Vladimir Potanin: AI will have a strong economic impact for Russia, but will not replace people

Vladimir Potanin believes that artificial intelligence can become one of the main drivers of growth for the Russian economy. However, his position is not about replacing people with machines, but about accelerating processes, increasing efficiency, and creating proprietary technological solutions within the country.

Economy and Productivity

In an interview, Potanin framed AI not as a trendy experiment, but as an infrastructure technology capable of influencing the entire economy at once. For large businesses, this means more accurate planning, faster analytics, reduced losses, and automation of routine operations. For the state, it is a chance to increase productivity in industry, logistics, finance, and services. The main idea here is simple: the impact of AI is measured not by the number of high-profile pilots, but by how deeply it is embedded in real work processes.

If we translate the thesis about "colossal effect" into practical terms, we are not talking only about chatbots or text generation. The most noticeable results usually come where systems help make decisions faster than humans, while remaining part of a managed loop. This is especially important for capital-intensive industries, where a single error is costly, and gains in accuracy translate directly into money, timelines, and business resilience.

• Demand and supply forecasting
• Predictive equipment maintenance
• Automatic analysis of documents, procurement, and reporting
• Acceleration of engineering and research tasks

Sovereignty Without Isolation

Separately, Potanin discusses Russia's position in the global AI race: the country, in his view, should aspire to third place after the United States and China. This is an ambitious but understandable framework. It means that Russia cannot limit itself to the role of consumer of other people's models and platforms, especially when it comes to critical sectors. There is a need for proprietary competencies, teams, computational power, and products that can be deployed without dependence on external political decisions.

"Artificial intelligence will bring

Russia a colossal economic effect."

At the same time, Potanin's emphasis on sovereignty does not equal complete isolation. The logic is different: build your own stack, but do not abandon international cooperation, open research, and best practices. In the AI market, winners are not those who close themselves off from the world, but those who can quickly adapt global ideas to their data, language, regulations, and industry-specific tasks. For Russia, this is especially important because local context often determines the quality of the final product.

• Develop proprietary models and applied AI services
• Invest in computational infrastructure and talent
• Implement AI in industry, not just in demo products
• Maintain access to global knowledge, open-source tools, and partnerships

Humans in the Loop

No less important is the second part of his thesis: AI will not replace humans entirely. For the corporate world, this sounds almost like a framework of responsibility. Algorithms can sort data, find patterns, and suggest courses of action, but goals, selection criteria, and the consequences of decisions remain with people. This is especially evident in production, finance, and security management, where the cost of error exceeds the gains from full automation in any system.

Most likely, the coming years will not be marked by "machines instead of employees," but by a redistribution of roles. The work of analysts, engineers, managers, and office teams will change most significantly: less time will be spent on information gathering and draft preparation, more on verification, interpretation, and decision-making. In this model, companies that know how to teach people to work together with AI win, rather than simply buying new tools for innovation reports.

What This Means

Potanin's words reflect a pragmatic approach by large business to the AI market: the technology is viewed not as a showcase, but as a tool for growth and competitiveness. If Russia truly wants to play in the big leagues, it will have to simultaneously invest in its own solutions, maintain ties with the global market, and prepare people in advance to work in a new production and management environment without illusions about quick full automation of processes.