- Статьи
- Economy
- Tech's business: control agencies are cutting staff due to the introduction of AI and drones
Tech's business: control agencies are cutting staff due to the introduction of AI and drones
The authorities have reduced the number of business supervisors — last year their staff was reduced by 10%, according to documents from the government office (Izvestia has them). This is happening against the background of digitalization of supervision: drones and artificial intelligence are increasingly being used for inspections instead of inspectors. Now they are most actively used by Rosreestr, Rosselkhoznadzor and Rosprirodnadzor. In the future, technologies will allow analyzing satellite images and camera data, finding "gray" objects and detecting violations. In 2026, the authorities plan to conduct every tenth inspection using drones — now their share is about 3%, and AI may be introduced into 22 more departments in the future. How technology is changing control and what risks it carries — in the material of Izvestia.
How civil servants are being cut in Russia
In 2025, the supervisory authorities conducted 273,000 business inspections, which is 7% less than a year earlier. Over the past six years, their number has decreased almost sixfold. This is largely due to the introduction of technologies that make it possible to monitor compliance with the rules remotely. This is stated in the materials for the working meeting of Deputy Prime Minister and Head of the government Staff Dmitry Grigorenko with the supervisory authorities, which took place on March 16 (available to Izvestia). The results of the control work were presented by Dmitry Grigorenko and Alexey Khersontsev, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Energy. The editorial board sent a request to the departments.
In the office of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko, Izvestia was told that the optimization of employees was accompanied by an increase in wages for inspectors. In some cases, the staff was redistributed to create territorial bodies in new regions. Currently, inspectors are being trained to work with new technologies — more than 6 thousand applications have already been submitted for training programs.
Last year, the supervisory authorities began to actively use drones and remote checks. For example, a business can be monitored through the Inspector app: the entrepreneur shows the object via video link, and the inspector evaluates the situation online.
The authorities are also reducing the number of employees in the control bodies. According to the document, their staff was reduced by about 10% in 2025. Back in 2024, the president signed a decree on optimizing the number of employees of territorial government agencies — it was about 400 thousand people. As explained by a source close to the discussion, the cuts were made painlessly thanks to digitalization. In addition, according to him, staff training in new competencies is expensive.
The Rosreestr editorial office reported that, thanks to technology, since 2019, the number of inspectors in the service has decreased by 30%, to 2 thousand people. They noted that drones allow you to quickly survey large areas and identify violations of land legislation. 151 drones are currently being used there, and almost 500 together with subordinate structures. AI is also actively used to search for unregistered objects: the Smart Cadastre service identifies up to 40 thousand such sites and buildings per day, whereas previously it was possible to detect only 7 thousand in a year.
The regions are taking similar measures. For example, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin previously spoke about the decision to optimize the number of civil servants by 15%. He attributed this to a slowdown in the growth of budget revenues.
Earlier, Izvestia wrote that since the beginning of the year, federal agencies have begun receiving instructions from the Cabinet of Ministers to prepare proposals for cost optimization. A source familiar with the situation told the editorial board about this. In particular, the government's office is considering a 10% reduction in funding for individual government programs. Reducing the cost of administrative staff of government institutions is also being discussed, the source said.
How will business control change
There is a wide network of control bodies in Russia. Among them are Rosprirodnadzor, Rospotrebnadzor, Rostechnadzor, Rosselkhoznadzor, Roszdravnadzor, Rosreestr, Rostrud and the Federal Tax Service. These services monitor compliance with laws in the environmental, sanitary, industrial, medical, land, labor and tax spheres. Izvestia has sent inquiries to these agencies.
Surveillance technologies will be used even more actively, according to a document from the meeting. Currently, about 3% of inspections are carried out using drones, and in 2026, the authorities want to increase their share to one in ten. Most of all, drones are used by Rosreestr, Rosselkhoznadzor and Rosprirodnadzor. For example, the first carried out almost 8 thousand inspections of land plots, and the second carried out about 1.5 thousand measures in the field of veterinary and phytosanitary control. In total, about 10 thousand checks have already been carried out in this way.
At the same time, the authorities are expanding the use of AI. Currently, such technologies are used by Rosreestr, Rosselkhoznadzor and Rostechnadzor. Another 22 departments can implement them, according to government documents. We are talking about the analysis of satellite images, data from surveillance cameras, document recognition and detection of violations, for example, in the detection of "gray" (unregistered) objects.
This will allow analyzing large amounts of data, helping inspectors to fix violations remotely — using drones, video analytics and satellite images, Pavel Andrianov, partner at 5D Consulting, explained.
According to him, such solutions allow monitoring the situation in almost real time. For example, deviations can be noticed even at the construction stage. At the same time, one drone flight in 15 minutes can check an area that would take several hours to inspect if inspectors were to leave normally.
The Rosselkhoznadzor told the editorial staff that AI and drones are actively used for control. Algorithms analyze data from the Mercury system, where about 5 billion veterinary documents are processed annually, and help identify violations, and inspectors make final decisions. Drones are also used to survey lands and hard-to-reach areas.
How AI affects the labor market
For businesses, digitalization of control is rather a plus if the rules for using such tools are clear, Pavel Andrianov believes. For example, video recording of inspections, which has already become mandatory for many inspections, reduces the impact of the human factor and protects both entrepreneurs and the state.
At the same time, the work of inspectors is also changing, the expert continued. The need for on-site inspectors is gradually decreasing, while the demand for data analysis specialists is growing. The staff is being reduced, but at the same time it is being transformed. The Federal Tax Service has already shown an example of such a model: there are fewer departures, but the amount of additional charges is growing, including thanks to data analytics, Pavel Andrianov recalled.
However, it is too early to talk about further staff reductions, says Yulia Kovalenko, deputy head of the Higher School of Economics of Moscow Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. According to her, some violations cannot yet be detected using digital tools alone — specialists will still have to analyze the data and compare it with the requirements of the law.
Routine tasks will gradually be transferred to AI, says Leonid Delitsyn, an analyst at Finam. However, people will continue to formulate tasks and make decisions. Neural networks are more likely to become a tool that helps process large amounts of information faster.
The pros and cons of technology in state control
Drones are already actively used in various sectors of the economy, said Natalia Milchakova, a leading analyst at Freedom Finance Global. They help to check the condition of buildings and infrastructure, power lines, roads, farmlands. In the future, such technologies may be used even in the valuation of real estate and assets of companies, the expert believes.
Drones and data analysis systems allow real-time monitoring of crop conditions, detection of environmental pollution or monitoring of industrial facilities in remote regions, said Leonid Delitsyn from Finam.
It also helps to detect discrepancies between the scale of construction and the declared volumes or to notice discrepancies between satellite images and cadastral data, Pavel Andrianov from 5D Consulting emphasized.
At the same time, technology helps in the fight against the "gray" economy, said Felix Gadzaov, director of the Center for Digital School of Public Administration at the Presidential Academy. For example, Rosprirodnadzor previously reported that about 85% of violations are detected by satellite images, and field inspections then confirm them in full.
At the same time, the introduction of such technologies has risks. As Natalia Milchakova pointed out, the use of drones can pose threats to security, including for civil aviation, and AI can raise unemployment, and confidential data can be "drained". In addition, excessive automation can result in additional costs for the economy if algorithm errors lead to incorrect conclusions and unnecessary burden on the business, the expert added. However, Internet outages can complicate the operation of some digital services.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
