Yandex Introduces Alice AI for Business

Yandex has launched Alice AI for Business, an AI assistant that helps companies get work done. Designed for businesses of all sizes and industries, from retail to construction, it can handle both simple requests and complex, multi-step tasks. To complete them, Alice AI can use agentic workflows and work across both Yandex and third-party services.

Alice AI for Business is already available to more than 185,000 organizations using Yandex 360, and any other company can sign up for Yandex 360 to try it. Existing and new customers alike get a free three-month trial.

The assistant is designed to be easy to adopt, without lengthy setup or employee training. It is ready to use from day one and requires no programming skills or experience with complex prompting. Employees can simply describe what they need in natural language, much as they would when asking a colleague for help.

In Tasks mode, Alice AI can carry out a sequence of actions and work across different services, enabling it to take on more complex assignments. A manager, for example, can ask it to turn a meeting into a set of follow-up tasks: the assistant will analyze the recording, identify key decisions and action points, and create tasks for the relevant team members. A customer support team can use it to identify recurring issues across customer requests, while a finance team can ask it to bring together information from invoices and contracts and build a schedule of incoming payments and financial obligations.

When a task requires additional information, Alice AI can retrieve it from connected corporate services, provided the user has granted the necessary permissions. It already works with Yandex 360 services including Mail, Disk, Calendar, Tracker and Wiki. Companies can also connect third-party business systems — CRM, accounting and other corporate tools — through Plugins, with more integrations to be added over time.

To teach the assistant a company's internal guidelines and business specifics, all it takes is a knowledge base. You can create one from scratch or build it from existing materials, such as files stored on Yandex Disk.

Companies can add guides, manuals, document templates, price lists, commercial proposals, brand guidelines and other materials, giving the assistant the same reference information employees use in their work.

Alice AI for Business operates in a controlled corporate environment. Administrators can manage data permissions and employee access, while personal and work spaces remain separate. This keeps company information and work-related tasks isolated from employees' personal use of Alice AI.

Alice AI for Business is available in the Alice AI mobile app and through a widget in Yandex Mail.

Yandex also plans to launch a customizable version through Yandex Cloud for companies with additional security or data-storage requirements. It will support hybrid deployment and deployment within a company's own infrastructure, and will allow businesses to develop their own skills and plugins.