Valery Krasovsky on Building Ecosystems and AI-driven Innovation

Valery joined the panel “The Rise of the Azerbaijani IT Sector: From Natural Resources to Algorithms,” moderated by Fidan Mirzayeva from PASHA Holding. Among the speakers were Yury Antоniuk, VP of GovTech & Public Services at EPAM Systems, and Dr. Fuad Karimov, Regional Managing Director at Xsolla Azerbaijan. Together, they discussed how Azerbaijan’s IT sector is transforming from traditional engineering and outsourcing toward high-value product and service innovation.

Krasovsky shared Sigma Software’s experience in helping clients move from service delivery to packaged vertical solutions. A prime example of this approach is Clean.io, a cybersecurity product that originated from a client challenge in ad tech and evolved into an independent company in 2023. Clean.io earned the title of Startup of the Year in Baltimore in 2019 and has since secured multiple rounds of investment. Sigma Software played a pivotal role as a co-founder, investor, and co-author in developing its anti-malvertising solution — leveraging our domain expertise to identify a market problem and deliver a product that quickly gained traction among global customers.

The platform now protects over 7 million websites, including some of the biggest names in media, publishing, and e-commerce. In 2022, Clean.io was acquired by Human, a leading US cybersecurity company that had previously acquired the Israeli startup PerimeterX — forming a powerhouse team uniting top talent from Ukraine, the USA, and Israel to deliver next-generation cybersecurity solutions.

“Working closely with global clients gives us deep business insight. That’s how we evolve from project-based engineering to creating scalable, ready-to-use solutions that can serve entire industries,” Valery noted. Today, Sigma Software applies this approach across multiple domains — automotive, aviation, fintech, healthcare, and advertising — leveraging deep knowledge of our clients’ businesses to demonstrate how service expertise can drive product innovation.

Touching on ecosystem development, Krasovsky acknowledged the essential role of PASHA Holding in supporting Azerbaijan’s growing tech landscape through startup acceleration and venture initiatives. Every year they process more than 100 startups in their acceleration program. He emphasised that international cooperation and knowledge exchange are key to helping local ecosystems scale beyond national borders.

Artificial intelligence was another significant topic in Valery’s speech. He described how Sigma Software integrates AI across its organisation and client projects — not as isolated pilots but as a company-wide framework. “We went for horizontal AI adoption,” he explained. “Every employee, regardless of their function, was trained in prompt engineering and equipped with tools like Microsoft Copilot and AI assistants tailored to their domain.”

Sigma Software is already showing tangible results, helping customers open new revenue streams and make operations more efficient through AI-driven automation. The company’s structured pilots demonstrated measurable impact — developers save around 17% of their time using AI-assisted tools, with nearly 30% of generated code accepted without modification and an average satisfaction score of 7.6 out of 10 among engineers.

Valery emphasised that real transformation comes not from isolated tools but from culture: building AI literacy across all roles and integrating intelligent agents into everyday processes. This approach turns experimentation into productivity and ensures that innovation scales consistently across projects and industries.

As a result, employees now design and share AI use cases company-wide — from automated CV generation and candidate screening to research preparation for sales meetings. This general adoption already saves thousands of working hours monthly.

Within its AI Centre of Excellence, and R&D Lab, Sigma Software has developed two products:

• Corporate Navigator serves as an internal AI consultant, understanding company processes, advising employees on compliance-related actions, and interacting directly with internal systems — for example, submitting vacation requests through a simple user prompt.
• AI Impact Assessor analyses code changes and guides quality assurance engineers to focus only on relevant areas for testing, improving speed and efficiency.

Both products are now commercial and available to clients.

Valery also presented results from Sigma Software’s structured AI pilot programs conducted in 2023–2024 using GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and other AI-assisted development tools. The pilots showed:

• up to 30% productivity increase in new code creation (median 23%),
• an average engineer satisfaction score of 7.5/10,
• a 100% continuation rate among clients after validation,
• around 40 hours of structured learning required for each engineer to reach full effectiveness.

“These aren’t experiments anymore — AI is an operational standard,” Valery said. “When applied systemically, it doesn’t replace people, it amplifies their value and accelerates delivery.”

By sharing these practices and results with Azerbaijani companies, Sigma Software Group aims to support the region’s growing IT ecosystem — helping local teams adopt AI responsibly, boost productivity, and unlock new business opportunities.

Sigma Software Group contributes to digital ecosystems across many countries, including Azerbaijan, through Sigma Software University, which provides training in data science, AI, and cybersecurity for local specialists. This initiative fosters knowledge exchange among Ukrainian, European, and Azerbaijani IT communities, supporting startup growth through partnerships and mentorship.

The Forum for the Future of Digital Eurasia has become a space for meaningful dialogue among policymakers, investors, and tech innovators. For Sigma Software Group, participation was part of a broader mission — helping bridge European and Eurasian innovation ecosystems, scaling real-world impact through technology, collaboration, and education.