In Kazakhstan, the artificial intelligence (AI) sector has moved beyond the hype phase and entered a stage where it is becoming a tangible economic tool. The year 2025 has been marked by the formation of national infrastructure and the streamlining of the regulatory framework. Yet a key question remains: how wide is the gap between technological progress and real business processes? Drawing on insights from industry experts and entrepreneurs, we examine the true state of AI evolution in the country, DKNews.kz reports.
“Smart” Savings in Procurement
One of the biggest cost centers for businesses remains procurement, where unjustified price inflation often occurs. According to Vitaliy Trenkenchu, founder of Redflags.ai, large companies simply cannot manually analyze thousands of product positions, which leads to prices drifting above market levels.
- Case in point: In one pilot project, an AI system identified potential savings of 300 million tenge.
- Technological solution: Redflags.ai developed a hybrid search system that classifies more than 40,000 product categories and increased the accuracy of identifying rare items to 80%.
At the same time, Trenkenchu is skeptical about the concept of “AI sovereignty.” In his view, Kazakhstan currently lacks the specialists, funding, and computing power (GPUs) required to train foundational language models. Therefore, it is more practical for businesses to adapt existing global models to local data rather than build them from scratch.
Financial Transparency: Moving Beyond Excel
For small and medium-sized enterprises, AI is increasingly playing the role of an accessible financial director. According to Nurdaulyet Samen, founder of Finflow, entrepreneurs can save between 5 and 10 hours per week by using AI tools.
- Main barrier: Not the complexity of technology, but entrenched work habits and fear of making mistakes. Many business owners still rely heavily on traditional Excel spreadsheets.
- Transformation: As AI automates routine tasks, the role of financial professionals is shifting from “operators” to strategic “business partners.”
Labor Market: New Skill Requirements
Technological development is not eliminating jobs, but it is fundamentally changing the requirements for them. According to IT recruiter Anna Malinovskaya, the ability to work with AI tools is becoming a baseline skill for professionals across industries.
- Hiring trends: Employers continue to recruit junior specialists, but now expect not only a diploma, but also critical thinking skills and hands-on project experience (such as pet projects).
- New roles: The market is seeing the emergence of entirely new positions that bridge technology and business, including AI Operations, AI Prompt Specialist, and AI Tool Coordinator.
State Strategy and Global Competition
According to Astana Hub, Kazakhstan aims to increase exports of AI solutions to 5 billion US dollars by 2029.
- Infrastructure: The Alem.Cloud supercomputing cluster has been launched, enabling the training of domestic AI models.
- Startups: Projects such as Arlan Biotech (healthcare), Cybernet.ai (customer support), and TrustExam.ai (academic integrity) have already demonstrated competitiveness in international markets.
Kazakhstan’s AI ecosystem is now entering a stage of practical implementation. As experts emphasize, success will depend not so much on the technology itself, but on professionals capable of integrating it effectively into everyday business processes, as well as on the development of a strong management culture.
