On July 17, the St. Petersburg Digital Forum took place, where I participated in two large panel discussions as an expert from Sber. Both were dedicated to the financial market and AI, but examined its transformation from different angles:

📌How banks, fintech, and marketplaces turn data into money
📌AI and money. How algorithms are changing the financial market

At the first panel, we discussed — surprisingly — data. We talked about its quality and cost, as well as the possibilities of data transfer between market participants. Two particularly interesting points were made.

1. A significant portion of data falls under Federal Law 152, even if formally it is anonymized, because based on a set of indirect characteristics, the user can still be identified. This limits the ability to collect and especially transfer data between market participants, and along with it, the development of domestic AI.


2. One of the speakers expressed the opinion that the volume of available data is limited and has actually already "run out," which may also hinder the development of AI in Russia. For example, the corpus of Russian-language texts is many times smaller in volume than English or Chinese. However, not all experts agreed with this point.


The second discussion was devoted to the impact of AI on the financial market. We discussed which applications are already delivering measurable business results, and which remain expensive experiments. Where can algorithms already be trusted to make independent decisions, and where is human involvement still mandatory?

Serious representatives of the financial market shared their vision and experience — besides Sber, of course. Among them were Sergey Demidov, Deputy Chairman of the Board for Information Security of PJSC Moscow Exchange, and Yaroslav Kabakov, Director of Strategy at Finam Group.

The discussion was very heated, but at the same time positive!

By the way, one of the upcoming articles will be devoted specifically to the topic of AI application in financial markets.