On the Road to Success

These days, the National Centre RUSSIA is hosting the IT Forum “Digital Solutions”. It is billed—and I agree—as Russia’s largest IT forum devoted to the country’s digital transformation. Naturally, I simply had to attend an event like this.

The scale of the forum is comparable to AI Day in Russia, which I attended last year. Just consider these figures:

• More than 90 sessions;
• 600+ speakers;
• 14,000+ visitors;
• 2,000+ square metres of exhibition space.

Once the plenary session ended, several tracks got under way in parallel: communications and telecoms, services, cybersecurity, software, talent and education, artificial intelligence, and many others. I would have liked to attend them all, but unfortunately, I have not learnt how to break the laws of physics ;))

Of the sessions I attended, AI remained the main attraction. Yet a thought surfaced from time to time in the speakers’ remarks: AI is certainly exciting, but it is not a genie in a bottle capable of doing absolutely everything. I have been saying this for a long time: AI is a tool with its own area of application, and you need to know how to use it. Over the past couple of decades, we have seen plenty of such tools—blockchain, big data, robotisation, virtualisation, cloud computing and so on—and each has found a place in its own specialised niche. AI will follow the same path.

A true digital transformation professional needs what is known as a helicopter view: the ability to understand where each tool applies and select the one best suited to the task at hand.

And the most important part of digital transformation, paradoxical as it may sound, is people. Unless they understand why transformation is necessary, want it to happen and become involved, there will be no result—however advanced the tools may be.

If I can, I will try to visit the forum again during its remaining days.