CMSAUTO at AI WEEK in Milan
In May 2026, Ivan Doroshenko and I attended AI WEEK in Milan. For us, the trip offered a chance to consider AI through one central question: which developments will actually make work better for people and businesses?
Meeting the industry in person
AI WEEK 2026 took place on 19–20 May at Fiera Milano Rho. The conference programme included talks, practical sessions and an exhibition of business solutions. We attended as visitors: I am Alexandr Neliubov, founder of CMSAUTO, and Ivan Doroshenko is my partner.
We approach AI from a practical perspective. When you build digital products, a new model’s capabilities are only part of the picture. You also need to understand where it fits into a company’s work, who will use it and what changes for the customer. These are the questions we bring to conferences and to our own development work.
AI WEEK — 19–20 May 2026, Fiera Milano Rho ↗From an answer to a completed task
Our conference photos include Alibaba Cloud presentations about Qwen and systems that can carry out a sequence of actions. Behind the terminology is a straightforward idea: an assistant should help a person finish a piece of work, rather than simply produce text.
Consider a customer enquiry. A basic chat can answer a question. An assistant connected to business tools could find the order, gather the relevant details and prepare a reply that reflects the situation. If the enquiry involves a refund, a disputed amount or unusual terms, the decision stays with an employee.
Businesses need work that flows
One of automation’s most useful roles is to remove gaps between stages. An enquiry arrives by email, gets copied into a spreadsheet, is entered again into a business system, and then someone searches the message history to find its owner. Every handover takes time and creates another chance for an error.
We see value in a different arrangement: information is captured once, used wherever it is needed, and the team can see the status of the work. AI can help interpret messages and documents, but the sequence of actions, access to data and responsibility must be designed separately. The benefit comes when the whole process works together.
Savings have to survive an ordinary working day
An impressive demonstration does not tell you how much a company will save. Everyday work includes incomplete enquiries, hard-to-read documents, difficult questions and unexpected changes. If an employee has to correct every other suggestion, a fast initial response means little.
We therefore look at straightforward measures: how long a task took before, how long it takes now including review, whether errors have fallen and whether the customer gets an answer sooner. Time released should go into valuable work: better service, new sales or product development. Growth becomes possible when the team has room to accomplish more.
Choose the model for the job
There is no universal choice for every business. One process needs accurate answers grounded in internal documents; another needs several languages; a third needs to handle a large volume of enquiries quickly. Solutions should be compared using the company’s own examples and the cost of running them day to day.
Business information deserves its own consideration. Before connecting AI to customer data, decide what information it actually needs, where that information is processed and who can see the results. Useful automation should fit the business in a way that both managers and employees can understand.
People remain at the centre
One image from the trip shows a handshake with a robot. It is a striking illustration of how closely technology is entering everyday life. It also raises questions about the people whose work will change, alongside questions about what the machines can do.
We believe teams should be involved before AI is introduced. What will become easier? Which responsibilities will change? What will people need to learn? Who will help them use the new tools? Leaving these questions until launch can create resistance to even a useful solution. People need a clear prospect for their future and a voice in the changes.
What this means for CMSAUTO
We develop digital products and automate business processes: services for working with customers, data and documents, connections between existing tools, and AI where it helps solve a concrete problem. Our focus is everyday usability and results that can be checked.
AI WEEK forms part of how we stay connected to the industry’s development. The photos and video preserve the trip; the questions behind them shape our approach to projects. Which actions should be automated first? Where is a person needed? How should the benefit be measured? Good development starts with questions like these.
What to take away
Technology becomes valuable when people know how to work with it and the business can see a concrete benefit. That is the perspective we bring to CMSAUTO projects.
A robot at AI WEEK
A short demonstration at the conference. A robot moves and dances in front of visitors.
AI WEEK website ↗Milan in pictures
Our photographs from AI WEEK: the team, presentations and technology in action.
