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Startupers offer companies thousands of developments related to machine learning and artificial intelligence. Participants in the session “InevitableAI: How to Profit from the Implementation of AI” have discussed whether the application of technologies brings real economic benefits and how to recognize utopian projects.

The most obvious results are still produced by the systems of the so-called “weak AI” - narrowly focused technologies that cope with the performance of routine work more effective than people. But the business needs more complex systems that may digitize and pointedly analyze large amounts of data.

According to Boris Glazkov, Vice President for Strategic Initiatives of Rostelecom PJSC, AI is not only to make money, but also to save: “We have launched our own approved decision support methodology, which helps us at the level of strategic planning. So we can understand where and how we should better distribute investments. To do this, we trained the machine to read scientific articles, patent applications and agreements and analyze based on the processed information.”

One of the difficulties in dealing with developments in the field of AI is assessing the prospects of a project to screen out failed ideas at an early stage. As the speakers noted, mistakes are inevitable, but you need to take risks and allow yourself and the developers to experiment, which may not succeed.

First you need to clearly formulate the hypothesis, and then evaluate how much it works, said Ivan Melnik, Innovation Director of X5 Retail Group, “Gradually test the project and see if it really brings any changes. Yes, you have to take risks. But if mankind eliminated all the ideas that raised questions about their effectiveness at the initial stage, people would never have flown into space, developed a computer, or made many discoveries that have long become a usual part of our lives.”

The discussion took place within the framework of the Russian Artificial Intelligence Forum (RAIF), which was also attended by Evgeny Kolesnikov, Director of Jet Infosystems Machine Learning Center, Anton Borisyuk, Senior Director for Research in the East European Region of PepsiCo Holdings, Maria Grigoryeva, Head of Accenture Department of Technologies, Digital Solutions and Outsourcing, and Anton Merzlyakov, Director of Tele2 Big Data Analytics.