A comparision of digital transformation of industry in the Russian Federation with the European Union

The concept of Industry 4.0 is based on a set of digital technologies, forms a new paradigm in the economic and social sphere, and significantly changes production models. The study aims to find out the status and pace of digitalisation of the economy of the Russian Federation, highlighting the industrial sector. The author explores the most relevant digital technologies that enable machine connectedness, adaptability, predictability, and autonomous production. The study hypothesises that the digital transformation of the industry should manifest itself in an increase in the use of digital technology by companies. The author used selected indicators from Russian and European statistical databases, showing enterprises’ use of certain types of digital technology. We found that in the Russian Federation, in the last five years, there has been no growth in the use of special software tools for design and production management. The same is observed in enterprise resource management systems (enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management). In the Russian Federation and the European Union, there is an established level of use, which has not changed over the past 5 years. On the other hand, the use of cloud computing technology is growing, including in the manufacturing industry of the Russian Federation. The author identified Russia is lagging behind the European Union in using big data technologies, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, radio-frequency identification, and cloud technologies. Russia’s share of companies using these technologies is usually 2–5 points lower than the average European level. The results obtained can be used in forming the Russian Federation's industrial policy in the digitalisation field. In the future, lengthening the observation history will allow a more detailed evaluation of the dynamics of the digitalisation process. A limitation in the use of the results can be considered differences in the methods for collecting and processing statistical information in the Russian Federation and the European Union.