"Without digitalization, there will be no tomorrow for our industry": Tatarstan calls for the acceleration of AI and robot implementation

      In the next 5 years, a new data center will appear in Tatarstan

      Without digitalization, "our industry will not exist tomorrow"

      Digitalization is essential; without it, domestic industry will fall into stagnation. Many enterprises have not yet mastered all the capabilities of artificial intelligence and lag behind their foreign counterparts in production efficiency. The further development paths of Tatarstan's industry were discussed today in Naberezhnye Chelny at the conference "Digitalization of Industry." "We all need to understand that if we do not do this (digitalization of enterprises - note T-i), tomorrow our industry will not exist. In global competition, we can only win by increasing productivity. This is impossible without robotization, digitalization, and automation. And these are not just words, colleagues. Until this comes to our minds, we will definitely not achieve anything," said Sergey Mayorov, chairman of the board of the Industrial Cluster of the Republic of Tatarstan, in his welcoming speech. He noted that investing in technology is necessary even in difficult economic conditions, as robots solve many problems, including, for example, staff shortages. According to him, the payback periods for industrial robots have been steadily decreasing in recent years and now reach 1-3 years. Currently, Tatarstan has 47 robots per 10,000 workers. "This is a very good indicator for the Russian Federation," he added. However, on a global scale, this result is "not visible at all in the rankings." He reminded of the instruction from the President of Russia to increase the number of robots to 145 per 10,000 workers by 2030. "Our enterprises are a very serious army of those who work in this important direction, which ensures national security, sovereignty, and the present and future of our country. In the known challenges, in the unprecedented difficult conditions we find ourselves in, digitalization and overall technological sovereignty are a crucial and strategic task," supported his colleague, State Duma deputy of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Aidar Metshin.

      An Inside Look

      After the welcoming speeches, representatives of the industry took the floor. For example, Anton Grachevnikov, head of the "Digital Production Management" department at MTS, spoke about trends in the digitalization of enterprises. According to him, industrial companies can be divided into several types. The first type is medium-sized businesses that need clear and simple solutions. Their requests are mainly related to the automation of monitoring meters, sensors, and other equipment. The second type consists of large companies with high productivity but small technical staff. Such enterprises require an external team that solves several tasks and initiates the digitalization process. "In large manufacturing corporations, the situation is the opposite. They strive to create their own competence centers that are independent of external factors and contractors. However, this requires significant financial, personnel, time, and other resources. And with those who want to save these resources and not reinvent the wheel, making costly mistakes in the process, we share the expertise and technologies accumulated over the years," he described the third type of companies. However, no digitalization in any company is possible without a clear regulatory framework. This, by the way, is a significant problem for Russian enterprises, noted Tagir Akhmetzyanov, founder and director of Riel Engineering LLC. "The presence of clear regulatory and reference information is the basis on which digital production must be layered. And now, unfortunately, this is a significant pain. The pain in enterprises is the lack of regulatory and reference information. And even if it exists, it does not correspond to reality. You cannot build any digital production without this foundation," he explained. Akhmetzyanov added that Russia is currently approaching Industry 3.0 (the third industrial revolution). Meanwhile, "the whole world is already at 4.0. We need to accelerate."

      "In the next 5 years, we will need to build another data center"

      The head of the Ministry of Digital Development of Tatarstan, Ilya Nachvin, also stated that there is some lag in the digitalization of industry. "Digitalization and industry are currently going down the same path. We aim to hold such events annually and keep pace. In this sense, we are in a catching-up position. We need these two vectors to meet in one way or another," said Nachvin. Some large enterprises have already digitalized about 90% of their processes. However, the minister emphasized that we cannot stop at just a couple of such companies. "We have untapped potential. There are still many gaps, and a lot of work lies ahead," he told reporters. According to him, one of the major problems is the implementation of AI: "the level of penetration still leaves much to be desired." "The second problem is robots. It is one thing to have a number of support measures to increase the number of robots. But to implement them in production, it is necessary to allocate 2-3 times more money. Buying the robot itself is not enough; it also needs to be integrated. We will think about support measures," he promised. Additionally, in the next 5 years, there will be a need to build additional data centers. Nachvin told a correspondent from Tatar-inform about this. "For the near future, the reserves of existing data centers are sufficient. The energy capacities are currently adequate, and for the coming years, the volume is closed. However, considering how AI is developing, in 5-7 years, we will need to build another data center because by that time, energy capacity will be running out. We will come up with a proposal and work with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, thinking about where to get these capacities," he said.

      Photo: © Mikhail Zakharov / "Tatar-inform"