Representation theory and random point processes

We discuss a connection between two areas of mathematics which until recently seemed to be rather distant from each other: (1) noncommutative harmonic analysis on groups and (2) some topics in probability theory related to random point processes. In order to make the paper accessible to readers not familiar with either of these areas, we explain all needed basic concepts. This is an extended version of G.Olshanski's talk at the 4th European Congress of Mathematics.