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July 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 3
Along the same lines, another lender, Rosbank, uses AI to help customers find the most optimal location of a retail branch.
Retail is another segment where the use of AI has been running ahead of other industries. Major food retailer Lenta uses AI to improve its customer service, employing solutions provided by software firm Revionics.
Electronics retailer M.Video uses AI-based techniques to analyse online buyers' behaviour and determine why purchases were not completed in situations when items were already put in buyers' baskets.
Beauty product retail chain Rive Gauche has recently announced that AI-based algorithms can predict visits to the chain's store by a loyalty card holder with an accuracy rate of 47% and specific products they will buy with an accuracy rate of 33%.
Heavy industry may be slightly behind in adopting AI, but some most tech savvy companies are already doing that.
Major steel mill Novolipetsk Steel Plant has singled out several dozen production processing into which machine learning algorithms will be introduced.
Chemical company Khimprom is working on an AI-based system that would help to select the most optimal technology modes. The launch of
the system is expected to raise the company's profitability by 5%.
However, there are still obstacles in the way of AI development in Russia.
One major issue hampering wide adoption of AI and related technologies is a need for sweeping changes at a companies adopting cutting-edge technologies, Forbes Russia reported.
If a company chooses to embrace the most recent digital technologies, it will have to invest in expensive software and personnel and often amend all its production processes to bring them in line with the requirements of its digital transformation. Currently, a relatively small proportion of major Russian companies have added the position of chief data officer.
In addition, most AI-based solutions that could
be adopted in the real economy are developed by startups with substantial technological expertise but limited understanding of business and market conditions. As a result, many promising solutions never reach the testing stage or lack functionality for successful integration with existing production processes, Forbes Russia reported.
Finally, there has been resistance from personnel and management who often see AI as a threat to their jobs and established processes, rather than a breakthrough solution that could potentially benefit everyone.