Within the framework of the International Forum of Innovative Economy “Vectors of Development”, held on February 28 - March 1, at Pyatigorsk State University, a scientific, theoretical and methodological view on this topical and significant problem, developed and tested for almost 20 years at PSU, was presented by the rector, professor of the Department of Creative and Innovative Management and Law Alexander Pavlovich Gorbunov.

In his report, the key vectors of the development of the economy and innovation society, emerging from an innovative way of life, capable of growing into the future most advanced and promising way of production (reproduction), were presented and described.

The following four key vectors are attributed by the author.

The first is the restructuring of the entire economy and, above all, the dominant type of the main production and economic factor - capital - and all economic links according to the most advanced - intellectual-innovative (innovative-content) type (mode). Intellectual capital will have to move from its current information and technological form to the most advanced form - intellectual, innovative, transformative and creative. And all links of the economy are called upon to transform according to the intellectual and innovative type (cycle).

Such a cycle in its completion is inherent in advanced universities. In this regard, the author’s (and therefore domestic) original concept of a transformative (or creative-innovative) university, developed, introduced since 2006 and constantly improved at Pyatigorsk State University, has received not only theoretical justification, but also practical long-term implementation, which has shown itself to be more promising and all-encompassing than the models of a research and entrepreneurial university brought from abroad and even like the newest model of “University 4.0”. In particular, even the latter does not take into account the educating and unifying spiritual and moral environment, the moral creative and innovative atmosphere, which combines solid established traditions and deeply meaningful, meaningful innovations.

The second vector is the justified need for mutual support of a radical restructuring of the economy by creative and innovative reformatting the system of social relations, the entire moral and spiritual environment, which strengthens a single intellectual and innovative core in the entire framework of society.

This was initially taken into account in the described conceptual approach of Pyatigorsk State University, why this model remains ahead in nature.

The third vector is the need for all (!) types of innovations arising from the deployment of the first two vectors – that is, not only in engineering, information and technology, but also in socio-cultural and, first of all and most importantly, managerial ones. It is managerial innovations that create conditions for the generation and development of all other types of innovations, purposefully strengthening the very social conditions for the generation of innovations, developing transformative-oriented ones of their type:

• educational and learning environment;

• a system of motivation and incentives;

• communication system;

• An organizational culture that promotes achievement.

That is, the management itself, its method, style, system should acquire a transformative (creative-innovative) character. This is also taken into account in the conceptual approach of the PSU.

The fourth vector is the priority of the task of forming the key ability to transform (in other words, supra-professional universal transformative competencies) as such before the task of forming narrow professional, narrow-sectoral competencies and even general technological and general informational ones. Here, in its depth, we are talking about the transformation of the very type of capacity for work, or, in modern terms, the type of human capital.

That is why the strategic documents of Pyatigorsk State University justify the goal of forming the newest promising type of graduate – a transformative leader-innovator, ready and able to defend Russian intellectual and innovative leadership. Since 2013, an opportunity has been created for all students at all levels to master innovative disciplines and even an additional university educational program with a corresponding diploma, graduate qualification works are being prepared with the presence of a developed object of intellectual and innovative property, and in recent years – an entrepreneurial “startup”.

Solving the question of whether the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) is among the independent vectors of innovation-oriented development, the author answers negatively, justifying that the qualities of AI do not go beyond serviceability, secondaryness: AI is able to act as a tool, an assistant, but not at all as a producer of meaningful novelty of knowledge (additions of this kind of novelty). In conjunction with AI, a person as a carrier of natural intelligence (EI) becomes part of a new strong conglomerate (EI-AI), thereby enhancing, expanding the scale of the action of his mind and his hands, accelerating and increasing the volume of information processing, but from this a person does not become (attention!) smarter, more conscious, more meaningful, wiser (!). Therefore, we should be grateful to AI today for the fact that it pushes a person to further transformative semantic development of his abilities, to go beyond the formalized intellectual capital that is available to AI, to a completely extraordinary thinking horizon.