aims to provide students with practical experience with technologies such as AI and cloud computing, teamwork, and presenting their own projects. The project is long-term in nature and actively responds to the specific needs of schools. Each year, approximately 12 students participate in the program, completing a two-phase paid internship and working with mentors from among university students, who thereby acquire management skills, and experts from the bank. Ten employees are involved in the project, dedicating their time beyond their regular work. #Students4Students develops a new generation of IT professionals, strengthens the community, and builds Commerzbank’s reputation as an innovative and socially responsible employer.

The second diamond in this category went to BlueLink International CZ for its innovative STEP Horizon project. The project, which uses artificial intelligence in the Microsoft 365 environment, is transforming the way employees engage, learn, and grow. It enables strategic and personalized professional development for everyone, from new employees to executives, while providing automated talent mapping. Each employee takes ownership of their self-development, thus engaging them. The catalogue of training programs is created in collaboration with leading providers such as Coursera, Udemy, edX, and Kokoroe. The output can be micro-certificates as well as advanced certifications. The project is actively shared around the world, where it inspires other BlueLink International centers.

In the Employer Branding Excellence category, the diamond award went to Envista, whose Prague centre launched its first-ever employer branding initiative on the Czech market this year. Without its own website, social media presence, or any external communication, the internal team managed to transform the company into a vibrant local brand. Envista took an unconventional approach, basing its strategy on the demographic composition of its employees and focusing on a modern, dynamic style of communication, including the use of reels on social media. The employees themselves played a key role, from participating in the preparation of key messages to actively collaborating on content creation. In just three months (in Q3 2025), it managed to get 1.4 million views. The initiative differs significantly from the traditional concept of employer branding in a corporate environment and, thanks to its authenticity, presents Envista as a modern and dynamic employer of choice. The central theme of the campaign was a smile, symbolically referring to the company’s activities in the dental industry. Among other things, the campaign achieved a 600% increase in the number of French-speaking applicants, solving a critical recruitment problem for the company and significantly reducing its dependence on recruitment agencies.

The Emerging Leader of the Year award, which aims to support new talents who have a strong impact and motivation to shape the future of the business services industry, was presented to Martin Michalský from Siemens Global Business Services. Martin Michalský leads the Smart Analytics Projects team, which under his leadership has expanded from 6 to 30 members across three countries and delivers over 50 projects annually for Siemens branches worldwide. He helps develop talents, actively trains and mentors colleagues, and, with his team, created a Microsoft Power BI training programme attended annually by more than 600 experts from around the world.

In the ESG Strategy category, the highest rating went to Infosys Czech Republic’s Empower with Care project, which focuses on women returning from parental leave. By introducing flexible working models and empathetic support systems, the company has enabled women who are trying to balance family responsibilities with work to continue their careers and develop further. This initiative promotes a more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable workforce within the company and, more broadly, across the business services industry. Activating and retaining talented women has resulted in, among other things, a reduction in recruitment costs in the millions of crowns. The program also introduced the option of extended unpaid leave to further promote work-life balance. A supportive ecosystem has been built around the workplace, including a children’s corner and affordable, ready-made meals. In cooperation with the business park, services such as delivery and laundry have been introduced to facilitate everyday logistics.

Aeven Czech Republic, which employs four hundred specialists focused on critical IT infrastructure operation and advisory in Czechia, was successful in the Workplace Innovation category. In connection with its expansion and efforts to offer its people a truly premium working environment, the company opted for new offices covering an area of 1,575 m² in the innovative Port7 campus in Prague’s Holešovice district, which combines modern design, sustainability, and wellbeing. Instead of the traditional static office model, a dynamic and people-oriented space has been created that balances productivity, collaboration, and wellbeing—while remaining true to the company’s Scandinavian roots, inspired by Danish design. Based on feedback from employees, a new concept of work zones, flexible seating, and digital tools supporting hybrid collaboration has been introduced, enabling smoother connections between teams across locations. This approach allows employees to co-create their own working environment – from themed meeting rooms and quiet zones to community spaces that reflect their real needs. Investments in smart booking systems, ergonomic equipment, and employee wellbeing programs have resulted in higher engagement, more efficient use of space, and greater sustainability. Surveys and data on office use also confirm a significant improvement in satisfaction, collaboration, and work-life balance.

In the Technology Innovation category, the jury was most impressed by Kyndryl’s EcoOps project. It is a smart solution based on artificial intelligence and rules that transforms traditional IT operations into an intelligent, sustainable, and future-ready ecosystem. Without the need to replace existing tools and implement additional systems, EcoOps connects to monitoring, automation, and ticketing platforms, reducing noise, suppressing false alerts, and triggering intelligent automation when needed. At the same time, it tracks CO₂ savings, energy consumption, and cost impact in real time, transforming IT metrics into measurable ESG indicators. In just six months of testing, EcoOps reduced tickets by 662, saved 9,500 kWh of energy, and reduced CO₂ emissions by 1,500 kg, while simplifying the work of IT teams. The solution was developed in-house using an open architecture that ensures flexibility, security, and full control. As a plug-in, it works in legacy, hybrid, and cloud environments, making IT operations leaner, greener, and more efficient. EcoOps is a practical, patent-protected step toward digital sustainability, proving that green IT can go hand in hand with greater efficiency, savings, and employee satisfaction.

The Centre of the Year 2025 award went to ADP, a company that has grown over two decades into one of the largest and most innovative centres in the Czech Republic, making a significant contribution to the development of the entire industry.