Sber plans to enter the market of communication platforms for business. The new service should combine work chats, calls, video conferences, mail, calendars, tasks, and an AI assistant based on GigaChat. Kirill Menshov, Senior Vice President, Head of the Technologies block at Sberbank, spoke about the company's plans at the CIPR conference.
Testing of the platform is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, with a full launch scheduled for 2027. Sber expects that within two to three years, the service will be able to capture 20–25% of the market for business communication and collaboration solutions. According to the company's estimates, the communication software, solutions, and equipment market itself could approach 190 billion rubles in three years.
The platform can be deployed both in the cloud and on the company's own IT infrastructure. This is important for large businesses, where security, data storage, and integration with internal systems requirements are usually higher than for mass users.
Experts consider Sber's entry into this market logical: the company has a strong brand, a large corporate base, and its own technological ecosystem. However, it will have to compete not with an empty field. After the departure of Microsoft Teams and restrictions on foreign services, the Russian market has already begun to be actively divided by MTS, VK Tech, Yandex 360, and other players.
According to market participants, corporate communications in Russia are growing rapidly. Yandex 360 reported that by the first quarter of 2026, the number of paid accounts reached 8.3 million. MTS Link hosted more than 2.6 million online events with 14.5 million connections during the same period. VK WorkSpace's revenue from the "Productivity Services" segment for the first quarter of 2026 grew 2.3 times year-on-year to 1.9 billion rubles.
At the same time, experts note that the market has not yet received a full-fledged Russian analogue of Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, or Slack. Therefore, Sber has a chance to enter not just with another messenger, but with a unified work environment for companies.
One of the demand factors may also be the risks surrounding foreign messengers. A significant part of businesses previously used Telegram for work communications, but against the backdrop of restrictions and slowdowns, companies are increasingly looking towards local solutions. However, taking a quarter of the market will not be easy: many organizations already have their services implemented, security policies configured, and work processes established.