The current state of the Russian system of vocational education is characterized by a certain dissonance between educational content and the needs of employers and the primary directions of the Government of the Russian Federation in the field of digitalization. The stage of digitalization, determined by the requirements of innovations in the Russian economy and society, is a concise consequence of the world processes of globalization and integration, causing the transition to the next level of development of the problem of the formation of digital competencies. The key result of this study is the periodization of the genesis of the problem of the formation of digital intercultural competence, proposed by the author, with a detailed description of the characteristic trends of the third stage. At the same time, the selection of historical trends occurred from several angles: the formation of the information society; the formation of the competence-based nature of the higher education system; formation of the problem of formation of intercultural competence. An analysis of the current state of the process of forming digital competencies made it possible to state the fact of the global digitalization of social processes as a leading socio-cultural prerequisite; acquisition by the concept of "information" of the status of a commodity and an economic unit; modification of the phenomenon of "intercultural competence" in the digital context of online technologies and media in a new understanding and a new format of intercultural relations; strengthening the interest of the state and society in the problems of digitalization of all spheres of the economy and increasing the competitiveness of Russia in the world market.