Sberbank Rossii : holds business breakfast in Davos

January 25, 2018, Davos (Switzerland) - Sberbank held a business breakfast titled 'AI Transformation of Companies and Economies: Benefits and Threats' at the annual summit of the World Economic Forum in Davos. The discussion was moderated by CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board of Sberbank Herman Gref.

'Davos is driven by technology, and we will discuss technologies at the breakfast,' said Mr Gref while opening the event. 'Artificial intelligence has turned into the major trend across the board: from states to individuals. And we will discuss this trend today.'

Robot Sophia, a citizen of Saudi Arabia, answered Mr Gref's questions. She is the first robot to obtain citizenship of a country.

'I am delighted to receive an invitation to communicate with Sberbank,' said Sophia. 'You have proven that a person and a robot can have a meaningful and productive dialogue. I believe this means a lot, and I am grateful to you for this. Robotisation creates possibilities for the radical improvement of people's lives, for everyone and everywhere. Robots that can think and show empathy will bring more benefits than just a hammer or shovel.'

The key speakers attending Sberbank's business breakfast were Global Managing Partner of McKinsey Dominic Barton, President of EMEA Strategic Relationships at Google Carlo d'Asaro Biondo, Corporate Vice President for Europe Middle-East Africa at Microsoft Michel van der Bel, President at Dell EMC EMEA Adrian McDonald, CEO of Pegasystems Alan Trefler, Deputy Chairman of the Board, Rotating CEO at Huawei Guo Ping, Director of the Data Science Institute at Columbia University Jeannette Wing, General Manager at IBM Watson David Kenny, Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Maxim Oreshkin, Prime Minister of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel, and CEO of Yandex Arkady Volozh.

An interactive survey was held during the discussion, which featured the participation of speakers and guests of the business breakfast. Most participants said that the implementation of artificial intelligence is a key task for their companies. Almost 89% of the participants said they have started to assign more importance to the implementation of artificial intelligence based on results of the discussion.

'This is the right time to start using artificial intelligence,' said Mr Gref.

Sberbank traditionally holds business breakfasts at major investment and economic forums.