Sber and Gazprom Neft Join Forces Following SPIEF 2026
One of the outcomes of the recently concluded forum was the signing of a memorandum establishing a partnership between two of Russia's largest companies in the field of artificial intelligence. As a result, the oil industry is set to gain access to solutions built on the GigaChat Biznes (GigaChat Business) platform.
One of the partnership's key deliverables will be the development of AI agents and intelligent decision-support systems for Gazprom Neft's technological and business processes. A defining feature of the project is its approach to local AI deployment: the models will operate within a protected environment, without internet connectivity or access to external cloud infrastructure. That capability is critical for the oil and gas sector, where confidential production data, corporate regulations, technical documentation, and information about industrial assets must remain protected. GigaChat Business supports several deployment models, including private-cloud environments, hybrid configurations, and dedicated hardware-software installations hosted on a customer's own servers, ensuring that data never leaves the company's secure perimeter.
The initiative represents a deliberate move toward industrial GenAI, where generative AI systems work directly with sector-specific knowledge bases, corporate procedures, enterprise data, and the management of complex production operations. In effect, generative AI is leaving the office environment and entering the industrial landscape, connecting production, logistics, engineering, and supply-chain management within a single framework. Beyond those capabilities, workforce training is also among the project's priorities. Just as importantly, the effort supports the creation of an import-independent AI platform tailored to the needs of a major industrial enterprise.
The announcement arrives amid broader discussions around the future development of KiberTEK (Cyber Fuel and Energy Complex), a digital twin of the energy sector designed to model development and management scenarios across the industry. Gazprom Neft has already reported significant progress in digital twins and AI adoption: 81% of the company's assets and processes are covered by digital twins, while AI is used in 35% of its software. By 2028, the company plans to establish a complete unified digital twin spanning its operations.
Closer to the Bytes
GigaChat is already being trained on specialized industry terminology to support interactions with technical professionals, effectively absorbing the sector's accumulated knowledge base. To generate each response, AI agents will analyze corporate procedures and company data, validate facts, evaluate the effectiveness of previously implemented solutions, and provide optimized recommendations.
Russia's corporate sector is now gaining access to a genuinely capable generative AI platform. The tools under development are expected to accelerate growth, strengthen operational resilience, and open new opportunities for participating companies. Gazprom Neft will be able not only to elevate management practices but also to influence the market through the creation of fundamentally new products. The combination of Sber's technology stack and the expertise of one of Russia's largest industrial companies creates a competitive advantage for sector leaders and a tool for long-term sustainable growth. Rather than simply answering employees' questions, the AI will help analyze corporate procedures, production data, engineering documentation, supply chains, equipment-operating scenarios, and management options.
According to industry experts, once validated in upstream operations, the platform could be scaled across the broader fuel and energy sector, metallurgy, chemicals, transportation, manufacturing, and other capital-intensive industries characterized by extensive regulatory frameworks, large production datasets, and complex management processes.
The Solution's Lineage
Looking back at the project's origins helps explain its significance. As Gazprom Neft moves toward industry-scale digital twins, the current GigaChat Business initiative effectively adds a layer of generative AI and AI agents on top of those digital-twin systems.
Earlier this year, Gazprom Neft developed an AI agent for oil-well design. That milestone marked a shift toward AI performing not only reference and information functions but also engineering and analytical tasks. During the same period, the company created digital twins of cryolithozone environments at its fields in the permafrost regions of western Yamal. The system forecasts changes in frozen ground conditions through 2050. By 2028, the model is scheduled to expand across all of the company's assets located within the cryolithozone regions of Eastern and Western Siberia.
At the same time, Sber is bringing to market a corporate platform for building AI agents. The platform is designed for enterprise applications, work with corporate data, and secure deployment within company infrastructure. The new agreement gives Sber a major industrial use case in one of the world's most demanding sectors.
