When people talk about artificial intelligence, the conversation usually drifts toward chatbots, virtual assistants or futuristic gadgets. But in Kazakhstan, AI is being embedded much deeper - into the very architecture of the financial system, DKNews.kz reports.
In 2025, the country completed one of the most ambitious stages of financial digital transformation in its history. As part of the Year of Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, financial regulators not only summed up the results of a long-term strategy, but also demonstrated that digital reform has moved from concept to reality.
The Digital Transformation Strategy of Financial Market Regulators for 2025 has been fully implemented. More importantly, it has already begun to change how payments are made, how fraud is prevented, how public money is tracked and how financial supervision works in practice.
A digital foundation for the entire financial sector
At the heart of these changes is the completion of the National Digital Financial Infrastructure - a unified technological framework designed to connect banks, regulators, payment systems and digital services.
In 2025, Kazakhstan legally закрепила the core elements of this infrastructure and the rules governing interaction between the state and financial institutions. The system includes national payment platforms, a biometric identification service, a national anti-fraud center and the digital tenge platform.
Together, these components form a single ecosystem rather than separate digital tools.
Cashless payments at national scale
The scale of digital payments in Kazakhstan has reached a level comparable to the most advanced markets. In 2025 alone, national payment systems processed more than 1.5 quadrillion tenge, accounting for around 90 percent of all cashless transactions in the country.
A key milestone was the launch of a unified mobile payment system for interbank QR payments and transfers. Ten second-tier banks are already connected, with the remaining banks scheduled to join by the end of the first half of 2026. For consumers, this means simpler, faster and more seamless payments regardless of the bank they use.
Biometrics and anti-fraud: security by default
Digital convenience would be meaningless without trust. That is why security technologies became a major pillar of the strategy.
The biometric identification service processed more than 50 million requests in 2025, allowing citizens to access financial services securely without compromising personal data. At the same time, the National Anti-Fraud Center registered over 100,000 fraud-related incidents and prevented losses of approximately 3 billion tenge.
Rather than reacting after the fact, the system is designed to detect and block suspicious activity in real time, shifting the focus from compensation to prevention.
Digital tenge: control, transparency and public trust
One of the most transformative elements of Kazakhstan’s financial reform is the expanding use of the digital tenge. Following instructions from the Head of State, the digital currency is increasingly used to ensure transparency in government spending.
More than 100 projects in public procurement, subsidies and National Fund financing have already been transferred to mechanisms that allow real-time monitoring of how funds are used. The total volume of digital tenge issued has exceeded 330 billion tenge.
In April 2026, Kazakhstan plans to approve a comprehensive roadmap for the gradual transfer of government expenditures to digital tenge-based control mechanisms. This move is expected to significantly reduce misuse of public funds and strengthen public confidence in fiscal governance.
Legal framework for crypto and tokenized assets
Another major breakthrough came with the adoption of a new banking law, which created a comprehensive legal framework for digital assets.
Kazakhstan has established a regulated environment for cryptocurrencies, defined clear legal rules for issuing stablecoins and tokenizing assets, and deployed the necessary technological infrastructure through the national stock exchange and the central securities depository.
This approach allows innovation to develop within clear regulatory boundaries rather than in legal gray zones.
From sandbox to real market
The regulatory sandbox of the National Bank currently hosts 22 projects covering stablecoins, tokenization of real assets, crypto-fiat settlements, crypto exchanges and digital asset issuance platforms.
Once the relevant regulations enter into force in the second quarter of 2026, these projects are expected to scale up and transition into standard market operations. For Kazakhstan, this means turning pilot technologies into real financial instruments.
AI inside the regulator itself
Digital transformation has not been limited to the market. The National Bank has significantly modernized its own technological landscape, ensuring service continuity during the transition period and automating a wide range of internal processes.
A major achievement was the launch of a Data Factory, which accelerated analytical preparation by up to 80 percent. The regulator has also deployed its own GPU cluster to support AI-based solutions.
In 2026, a special focus will be placed on developing the AISANA platform - a system of AI agents integrated with the Data Factory and large volumes of unstructured data. These AI agents will be used to support internal decision-making, analysis and operational efficiency.
Digital supervision as a new standard
On the supervisory side, the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market presented its unified supervisory platform, FinAI.
FinAI covers the entire supervision lifecycle, from licensing financial institutions to their liquidation, and integrates systems across all segments of the financial market. The platform already includes more than 20 supervisory tools and over 10 AI-based services, forming what regulators describe as a “digital memory of supervision”.
Additional initiatives include a digital platform for processing citizen appeals and a cybersecurity system designed to build collective resilience against cyber threats across the financial sector.
Looking ahead: Digital Qazaqstan
All of these initiatives will be consolidated into the national Digital Qazaqstan strategy, which aims to turn technological progress into a sustainable competitive advantage.
What makes Kazakhstan’s approach notable is not just the use of advanced technologies, but the way they are embedded into regulation, governance and everyday financial life. Instead of chasing trends, the country is quietly rebuilding its financial system from the inside out - with AI, transparency and trust as its core principles.
And judging by the pace of change, this transformation is only just beginning.
