Transformation starts with motivation
Artificial intelligence stands as an end-to-end capability that boosts productivity across nearly every sector, elevating management quality and people’s quality of life. Yet changing mindsets and workflows does not happen in a day. Any meaningful transformation begins with the will to solve problems faster and at a higher level. For regions, this means leaders who want to improve citizens’ lives. The challenge is to engage regional authorities in best practices and demonstrate effective technologies that are already delivering tangible improvements.
This approach is what unfolds in design sessions conducted by Sber experts with authorities across the country and beyond. Participants form project teams and apply design thinking to generate practical AI-driven ideas for various fields and industries. Dozens of sessions have taken place, drawing more than a thousand key officials, including governors, and generating well over 650 ideas. Importantly, the session marks a starting point, not an end. The next step is a roadmap and the steady implementation of AI across sectors.
Alexander Vedyakhin, first deputy chairman of the board of Sberbank, notes that transitioning to a modern public administration model using machine learning and big data requires an active AI transformation across regions.
“The potential of AI is vast—from rapid detection of illegal dumping sites to personal assistants that help civil servants prepare documents correctly. Design sessions allow quick immersion in AI topics and rapid assessment of applicability to solve regional challenges. AI technologies are reshaping the world today, and those who start using them sooner will operate more efficiently and outpace the competition”, he believes.
Why do regions need this?
First, optimism centers on AI enhancing the handling of inquiries and document processing. Large language models, including services akin to Gigachat, can noticeably improve the quality and speed of delivering essential information to residents and businesses.
Second, AI enables advanced remote monitoring of large areas through satellite imagery, aerial photos, and drone or security camera video. This supports tasks such as tracking deforestation, monitoring water quality, overseeing environmental zones, identifying unauthorised dumping, recognizing unregistered objects for taxation, and more.
Third, AI helps manage road networks more effectively: detecting traffic violations, planning road and parking capacity, coordinating traffic signals, and estimating public transport needs on routes.
AI is also making its mark in agriculture. Field monitoring and yield prediction systems analyze drone imagery to detect crop diseases, weeds, and other issues, enabling proactive responses.
Global attention increasingly focuses on AI in medicine, a field experiencing rapid development. For example, AI-driven brain imaging tools automatically flag signs of stroke on non-contrast CT scans, highlight pathological areas with colored outlines, and quantify total brain damage.
Another example is SberMedII’s TOP-3 smart medical assistant, which supports doctors by making preliminary diagnoses based on a patient’s medical history and records. Voice-enabled protocol creation is progressing, with speech recognition converting spoken notes into text and populating medical forms. Health authorities have noted widespread adoption of AI solutions across many regions.
As Alexander Vedyakhin states, a large, cross-functional team at Sber works on regional AI transformation, with regional bank presidents and local managers taking an active role. “The collective work of our experts in a single design session helps not only discuss relevant AI cases but also identify region-specific ideas and projects. This format has proven an effective tool for collaborating with local authorities. As a result, more than a dozen agreements on AI tool applications have been signed, and regions have begun implementing innovative projects across sectors”, says a top Sber manager.
In the Moscow region, ten AI-enabled products are already in operation. These include robotic assistants, systems for waste management, controls for technical inspections, environmental monitoring, taxi and bus management, railway safety, and even monitoring ice and snow in residential buildings and forest fire detection.
In Chelyabinsk, AI has long been used in health, security, public transport, housing and municipal services, and urban life. Plans include launching a digital platform for remote monitoring of chronic diseases via the online medical service SberHealth.
AI transformation is gaining momentum in Sakhalin as well, with technologies in healthcare such as voice-assisted medical workflows and computer vision for security. A pilot project uses drones to detect unauthorized garbage sites, among other innovations.
Approaching world best practices
Projections tied to the growth of AI, including large multimodal models, suggest AI could contribute a meaningful portion of global GDP growth by 2030. It is crucial not to lag behind this trend. The central task is to deploy AI at scale across sectors to drive economic growth and safeguard technological sovereignty.
Vladimir Averbakh, a member of the Artificial Intelligence Alliance coordinating council, emphasizes that correctly implemented AI in processes can save time and money while improving living standards. He notes that smart diagnostics and patient monitoring systems save lives, personal assistants help people adapt to rapid change, and computer-vision-based quality control prevents defective products from reaching markets. In agricultural regions, AI predicts yields and detects diseases; it also helps forecast tourism flows and informs infrastructure needs. In cities, AI supports traffic management, road safety, and safety in social institutions. The list goes on, underscoring the broad potential of AI across sectors.
Beyond individual projects, there is a drive to grow the AI solutions market comprehensively. For example, an affiliate program for resellers and integrators has been launched, with Sber providing AI developers who have proven competency and reliability through the sales channel. Regions and companies embracing AI technologies are poised to become more efficient and capable of higher-quality, faster work.