St. Petersburg to Launch Its Own Registry of AI Services
The catalog is set to include Russian AI products for a wide range of sectors.
St. Petersburg is set to become the first region in Russia with a dedicated registry of AI services. The registry is expected to include Russian AI-based products available for use, both free and paid.
Moscow and St. Petersburg currently account for more than half of all software development in Russia. Meanwhile, according to MTS Web Services, 36% of large Russian companies with annual revenue of up to 15 billion rubles (about $177 million) have their own AI strategies, while about one-third of organizations plan to develop one. A registry like this could therefore become a useful tool for organizing Russia's AI services market and helping users navigate it.
Making It Easier for Developers to Find Customers
Companies, government agencies and industrial enterprises now use a wide range of models, platforms and applications. The registry could make it easier for developers to promote new products and find customers. Businesses and industrial companies, in turn, would gain a single source of information on technologies that are ready to deploy.
The registry is expected to establish a regional framework in Russia for tracking and promoting AI products. Over time, such catalogs could form the basis for sharing technologies across regions. Cataloging also makes it possible to create a clear inventory of products for international partners. The most promising areas include industry, logistics, health care, financial services and government. The registry could help Russian developers find international systems integrators. Within Russia, meanwhile, the St. Petersburg project is expected to accelerate AI adoption in industry and urban infrastructure.
From Technology Showcases to a Universal Database
The idea of cataloging digital products is not new in Russia. The Ministry of Digital Development's Edinyy reyestr otechestvennogo PO (Unified Register of Domestic Software), for example, has been operating since 2016. It is one of the country's main tools for tracking Russian IT products, and companies listed in it receive tax benefits and preferences in government procurement. In effect, it became the foundation for systematically organizing the country's digital products. In 2022, Russia also began developing catalogs that serve as technology showcases, where companies could find products for specific tasks. One such showcase was launched in Moscow, featuring not only ready-to-use products but also examples of how they can be applied.
In 2024, Russia's first industry-specific registry of AI products was created for the construction sector. Launched by DOM.RF, it included products for document recognition, construction-data analysis and generative AI applications. The registry was later expanded with new technologies for video analytics, construction monitoring and document processing.
St. Petersburg is now introducing Russia's first regional registry of AI services. Unlike industry-specific catalogs, it is intended to serve as a universal database of technologies that can be used across different sectors.
Defragmenting the Market
Russia's AI market is entering a new stage of development, moving from individual models and products toward an infrastructure for bringing them to users. In the future, regional registries could be combined into larger catalogs of Russian AI technologies, giving enterprises a broad selection of ready-to-use products. That could bring about a kind of “defragmentation” of the market while strengthening St. Petersburg's position as one of Russia's centers for AI development and the digital economy.
