How Russia Fell Behind In the AI Race

WSJ Tech News Briefing

The Wall Street Journal

News, Tech News

4.6 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Russian President Vladimir Putin has often proclaimed that the country must lead the world in artificial intelligence, yet the country is currently stuck on the sidelines as other nations pull ahead. Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent Georgi Kantchev explains why. Plus, the arrival of AI agents is transforming work already—debugging code, designing products, and delivering ROI. Steven Rosenbush, chief of the enterprise technology bureau, details how companies like Walmart and BNY are already seeing results. Julie Chang hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:28.3	among real estate professionals. Welcome to Tech News briefing. It's Tuesday, December 9th.
0:37.4	I'm Julie Chang for the Wall Street Journal.
0:39.3	AI agents are here, debugging code, designing products, and delivering ROI.
0:45.3	We'll tell you how companies like Walmart and BNY are already seeing results and what it could mean for the broader market.
0:52.3	Plus, why Russia is lagging behind in the AI supremacy race.
1:00.6	But first, AI agents are tools that can perform actions on behalf of humans,
1:05.9	such as booking a restaurant reservation or debugging code.
1:09.6	While some critics question the value of this relatively
1:12.7	new tech, the Wall Street Journal's chief of the Enterprise Technology Bureau, Stephen Rosenbush,
1:18.1	spoke with our colleague Peter Champelli about the returns some businesses are already seeing.
1:23.6	Stephen, some early adopters say that they're seeing the value of deploying AI agents already.
1:29.3	For companies who are seeing that return, how are they using AI?
1:32.6	The handful of companies that are seeing a really meaningful return, in many cases, they're
1:37.9	using agents behind the scenes.
1:40.1	They're using them for coding and customer service, or they're using them deep in the enterprise for, say, financial operations or supply chain management.
	...

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