RACOM & AI

Artificial intelligence is becoming part of almost every industry, and RACOM is no exception. We have been using AI for several years, and today it is hard to imagine many of our activities without it. It helps us speed up development, work more efficiently and do things that would have been very difficult or extremely expensive just a few years ago. But AI also has its downsides.

Today, we use more than 25 AI models across almost all departments. We see the greatest benefits in software development and testing, where AI helps with routine coding, testing new releases and more complex development tasks. In some areas, AI now supports more than half of the work.

We also use AI for invoice processing and first-level technical support. In marketing, it helps us review texts, create different language versions, produce videos and generate voice-overs in various languages.

AI allows us to spend more time on activities where our people add the most value. People, however, remain at the heart of RACOM – we continue to actively recruit new colleagues in 2026, while personal technical support and direct contact with our customers remain a matter of course.

When using AI, we place strong emphasis on cybersecurity, protecting our intellectual property and handling data securely. Our approach also includes separate physical infrastructure and systematic security management, supported by ISO 27001 and IEC 62443-4-1 certifications.

The rapid development of AI is significantly increasing demand for electronic components used in data centres and AI infrastructure. The entire electronics industry is feeling the impact. Some components, particularly memory chips, are in short supply, with prices rising by tens of percent and lead times increasing significantly. Even confirmed orders are being cancelled or postponed by many months, sometimes by more than a year. We are seeing a similar situation with printed circuit boards.

AI is also accelerating the development of increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. As a result, modern, reliable and secure communication solutions are becoming increasingly important for critical infrastructure operators. Secure data transmission in critical applications has been RACOM’s core business for many years.

The current situation reminds us of the component supply crisis in 2022 during the COVID period. The experience we gained then helps us respond proactively today.

We are significantly increasing our stocks of critical components and purchasing them well in advance. We have increased the value of key materials held in stock by approximately 50%. Even high inventory levels, however, are no absolute guarantee – a single missing component can stop production.

At the same time, we are expanding our in-house manufacturing capabilities and increasing our self-sufficiency. We are investing in new technologies and planning a facility extension at our SMT centre in Blansko. We are also adding new CNC machines to our mechanical workshop.

AI helps us speed up development, improve the quality of our products and work more efficiently. At the same time, however, it is bringing changes to the component market and creating new security challenges.

Our priority remains the same: to increase the value we deliver to our customers, ensure the availability of our products, and deliver them within reasonable lead times at fair prices.

We are doing everything we can to absorb rising costs. With our experience, forward purchasing, in-house manufacturing capabilities and, above all, the work of our people, we aim to manage these changes with minimal impact on our customers.