Kazakhstan Aims to Build AI-Driven Economy and Industry

Kazakhstan announced at the AI & Digital Bridge forum held in Astana that it aims to make artificial intelligence a core economic infrastructure not just to modernize existing sectors, but to transform the manufacturing industry and increase value-added production.

Forum and Economic Goals

Kazakhstan organized the AI & Digital Bridge forum in Astana in line with its goal of transitioning from a traditional economy to an AI-driven structure. At the forum, it was emphasized that artificial intelligence is not limited to chatbots, but will enable the country's manufacturing industry to transform and climb higher in the value chain.

Production and Growth Figures

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev stated at the third meeting of the Artificial Intelligence Development Council that competition is not limited to natural resources and capital alone, and production efficiency must be increased. In the first eight months of this year, industrial production reached approximately 90 billion euros, while the manufacturing sector grew by 8.4 percent year-on-year.

Exports and Five-Layer Strategy

While Kazakhstan's IT service exports exceeded 860 million euros last year, its digital solutions began to be used in more than 100 countries. Minister of Digital Development Zhaslan Madiyev noted that the country is developing the five layers of the AI economy, which are energy infrastructure, chips, cloud platforms, language models, and applications.

Education and Infrastructure Challenges

Qazaq AI Research University, Central Asia's first AI-powered university, was introduced and started operations on September 1 with 528 students. On the other hand, experts point out that infrastructure bottlenecks such as access to microchips and electricity shortages pose challenges to the transformation.