Actuality. The necessity of determination the place of Russia in competition of countries on devel-opment and utilization of new digital technologies in economics. Aim of research. To indicate main directions in information technology development and measures for Russia to be among the leaders. Methods of research. Survey of publications, comparative analysis of countries. Results of investigation.  The conclusion is made that technological change connected with transition from traditional economy to digital one is now increasing in many branches and rate of appearance of innovations becomes higher. Examples are: replacement of people with robots in making routine work, cloud technologies, additive technologies (3D printing), internet of things (IoT)-in-teraction of things and people in one network, “smart houses”, “smart cities”, cars without driver (autopilot), “big data” etc.  The Russia is going to digital economy now but is on retard. Practical significance.  Consequences of this change for person and for society are discussed. Many advantages of digital technologies are shown: precision, velocity, effectiveness, possibility of quick copying with some variances, relatively low cost. Many new risks ap-pears. This paper is one more signal for governors to make more investment in R&D to increase the percentage of service sector in GDP to increase time for creative work, for education, for communication, for social life, for health throw the development of digital technologies.