Introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) in Sberbank has resulted in redundancy of staffers dealing with simple decisions: the middle management has been reduced by 70%, Banki.ru reports.

Sberbank CEO Herman Gref has spoken about the change in the bank’s staff at the international conference Sberbank Data Science Day, dedicated to AI technologies.

According to Gref, the bank employs an “Intelligent management system” with the engine that learns every day while coming up with solutions and suggestions.

The majority of managers dismissed on the grounds of redundancy have been retrained and are still employed at Sberbank, said Gref. At the same time, “the bank values the ability to shift from one task to another quickly, thanks to which Sberbank employees sometimes change specialization several times over four to five year, although it is far from easy”.


Touching on global tendencies, Herman Gref said that the contribution of AI in global GDP in the next 12 years will make USD 16 trillion.

“The expansion of AI will most likely keep growing in the coming years. A number of consulting companies predict that the contribution of AI in global GDP may increase by 16 times from the current USD 1 trillion in the next 12 years, until 2030,” said Gref.

He believes that the demand for experts in the field will also grow and projects that the number of specialists needed will reach 10 million in a decade.

“Some people say AI is an expensive toy that rich men play for big money, but actually, it is a sector where everyone is involved,” emphasized Gref.

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