On the sidelines of the IT Infrastructure, Cloud & Security Summit 2026, we spoke with Serhiy Kolesnichenko, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of a leading Ukrainian cloud company. Ucloud, which operates a powerful network of distributed data centers in Ukraine and the EU.
Ucloud AI services: from speech transcription to voice AI agents
— Mr. Serhiy, the topic of AI automation is currently very important for the market. I know that many specialists are currently taking specialized courses to understand the entire stack of tools. Tell us what services using artificial intelligence does Ucloud offer?
— Yes, automation based on artificial intelligence is a key vector of development. At Ucloud, we don’t just provide computing power, but also develop our own intelligent tools. Currently, we have public access for testing Text-to-Speech and Speech-to-Text systems — that is, technologies for translating live speech into text and vice versa.
In addition, we have launched an advanced voice AI agent. It fully integrates with a specific client's corporate knowledge base and is able to automatically provide accurate answers to template and specific questions that come to the company both by voice and in text form. This is one of the priority areas of our R&D work.
— In addition to ready-made software AI solutions, do you have classic infrastructure offerings for heavy computing?
— Absolutely. We offer a classic GPU-as-a-Service infrastructure rental service. As part of our classic cloud services, the customer receives a deployed virtual machine with a high-performance GPU attached, which seamlessly integrates directly into their current cloud architecture.
Modern data centers for AI workloads require specific hardware adapted to the enormous density of calculations. Currently, our portfolio includes a wide range of current accelerators and graphics cards from NVIDIA:
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Professional stacks: NVIDIA L4 and L40;
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Ultimate AI chips: NVIDIA H200;
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Flagship workstations: NVIDIA RTX 5000 and RTX 6000.
Depending on the client's architectural request, we either implement their tasks using our ready-made tools or deploy dedicated infrastructure for rent inside their isolated and secure perimeter.
[Client request for AI] ➔ 📂 Load assessment ➔ 🛡️ Deployment in Ucloud secure perimeter ➔ 🧠 Connecting GPU (H200 / RTX 6000) or AI agents
Armored Perimeter: Why Security Comes to the Fore
— It is critical for large businesses not to “merge” their data into public models like ChatGPT. How do you address this compliance issue?
— This is a fundamental question. The modern b2b segment categorically does not want to give trade secrets or personal data to public clouds. They need LLM models that operate strictly within a protected corporate perimeter.
Today, in many serious companies, the first authority to make a decision on implementing an AI tool is not the IT department, but the cybersecurity department. And Ucloud fully meets these strict requirements.
— Are these capacities deployed specifically in Ukrainian data centers or do you rent sites in Europe?
— In total, Ucloud infrastructure is deployed in seven data centers: three of them are physically operating in Ukraine, and four are located abroad, in the European Union countries. Absolutely all of these sites have the highest certificates of compliance and reliability.
Our entire infrastructure is continuously monitored from a cybersecurity (SOC) perspective. Customer data is protected from both targeted cyberattacks and failures, as well as from force majeure with physical infrastructure. The fact that some of the data centers are geographically located outside of Ukraine guarantees an unprecedented level of geo-redundancy and business continuity.
European Vector: Fiberax Cloud and Claudia AI Assistant
— Who are your main clients — exclusively local Ukrainian businesses?
— The geography of our partners is very wide: currently Ucloud works with companies from 20 countries around the world. Our Polish office is fully responsible for interaction with international markets, while the Kyiv office focuses on the Ukrainian b2b and GovTech segments.
In addition, we launched a separate specialized service for European small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) — the Fiberax.com platform. This is a public cloud deployed on completely different technological solutions than our classic infrastructure for large Ukrainian enterprises. It is fully adapted to the mentality and requirements of the European client. The Self-Service concept is implemented there: the account is as intuitive and clear as possible, the user does not need to explain anything for a long time — he can independently design and get the infrastructure he needs in a few clicks.
If a European client's business scales and requires more computing resources, we help them seamlessly migrate from a public cloud to a dedicated private cloud (Private Cloud) for their individual tasks.
— Ucloud has its own AI assistant, Claudia. Are you planning to release it in English for the European market?
— Our virtual assistant "Klaudia" is currently perfectly trained and optimized for the Ukrainian language. However, the European vector is strategic for us, so Polish and English versions of "Klaudia" are already under development to better meet the needs of Western clients.
— Are your European servers located mainly in Poland?
— Yes, historically we deployed servers outside of Ukraine in Poland. This was dictated by the logic of achieving ultra-low latency between Ukrainian users and their foreign backup infrastructure. The proximity to the border ensured perfect system response.
However, as we further scale the Fiberax service, we will focus on bringing computing nodes directly to the end European customer. Therefore, the geography will expand further to the West, closer to the target markets.
Dynamics of the AI market in Ukraine: only 1% of the potential so far
— What dynamics are observed among Ukrainian companies regarding the demand for servers with artificial intelligence support?
— If we talk strictly about AI infrastructure, and not about classic cloud hosting, then in Ukraine everything is just beginning. From my regular discussions with colleagues in the market, it becomes obvious: currently humanity in general and Ukrainian companies in particular are using less than 1% of the real potential of artificial intelligence.
This is the future. The advantage will be given to those organizations that will quickly go from initial testing of AI hypotheses to real implementation of models in their daily business processes. For the next 3-5 years, we predict explosive growth and a huge number of new services.
It is important to understand that the fundamental science of AI is over 40 years old, it is not recent history. It is just that the amount of accumulated data and the power of silicon iron (GPU) have reached the critical point where the technology has become profitable for the mass market. And the mass market itself is already dictating the crazy pace of development.
— What areas of business and the public sector are the main drivers of demand for AI computing in Ucloud?
— The largest demand is generated by verticals that process gigantic arrays of client requests every day:
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Retail. Large retail chains, pharmacy giants — wherever there is mass service.
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Banking sector. Automation and protection of support lines.
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Public sector and the Ministry of Digital Economy. Recently, we have been recording a huge number of requests from IT departments of various ministries and agencies for our transcription tools.
The state receives a huge volume of voice appeals from citizens. To formalize them into official documents, to which the ministry is obliged to provide a legal response, thousands of hours of work by live operators were previously spent. Our AI tools take over this routine, translating live speech into official text appeals. Where there is mass work with people and big data, cloud AI from Ucloud becomes indispensable.
— Finally: does Ucloud cooperate with the Ministry of Digital Transformation within the framework of creating a national Ukrainian large language model (LLM)? based on European servers?
— There is currently no direct deep integration into this project. We have point contacts, and Ucloud, as a responsible business, actively supports individual academic initiatives in this direction.
However, we are primarily a pragmatic business. Our goal is to solve specific practical problems of our clients that bring them profit and optimize processes today. Nevertheless, if we clearly see that the development of a national LLM model will help to accumulate unique expertise that will subsequently strengthen our business and protect the country, Ucloud is ready to consider allocating resources - both human and financial, as well as our fixed assets and data center capacities - to achieve this goal.
HiTech Expert Take
Interview with Serhiy Kolesnichenko provides a fundamental infrastructure marker: the Ukrainian b2b and GovTech market in July 2026 finally overcame the period of chaotic AI testing and moved into a phase of strict compliance and security. Trend towards the use of isolated LLMs inside cloud perimeters with certification and engagement NVIDIA H200 class hardware or the RTX 6000 line proves that corporate data security has become the main condition for business survival.
This approach is perfectly synchronized with the national course of Ukraine. Against the background of the Ministry of Digital Transformation deploying 60 national registries based on the domestic constructor Diya.Engine and is preparing a full AI transition to the Agentic State model (Proactive State), Ucloud's experience in transcription of appeals for ministries is critically important. Reliable processing of giant data sets allows for native development of government services.
