In 2011 Eric Schmidt — one of the most renowned figures in the IT industry and at the time Executive Chairman of Google — spoke at the session «The World According to Google» at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. What he said turned out to be remarkably prophetic, particularly when viewed from the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic and our experience of self-isolation.

The article in the framework of the national project «Digital Economy» analyzes the development trends and features of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in Russia. The advantages of this sphere of economic activity in comparison with the use of other «breakthrough» technologies are considered. Attention is focused on the features of the third wave of business process transformation associated with adaptive business processes, which allow, using AI, to radically transform a business by processing big data in real time instead of performing a predetermined sequence of steps.