What GOPAS Chief Andrea Horáčková Told Forbes About AI and Jobs

Slovak IT training company GOPAS is making a direct case that artificial intelligence should trigger retraining, not redundancies. In a Forbes BrandVoice podcast produced with Lexus, Andrea Horáčková—presented as the director of Slovakia’s largest IT education centre—argues that the labour market question is no longer whether AI will change work, but how well workers and companies prepare for it.

Horáčková, who says she has led GOPAS for two decades, frames continuing education as the core career strategy of the moment. “AI will not replace us. It will replace those who are not willing to learn, who are lazy, comfortable or afraid,” she says. She compares lifelong learning to insurance: people insure homes, cars and health, yet often leave their future unprotected.

Her message to employers is explicit: “Don’t fire people, reskill them. People should not lose their jobs; their role in the company is changing.” She predicts routine and repetitive tasks will gradually be taken over by technology, while creativity, critical thinking, decision-making and contextual judgement will remain human—but only for those prepared to keep developing.

The podcast also touches on leadership under constant change, including why every leader should learn to say “I don’t know” and the three qualities she says every boss should work on—though the article does not spell out what those three qualities are.

Where the GOPAS Upskilling Argument Comes From

Where GOPAS Sits in the Reskilling Debate

Horáčková’s argument is not only a prediction about AI; it also aligns with GOPAS’s commercial position. As an IT education provider, the company benefits directly if companies and individuals treat retraining as essential. That does not make the argument wrong, but it is an important context: the interview is a BrandVoice feature sponsored by Lexus and delivered by a training executive, not an independent labour-market study.

The Underlying Labour-Market Claim

The piece frames AI as a shift in task composition rather than wholesale job destruction. Routine work moves to machines, while judgement-heavy work stays with humans. That view is common among technology advocates, but the article offers no employment data, retraining outcomes or sector examples to test it. The practical question—how many workers can realistically move into the human-centred roles described—is left open.

The Employer Logic: Reskill Rather Than Fire

Horáčková’s instruction to companies is a response to the debate over whether AI should reduce headcount or redeploy it. For employers, reskilling can preserve internal knowledge and reduce hiring costs, but it also requires time, budget and clear skills mapping. The podcast does not detail which Slovak roles companies should prioritise or what a realistic retraining timeline looks like.

Turning the GOPAS Advice Into Practical Steps

  • Professionals: identify one task in your current role that AI is beginning to automate and invest training time in the judgement-based part Horáčková says will remain human.
  • Employers: before redundancy decisions, map routine tasks across teams and pilot a reskilling path for a small group, using her “don’t fire, reskill” logic as the test.
  • Leaders: practice saying “I don’t know” in team meetings—the one immediately usable leadership behaviour she names.