By 2030, two thirds of the company’s technological processes will be driven by artificial intelligence

This year, Nornickel presented its digital competencies at the Digital Industry of Industrial Russia (CIPR) forum, demonstrating real working tools and confirming its technological leadership among Russian industrial giants.

Today, the company’s smart systems control 80% of key equipment from the mine to the metallurgical plant, generating an annualized proven economic impact of over 10 billion rubles. By 2030, the expected impact is 50 billion rubles.

Vladimir Potanin, President of Nornickel: “Artificial intelligence gives us an entry point for applying more advanced technologies. In the next few years, we expect to use artificial intelligence to achieve results that will not only optimize our management processes and mining logistics but also allow us to do what humans cannot: promptly change various production parameters”.

Guests of the forum were able to see industrial algorithms in action at Nornickel’s high-tech booth.

The exhibition turns the visitor into an operator managing the entire production chain. Four interactive zones and a central control panel clearly demonstrate the logic of neural networks: from designing plants and synthesizing new materials to controlling a robotic rock breaker and optimizing ore grinding.

By 2030, two-thirds of the company’s technological processes will be performed using artificial intelligence. Algorithms will take over routine tasks, leaving humans with expertise, control, and strategic decision-making.

Vladimir Potanin, President of Nornickel: “Humans still must remain at the center of the decision-making process, but their functionality within this process will change. We are not trying to create digital employees to replace humans; we are trying to create new processes and new functionalities”.

The full-scale systemic implementation of neural networks is becoming the company’s main response to the shortage of personnel, restricted access to external technologies, and the degradation of familiar information services.

The impact of algorithms goes far beyond concentration plants and mines. In heavy industry, design takes up a tenth of the investment budget but shapes up to 90% of a facility’s future cost.

The company is currently transitioning to AI-assisted design based on the specialized large language model MetalGPT-C, trained on construction codes, state standards (GOSTs), and the company’s twenty-year archive of design solutions. The system autonomously generates 3D models, reducing the time for preparing project documentation from twenty weeks to three, and the required team resources by six times. In one pilot project, generative AI has already reduced the cost of foundations by 15–25% through the precise selection of alternative parameters.

Management processes are also changing radically. The market approach of point implementations of “digital employees” does not yield a sustainable effect on the scale of large-scale production. The effect only occurs when the entire business process is rebuilt around AI. Under this model, a digital department is being launched at the Polar Division, where over 80% of the functions of investment analysis and budget control have been transferred to AI agents.

Machine intelligence consolidates data faster and more accurately, eliminating human error and speeding up some stages fourfold. For capital construction projects, this means putting facilities into operation several months ahead of schedule.

The close attention paid to the CIPR forum by the Government of the Russian Federation confirms the platform’s status as the main decision-making center for the digitalization of the IT landscape.

**The Digital Industry of Industrial Russia forum is held annually in Nizhny Novgorod**

Today, a high-quality and open dialogue is taking place here between the state, regulators, the IT community, and major industrial corporations. Under current conditions, the significance of this conference for Russia’s technological development cannot be overstated—this is where the standards and partnerships are formed that will determine the economic efficiency of the real sector for years to come.

Nornickel unveils AI technologies at flagship industrial conference