Yandex Introduces Sona: A Single Generative Recommender That Replaces Entire Recommendation Cascade

Yandex has deployed a generative model called Sona to handle both candidate selection and ranking within its music streaming service. By replacing the traditional multi-stage recommendation pipeline with a single transformer architecture, the system eliminates the need for manual feature engineering. In initial A/B testing, this streamlined approach resulted in an 11.42% increase in user likes.