MegaFon Uses AI to Empower Employees with Smart Virtual Assistant

Russian telecom giant MegaFon has developed an in-house AI assistant that supports retail employees, helping them build skills and boost productivity — all from their smartphones.

‘Everyday Hero’ Takes Off

Major Russian enterprises continue to ramp up AI adoption, not only to cut costs and improve operational efficiency, but also to invest in human capital. One standout example is MegaFon’s newly launched virtual assistant, the 'Everyday Hero,' designed specifically for entry-level sales employees across the MegaFon and Yota retail network.

The assistant functions like a co-pilot — always available in the employee’s smartphone — ready to provide on-the-job advice or even just a quick chat about the weather. It began testing in December with a pilot group of 50 users and has since evolved from a daily report generator into a fully interactive workplace companion. Its goal: helping every staffer become a hero of their shift.

Scaling Up Smart Support

The enhanced version of Everyday Hero is now available to over 3,000 MegaFon employees. At the start of each shift, the assistant conducts a five-minute debrief, highlights strengths and weaknesses from the previous day, and offers tailored goals for the current day.

More than half of our retail staff are young adults aged 18 to 24, often in their first job. This generation prefers digital learning and messaging-based communication. But our internal surveys also showed that what they value most is teamwork. We combined both needs — and our technology now helps people grow, drives sales, and enhances customer service

Roman Ermolenko

Director of Corporate Development and HR at MegaFon

Soon, the assistant will serve as a virtual coach, providing interactive training sessions and helping sales associates develop specific skills — including how to pitch new products. The AI is powered by large language models (LLMs) and operates as a team of AI agents: one handles skill development, another manages daily task validation, and a third focuses on motivational communication.

Crucially, the assistant is deeply integrated into MegaFon’s operational environment. Its feedback is rooted in real-time business data, which translates to improved customer experience and lower personnel management costs.

AI for Customers and Call Centers

MegaFon’s AI strategy isn’t limited to internal use. The company launched 'Eva' in 2022 — a virtual assistant for subscribers that screens calls, announces unknown numbers, blocks categories of unwanted calls, and flags suspicious subscription attempts. Today, Eva serves 11 million users.

For customer support, the operator uses another assistant named Elena. She handles billing inquiries, service activation and deactivation, and general information requests. In 2024, MegaFon upgraded Elena with SaluteSpeech technology from SberDevices, improving speech recognition speed by 20% and boosting understanding accuracy to 95%.

Russia’s AI Rollout Accelerates

Since 2022, Russian companies have actively adopted LLM-powered solutions for HR, training, and retail operations. For instance, home improvement retailer Lemana PRO (Leroy Merlin Russia) cut costs on product card generation by 95% using a custom LLM tool.

While most AI systems currently target domestic users, their export potential is rising — particularly in regions where AI deployment lags. Across industries, the pace of virtual assistant development in Russia is accelerating, with more enterprises turning to AI for scalable, cost-efficient digital transformation.