Uzbekistan Leads Central Asia in Women's AI and Digital Business Training

Uzbekistan leads Central Asia in women's AI and digital business training, leveraging female ingenuity to build a regional economic advantage. With women representing over half of all participants in the nation's AI courses, this success is driven by targeted school programs, hackathons, and robust startup funding. President Mirziyoyev plans to expand this success with a regional platform, aiming to train and fund female entrepreneurs across Central Asia and solidify women's role in technology to boost regional economic strength.

How is Uzbekistan empowering women in AI and digital entrepreneurship?

Uzbekistan is spearheading efforts in Central Asia to empower women in AI and digital entrepreneurship through a comprehensive national strategy. A remarkable 58.9% of participants in Gen-AI courses are women, a direct result of targeted school programs, competitive hackathons, and significant government funding for startups. The country now aims to replicate this successful model across the region.

At the Second Asian Women's Forum in Samarkand on May 13-14, 2024, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev announced a major initiative: a regional platform to train women in AI and digital technologies, coupled with startup funding for promising ventures. This proposal, initially introduced at the 78th UN General Assembly, targets over 40 governments and international bodies but is built on Uzbekistan's proven domestic success.

"We propose to create a platform that will provide training in artificial intelligence and digital technologies, which are rapidly becoming part of our daily lives, and support new start-up projects to bring the opportunities of business-women in our countries to a new level."
- President Mirziyoyev, address published by Yuz.uz

Uzbekistan's gender balance in AI education is globally unique. Official data from the Ministry of Digital Technologies shows that women account for 58.9% of all Gen-AI course enrollments in 2025, making it the only country where women are the majority of learners. This achievement stems from a strategic, long-term pipeline extending from secondary schools to venture capital funding.

Where the pipeline begins

Uzbekistan empowers women by integrating AI education into public schools, running girls-only hackathons, and providing university fast-tracks. The government also offers startup grants and co-investment opportunities, with special incentives and simplified credit access for women-led teams to foster growth from the classroom to the boardroom.

• "Five Million Uzbek AI Prompters": A collaboration with the UAE that introduces AI modules into all public schools and awards a full AI lab to the top-performing school in each of Uzbekistan's 14 regions.
• "Kelajak" Centres: These centers host weekend hackathons for girls aged 13-18. Winners gain fast-track admission into university information technology programs.
• Annual AI Startup Contests: School pupils compete for seed grants of $5,000 - $10,000 - a sum equivalent to two years of average household income in rural areas - to develop their ideas.

What happens after graduation

To bridge the gap from education to enterprise, the state's Digital Start-ups Programme provides critical funding to complement private investment:

Instrument	Size / terms	Target user
Co-investment grant	up to USD 100 k	Any MVP with first paying customers
Unsecured venture credit	up to 300 mln UZS (≈ USD 24 k)	Women-led teams, zero collateral required
Accelerator fee refund	100 % of tuition at 30 global boot-camps	Founders that return and register in Uzbekistan
IP protection voucher	Full legal & patent cost	First-time female inventors

The program incentivizes female leadership by awarding extra points to applicants with at least one woman on the founding team. As a result, government data shows that 43% of funding in 2025 was disbursed to mixed or all-female startups, a significant increase from 19% just two years prior.

Why neighbours are watching

The success of these initiatives is measurable and attracting regional attention. A 2025 study across Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan revealed that women with over 40 hours of AI or e-commerce training achieved 21.8% higher annual revenue than their untrained peers (p < 0.001). Digital tools like chatbot mentors also dramatically boost efficiency, reducing time spent on marketing content from hours to minutes and enabling entrepreneurs to focus on growth.

"In many cases, trainers no longer need to travel to remote villages... The trainer is a mobile phone chatbot."
- ILO Technical Specialist Hideki Kagohashi, UN Sustainable Development Group

Inspired by this model, Kazakhstan's Women in Tech chapter has seen rapid growth, engaging 6,000 participants in 100 events within 18 months. Its "AI for Her" program alone successfully trained 4,000 women nationwide.

What the new platform would add

President Mirziyoyev's proposed regional platform aims to scale Uzbekistan's domestic success across Central Asia. The blueprint presented in Samarkand features a three-layered approach:

1. Multilingual Open Courseware: Courses will be translated into Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen, and English and delivered via Telegram mini-apps to overcome limited broadband access.
2. Global Mentorship Network: A roster of female CTOs and tech leaders from around the world will volunteer time to coach emerging teams through dedicated digital channels.
3. Regional Seed Fund: An initial $30 million from Uzbekistan's IT Development Fund will create a revolving fund, open to co-investment. Critically, 40% of funding is reserved for cross-border teams that include at least one female Uzbek founder.

If established, this platform would dramatically expand regional support for female entrepreneurs. The entire Central Asian region currently allocates less than $50 million annually to tech incubators focused on women, making this a transformative investment.

Hard questions still outrun the hype

Despite the ambitious vision, significant challenges remain. Rural connectivity is a key hurdle, as only 63% of rural Uzbek households own a smartphone suitable for AI learning apps. Furthermore, cross-border legal and regulatory differences, such as conflicting data storage laws between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and the slow pace of harmonizing venture capital rules within the Eurasian Economic Union, could delay progress.

However, the political commitment is strong. President Mirziyoyev reinforced his regional proposal with a domestic mandate: by 2030, at least 30% of government IT procurement contracts will be awarded to companies with female founders. This target, part of the draft "Digital Uzbekistan 2030" strategy, creates a powerful incentive for banks to fund women-led businesses immediately.

The message to businesswomen across Central Asia is unmistakable: the region is ready to capitalize on its unique, young, female AI talent pool. Uzbekistan is positioning itself to lead this movement, and the entrepreneurs who engage now will shape the future of tech education and innovation for the entire region.