Artificial intelligence continues to transform the business landscape. According to Hostinger, by 2025, 78% of companies worldwide had begun implementing AI. In Ukraine, research from the Top Lead agency shows that 93% of 200 surveyed companies utilize neural networks in at least some of their business processes. Despite this mass integration, for Ukrainian businesses, this is only the beginning: AI presents immense opportunities alongside significant new challenges.
AI as a new norm
AI has evolved from a "hype-driven" marketing tool into a strategic necessity. The international hotel group Ribas Hotels Group notes that automation is now a fundamental condition for survival.
"We view this in the same light as the transition to online business in the 2000s: those who invested early won the market," the company states. They add that a primary motive for AI integration is boosting human efficiency.
For Epicenter, the catalyst for AI adoption was shifting consumer behavior and the rapid growth of digital platforms. According to the company, the market is moving toward a future where consumers increasingly shop via voice and visual search. AI will serve as a universal advisor, helping customers choose products—from a new TV to personalized clothing recommendations—based on their unique interests.
For Monobank, the introduction of AI was less a reaction to external pressure and more an organic stage of its evolution. The bank requires this technology to scale the speed and quality of its internal workflows.
Vodafone Ukraine shares a similarly pragmatic outlook. According to Sergii Boryslavskyi, Director of Digital Product Development, AI enables the optimization of vast arrays of routine tasks and large-scale customer service operations. Responding to a request from Dengi.ua MHP noted that neural networks are essential for systematic data management, modeling, and improving overall business process efficiency.
Uklon, the online ride-hailing service, is also at the forefront of technological adoption. According to CTO Oleksandr Chumak, AI integration has been a logical evolution of their product since 2019.
"As a dynamic marketplace requiring real-time balancing of supply and demand, effective scaling without AI would be impossible," he emphasizes.
The primary driver for Uklon’s transformation was the limitation of classical algorithms, which often fail to produce optimal results in complex environments. Consequently, Uklon has focused on building its internal AI expertise.
Vodafone Ukraine combined external consultations with the creation of its own AI Competence Center. Epicenter also utilizes a hybrid approach, while at Monobank, the co-founders were the initial drivers of the AI direction. Today, any bank employee can propose and test an idea; successful solutions are then turned into dedicated work tracks. MHP has built a similar internal ecosystem, focusing on the "AI Leadership" community, where teams test hypotheses in real-world processes.
Conversely, Ribas Hotels Group has intentionally prioritized working with external consultants.
"This prevents us from wasting time on a chaotic search for solutions and allows us to move systematically from the start," the company explains, noting that they are developing internal expertise in parallel.
Active Sectors for AI Integration
Practical experience shows that AI has moved beyond basic chatbots to become embedded in core business processes, with each industry identifying its own high-impact integration points.
Uklon, for example, implements AI in three primary areas:
1. Applications. This includes search and recommendations, pricing, "Dispatching" (real-time driver-passenger matching), and "Routing & ETA" (proprietary models for predicting travel times).
The company’s "Traffic + ETA" service accurately predicts traffic jams based on driver coordinate data. Furthermore, AI analyzes user comments; if a passenger mentions luggage or a pet, the algorithm suggests the appropriate additional service. This has reduced booking times, increased driver acceptance rates by 5%, and doubled the use of add-on services.
2. Software Development: Specialized AI agents assist teams in writing and automatically debugging code.
3. Enterprise Systems and Help Desk: In their support center, AI transcribes and analyzes calls. Algorithms automatically filter out 70% of irrelevant or fraudulent complaints, instantly highlighting critical requests. This saves approximately 350 man-hours per month. Internally, a smart Slack bot called "Uklon AI" provides employees with information ranging from company instructions to vacation balances.
"Proprietary routing and ETA models save us millions of dollars annually, and support automation significantly reduces operational costs," Chumak emphasizes.
Significant financial gains are also reported in the telecommunications sector. For Vodafone Ukraine, the economic impact of AI implementation is already measured in tens of millions of hryvnias.
"We see a clear return on investment—particularly in customer service," notes Boryslavskyi, adding that algorithms are being integrated into the daily tasks of every employee.
Epicenter is also prioritizing customer service, with an AI assistant now processing approximately 30% of all requests. The retail giant also uses algorithms in marketing to generate creatives, personalize campaigns, and develop voice-based recommendation services.
Meanwhile, Monobank utilizes an AI agent to generate ad copy for its "mono-bazaar" based on photos. It also automatically generates IBAN payments from screenshots and files, boasting a 90% conversion rate without manual edits across more than 600,000 processed payments.
MHP is integrating AI into manufacturing and agribusiness. A flagship project, the Data Model Meat Processing (DMMP) system, analyzes production data to provide equipment setting recommendations.
Another MHP solution, "Smart Technology Assistant" (SMART TA), automates poultry farming by monitoring life-support indicators and managing housing parameters autonomously. Additionally, internal AI assistants have become daily tools for MHP’s finance, HR, and project management teams.
Ribas Hotels Group focuses on data automation as well. AI has taken over the generation of regular reports, database sorting, and manager efficiency evaluations. Within the hotels themselves, AI monitors compliance with standards by analyzing photos, videos, and CRM communication.
Issues and challenges
AI implementation is not without its hurdles. For Epicenter and Vodafone Ukraine, the primary challenge has been integrating AI into legacy IT infrastructure. Because these systems were not originally designed for AI, the companies are now actively restructuring their data architectures.
Security remains a critical concern. To prevent sensitive information from leaving the company, Vodafone deploys most AI solutions locally using its own GPU cluster. Monobank similarly refuses to transfer data to third-party providers, preferring to develop its own models and platforms.
Uklon also had to overcome technological barriers. According to Chumak, an early challenge was the fallacy of the "universal bot"—AI models often struggled with large contexts, causing a single agent to get "lost" between topics. Developers eventually switched to a multi-agent architecture with specialized bots. To combat AI "hallucinations," they implemented mandatory source referencing and daily automated quality checks. The company also shifted from flexible local models to more cost-effective enterprise solutions and introduced strict monitoring of API token costs.
"We encountered cases where automated scripts sent unnecessary information, leading to wasted costs," notes Chumak.
For Ribas Hotels Group, the challenge is cultural rather than technical. The company notes that natural skepticism among some employees and managers regarding AI’s impact can slow the pace of innovation.
MHP emphasized that any successful AI implementation depends on the "maturity" of a company’s data. Without a robust data infrastructure and strict "data discipline," AI innovations cannot function effectively.
Will There Be a Place for Humans?
Notably, none of the surveyed companies view AI as a replacement for their workforce. Instead, the technology is transforming professional roles.
"We have not made any staff reductions and have no plans to do so," says Sergii Boryslavskyi of Vodafone Ukraine. "An employee who knows how to work with AI is far more efficient than one who does not."
Epicenter notes that fully autonomous solutions remain rare, and human oversight is mandatory at critical stages.
Uklon and Ribas Hotels Group share this sentiment, arguing that automation simply reallocates resources. By reducing time spent on routine operations, employees can focus on decision-making, creativity, and client relations.
Instead of downsizing, major players are investing heavily in training. MHP’s "AI Leadership" community and Monobank’s internal "AI Club" are examples of this commitment.
Monobank also predicts a surge in demand for specialized talent, such as AI engineers and MLOps specialists. To attract these professionals, the bank launched a paid "AInternship." The demand is clear: while the first intake in 2025 received 1,254 applications, the spring 2026 program saw over 3,500 applicants, necessitating an expansion of the program.
AI as Part of the Corporate DNA
Looking ahead, Ukrainian companies believe the era of isolated experiments is ending. As Ribas Hotels Group notes, long-term success will belong to those who make technology part of their corporate DNA. They have introduced a principle where every department must execute its own AI project, with the belief that back-office operations (marketing, sales, finance) will be the first to reach full automation.
This shift signals the rise of digital assistant ecosystems. Uklon, for example, plans to develop AI assistants to accelerate data processing for analysts and product owners.
Epicenter sees significant potential in predictive analytics for assortment management and pricing. Another major trend is the automation of software development itself; at both Epicenter and monobank, AI is already a partner to engineers, assisting with code generation, test coverage, and quality gates.
The telecommunications sector also envisions an ambitious future. Vodafone Ukraine plans to move toward fully autonomous processes that require no human intervention and intends to monetize its expertise by offering AI solutions to B2B clients.
Despite the ongoing full-scale war and significant financial risks, Ukrainian businesses are keeping pace with global technological trends. AI is now a critical element for survival in a hyper-competitive future. The experience of the leaders surveyed by Dengi.ua proves one thing: those who integrate AI algorithms into their business processes today will define the rules of the market tomorrow.
