Kazakhstan: AI Adoption Leader With 13.7% Generative AI Use
Alexander Shlimakov specializes in Salesforce, Tableau, Mulesoft, and Slack consulting for enterprise clients across the CIS region. With a proven track record in technical sales leadership and a results-oriented approach, he focuses on the financial services, high-tech, and pharma/CPG segments. Known for his out-of-the-box thinking and strong presentation skills, he brings extensive experience in solution sales and business development.
Kazakhstan leads Central Asia in AI adoption with 13.7% penetration, driven by state-led initiatives and significant investment.
Kazakhstan has established itself as an AI adoption leader with 13.7% generative AI use among its working-age citizens by late 2025. This transformation from a commodity-based economy to Central Asia's premier digital hub is the result of a coordinated national strategy. While neighboring countries like Belarus (8.4%) and Russia (8%) are still in early pilot stages, Kazakhstan's government already employs over 50 autonomous AI agents for critical tasks, including labor market forecasting, flood prediction from satellite data, and automated tax adjustments.
What has driven Kazakhstan's rapid adoption of generative AI in 2025?
Kazakhstan's rapid AI adoption is driven by a state-led strategy featuring three key policies. These include an "AI-First" mandate for all national digital projects, significant tax and land incentives for data centers, and a law requiring AI systems to support local and regional languages.
This growth, which saw a 1.1 percentage point increase in users in the second half of 2025 alone, was fueled by three decisive government actions:
- The AI-First mandate: All 20 national digital roadmaps approved in January 2026 must prioritize artificial intelligence when redesigning processes across 72 industries.
- The data-valley decree: A new "data-center valley" offers operators cheap land, zero VAT on imported GPUs, and 10-year tax holidays.
- The language-model localisation law: Enacted in December 2025, this statute requires public bodies to procure generative AI systems that support Kazakh, Russian, English, and Turkish, pushing vendors to train models on open state datasets.
"If we automate the routine, we free the human for the exceptional" - Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov told parliament when he tabled the 2026 budget that allocates almost 4 % of state spending to AI infrastructure, up from 0.9 % in 2023.
The government's clear signals have attracted substantial venture capital. Funding for Kazakh AI startups surged from $14 million in 2023 to $73-75 million in 2025, with algorithms becoming the nation's single largest investment category. The ecosystem now features over 100 startups focused on key sectors:
| Segment | Share of AI start-ups | Typical use-case |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise automation | 34 % | Document drafting, RFP generation |
| Industry 4.0 | 22 % | Predictive maintenance in copper smelters |
| MarTech | 18 % | Real-time ad copy in Kazakh and Russian |
| EdTech | 14 % | Personalised STEM tutoring bots |
| MedTech | 12 % | Radiology report generation |
Government initiatives also foster a competitive local market. AI-Farabium, an academic super-cluster launched at the 2025 Digital Bridge forum, rents GPU time to startups at a fraction of European market rates. This policy has already enabled the creation of KazLLM and Alem LLM, powerful 30-billion-parameter models that local banks use to provide customer service in spoken Kazakh.
According to the first national AI country report, widespread generative-AI uptake could add 0.5-2 % to annual GDP "without a single extra barrel of oil" - depending only on how quickly clerical jobs are automated.
Kazakhstan's advanced AI environment is attracting global firms. In the past year, multiple Fortune 100 consultancies have moved their regional AI practices from Dubai to Astana, drawn by the skilled bilingual workforce and the government's data-sharing policies. Clients now request "AI-first" blueprints, a demand that did not exist before 2024.
A key challenge remains closing the rural-urban divide. AI adoption in Almaty and Astana exceeds 22%, while southern regions lag below 7%. To address this, the government launched a "digital bus" program in March 2026, deploying 40 vehicles with satellite internet and GPU laptops to train farmers on using AI for crop pricing and livestock health queries.
Through this strategic approach, Kazakhstan has become Central Asia's AI policy leader. When neighboring governments in Moscow or Tashkent seek advice on AI legislation, the working papers that circulate are often annotated "Astana draft."