Russia’s AI assistant draws over 10,000 users at Yekaterinburg youth festival

More than 10,000 participants at the International Festival of Youth 2026 in Yekaterinburg used a Russian AI assistant to navigate the event, according to information provided by the festival organisers.

The festival, held from September 11 to 17, brought together around 10,000 young representatives from Russia and 190 other countries. The event also included children and teenagers, specialists, professionals, mentors, investors and media representatives.

The AI platform, developed using Russia’s GigaChat neural network and large language model technology, processed more than 210,000 requests from festival participants during the event.

The assistant was designed to help visitors organise their festival experience. Users could create personalised schedules based on their interests and preferred speakers, calculate travel times between venues and receive route recommendations.

It could also provide information about the programme, answer questions related to the event and generate summaries of previous sessions.

On average, each individual user made around 21 requests during the festival. Participants repeatedly used the service to check schedules, locate venues and plan routes throughout the event.

The platform also included Russian-English translation features, allowing participants from different countries to use the service during the festival.

Another feature that attracted participants was a reward system based on digital “coins”. Users accumulated coins while interacting with the AI platform.

The accumulated coins could be used at the platform’s festival booth to purchase souvenirs, display messages on a kinetic wall and participate in an autograph session with singer Vanya Dmitrienko.

The use of the AI assistant at the festival comes as Russia continues to promote domestic technology platforms alongside restrictions affecting access to several major Western technology services.

Image Alt: Visitors use a Russian AI assistant at the International Festival of Youth in Yekaterinburg

Caption: Festival participants use the GigaChat-based AI assistant at the International Festival of Youth in Yekaterinburg.