Organized by Sberbank, the annual AI Journey international conference on artificial intelligence ran from Dec. 11 to Dec. 13.

The three-day event brought together Russian and international experts, including representatives of the business community, science, technology and education.

This time, the conference’s geographical coverage was widened further still, with participants from China, India, the UAE, South Africa, Indonesia, Bahrain, Iran and other countries, alongside speakers from Russia.

Sberbank said in a statement that one important focus area in this year’s event was the use of artificial intelligence in applied fields to boost consumer demand and profit, and to promote the sustainable development of companies for the benefit of all spheres of public life.

Various conference platforms on day two were used for discussions of the application of AI in industry and business.

The organizers underlined that AI was not only contributing to economic development but was also performing a mission that “is now more vital than ever before, uniting mankind to tackle the shared challenges arising literally every day.”

During a panel discussion entitled “Artificial Intelligence: uniting efforts with all countries in the service of all mankind”, the principles of applying AI to address universal tasks were debated.

The debate session was also attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Herman Gref, chairman of the management board of Sberbank, stated that AI technologies could be applied for efficient collection of feedback, which was indispensable both for business and for addressing issues of national importance.

He cited Russia as an example of the use of AI for both business and non-business-related purposes.

“For the first time, Russia will use Sber’s large language model GigaChat to process questions submitted by Russian citizens for a live broadcast by President Putin on Dec. 19,” he said.

The annual “Direct Line” with the President is enormously popular in Russia, and “the language model will ensure even more precise and efficient processing of all the questions,” he said.

The conference’s panel discussion also featured Andrey Belevtsev, Sberbank’s head of technological development.

He spoke about plans to develop existing tech services and launch new ones.

On day two of the conference, participants discussed how artificial intelligence was becoming a familiar and reliable assistant to human beings.

The speakers noted that AI was changing everyday life for people all around the world.  

According to them, naturally, the development of artificial intelligence must be more than just a continuous “race” for innovation.

They were of the view that all-embracing deployment and reinforcement of AI could be seen in the depth and scale of the application of the technology, as it became integrated into already existing developments and infrastructure.

“For its part, Russia attaches huge importance to the development of AI technologies, in order to take up a leading position in the global industry,” the conference disclosed.

The conference also unveiled the wider use of AI as the end of 2024 was around the corner.

“AI is no longer just about replacing a secretary or a call center. Generative models can now propose effective solutions for businesses, urban development, public administration and the medical and other sectors,” it said.

“For example, AI can improve the quality of business services and medical treatment, and accelerate the distribution of social benefits from the state,” the conference said.

“And crucially, it can take part in creating new medicines, in other words, it can literally save people from extremely serious diseases,” a speaker at the event said.

Other conference presenters spoke about the experience of integrating AI into public life in their own countries, such as China, which makes wide use of global AI technologies.

AI has helped the Chinese government to automate data management, according to Song Haitao, president of the Shanghai Institute of Artificial Intelligence and director of industrial development at the United Nations’ International Center for Advanced Experience in Industrial and Operational Artificial Intelligence.

He stated that AI had also been used to optimize the distribution of resources and draw up the budget.

According to one speaker, this same practice is being applied in Russia, where the Finance Ministry is using AI in the process of compiling the budget.

“AI is responsible for the routine work of classifying budget spending and also identifies the best ways of achieving the goals set out in the budget,” the speaker said.

Meanwhile, experts from Dubai shared the news that crime had fallen by 25 percent in some districts of the city thanks to the help provided to the police and the authorities by Smart City solutions. 

The conference also revealed how the Republic of South Africa is actively applying global AI technologies.

According to Janet Sawari, CEO of TAIR Labs, South Africa’s experience of using AI is extremely broad, from education and health care to agriculture.

She said that precise data analysis, which was becoming possible thanks to the implementation of AI, “is being actively employed in commerce, for example, to study consumer demand and to develop entrepreneurial strategies.”

Tech company representatives gave detailed reports on solutions for the business and IT sectors.

The first day of the conference ended with the presentation of prizes to the winners of the AI Leaders national awards for contributions to the development of artificial intelligence.

Apart from addressing current AI-related issues, the AI Journey conference is also about laying down tracks for the future, according to Sberbank.

“This year, for example, brought the announcement of plans to create a new Artificial Intelligence Alliance, bringing together participants from 18 countries, including the Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa [BRICS] group,” Sberbank said.

“The goal is to create a diversified global platform for cooperation on equal terms,” said Sberbank’s Gref.

He emphasized that creating this alliance could take collaboration between all parties up to a new level, thereby facilitating the open and transparent development of AI technologies that would be useful for everyone.

He said the AI Journey conference in Moscow was the culmination of a series of events held throughout the year.

“These are events of various types but they are invariably linked by one overarching idea, the artificial intelligence journey is always a path toward people,” he said.

This article is published in collaboration with Sber