Post release

Results of AI Conference Kyiv: how AI, IoT, and chatbots help businesses to increase profit and efficiently work with customers

Results of AI Conference Kyiv: how AI, IoT, and chatbots help businesses to increase profit and efficiently work with customers

On November 14, the capital of Ukraine hosted AI Conference Kyiv dedicated to the practical use of artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and chatbots in business processes.

Twenty-two experts in AI technologies shared real case studies, including representatives of Prom.ua, PrivatBank, Vodafone Ukraine, Ukrposhta, Kyivstar, Competera, SMART business, and IoT HUB.

The organizer of the event is the international company Smile-Expo that has been successfully hosting business events for 12 years. Smile-Expo specializes in the organization of industry-specific exhibitions and forums about advanced solutions intended for business and financial fields.

The conference comprised three themed blocks: artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and chatbots. The moderator was Viktor Dolgopyatov, the Head of Innovation Technologies at Everest Group.

Hot discussions

Head of Big Data team at Vodafone Ukraine Sergiy Boryslavsky explained how a telecom provider uses data science to define which new services to offer to customers and help partners to run business. Specifically, it gives banks an opportunity to build a credit profile of a subscriber.

“You go to the bank to get a consumer loan, but you do not have a credit history. In this situation, a telecom provider is a good tool, as you have a phone number, and the operator has relevant data. You can show how often you make payments, your traffic, and this information will allow making a conclusion whether you are at risk of default,” the speaker noted.

Participants of AI Conference Kyiv were greatly interested in the report of Aleksey Skripka, CEO at EVE.calls. He told about the bot intended for making interactive calls, capable of calling 10,000 customers per hour. Aleksey provided examples showing that the bot is cheaper and more productive than a usual call center: the system reminded 7,100 people of the debt in one day (expenditures – $400), whereas four operators spent a month on this task (expenditures – $2,500).

Besides, the speaker demonstrated the bot in action – real records of calls. During the discussion, Aleksey offered everyone who had doubts to arrange a real battle between the call center and EVE.

Head of Digital Marketing at JSC Ukrposhta Andriy Skotsyk spoke about the development of a chatbot for the state-owned company. It turns out that the chatbot of Ukrposhta already has 130,000 customers in three messengers, and the search for indexes is so convenient that employees use it as well. Besides, the chatbot can define the geolocation of all 11,500 postal departments (postal workers gathered data on site and the database requires a follow-up).

“I love this function, especially, when I am in the Carpathian Mountains,” Andriy Skotsyk noted. “You cross the ridge, see the nearest department of Ukrposhta and already know that you will not perish.”

Expert opinion: AI and trading

Andrii Dligach, CEO at Advanter Group, an experienced strategist and futurologist, shared his vision of how artificial intelligence would change the retail. He told how he sees the retail of the future from the standpoint of a customer and how to compete with Amazon successfully, noting that any retail outlet should gather and process data to survive in the market.

The speaker Andriy Burlutskyi from SMART business sustained this opinion, “Only 10 companies from the 1950 year’s Fortune Global 500 list are still functioning. This is the answer to the question: businesses that do not change will disappear.”

Vladimir Kuchkanov, Data Scientist at Competera, provided more details about tasks solved by AI in retail. According to him, artificial intelligence efficiently optimizes supply chains, the assortment, reduces expenditures on advertising and promotion, and most importantly, helps to form the pricing. The speaker illustrated his report with the case study, where AI controlled pricing at nine Foxtrot stores for four weeks.

Technologies in action

Some speakers were showing how solutions work straight at the stage of AI Conference Kyiv in addition to statistics and case studies.

Representatives of PrivatBank demonstrated a new payment bot for Telegram, which has been launched recently. Head of e-commerce projects Kristina Karmazina and software developer Oleksandr Antonenko told about capabilities of the bot and showed how to use it in real time. Conference participants could test the system and ask questions about its operation and someone even made a money transfer using the bot.

Speakers Pavel Chishko (Ukrgasbank) and Artur Slusar (Softensy) impressed the audience by delivering the presentation with the help of a voice assistant that synthesized speech. Experts showed how to interact with the system to buy railway tickets, for example. In such a way, they showcased an alternative method of ordering goods and services without spending time on typing.

Sharing experiences

In addition to presentations and actual AI case studies from experts, the program included networking: entrepreneurs could talk to developers, build useful contacts, and reach partnership agreements.

Head of IoT development at Kyivstar Kostiantyn Andrusenko told about the work with the IoT market in Ukraine (Jasper, NB-IoT networks) and offered everyone who has interesting ideas to contact him regarding cooperation. According to Kostiantyn, they are open to offers and ready to provide an “analytical basis” for any promising IoT projects.

Head of Product Marketplaсe at Prom.ua Vladislav Volodin shared his experience of working with big data. He told about the operation principle of the algorithm that tracks user behavior on the listing page (memorizes what a person is looking for basing on queries). Thanks to the algorithm, the click rate of flypages has increased by 1%, conversion – by 2%, and relevancy – by 23%.

Proxis, the largest in Ukraine distributor of hardware and software for industrial automation systems, automatic control systems, computer-aided process control systems, presented its offering at the conference. Specifically, they unveiled an IIoT solution – a cloud platform and software WISE-PaaS produced by Advantech. Attendees could learn how it works straight at the event.

Conclusions

The project manager of the Reforms Office of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Olga Samoylova assessed the practicability of reports, “I find it great that almost the whole program comprises practical case studies: it shows that our entrepreneurs are very active and understand which problems they can solve by using AI technologies. It will develop the industry and possibly thanks to this, Ukraine will become one of the leaders in the implementation and application of AI technologies.”

Another advantage of the AI Conference Kyiv by Smile-Expo mentioned by participants and guests was the opportunity to talk with and ask questions to experts.

“I often attend conferences and see the following trend,” Kristina Karmazina from PrivatBank noted, “People come to communicate in a certain environment. The value lies in new contacts.”