Editor’s Note: This opinion piece by Aigul Zabirova draws on findings from a nationwide survey commissioned by the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies (KazISS) and conducted from Oct. 3 to Nov. 5, 2025. The poll covered 8,000 respondents aged 18 and older across all 17 regions of Kazakhstan, as well as the cities of Astana, Almaty and Shymkent. For a different perspective on the role of artificial intelligence in society, readers may also refer to the recent opinion piece by AT’s Aida Haidar, which offers an alternative lens on the opportunities and risks shaped by AI’s rapid expansion.
New data show that artificial intelligence is becoming part of everyday professional and academic life in Kazakhstan. AI is reshaping how people work, learn and access information, building a new cognitive ecosystem across the country.
Aigul Zabirova.
Talk about artificial intelligence has moved far beyond government offices and expert circles, entering everyday conversations in families, among friends and even in neighborhood group chats. These discussions range from optimistic expectations of a technological leap to concerns about the unknown. While some welcome the way AI takes over routine tasks and frees up time for more meaningful work, others see it as a threat to jobs and human self-sufficiency. In other words, public debates around AI mix hope, anxiety and the sense that we are standing on the threshold of something big, yet still unclear. In such an environment, it is crucial to rely on data rather than speculation.
Our data show that Kazakhstan is already part of this global shift, capturing it at an early stage.
According to a nationwide survey commissioned by the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies (KazISS), half of Kazakhstan’s population (50.7%) already uses AI technologies. In effect, AI has moved beyond experimentation and become part of daily tasks and routines, no longer serving as an occasional tool for testing or entertainment.
Where is AI being used in Kazakhstan? More than one-third of citizens rely on it for professional text-related work (36.8% of users), a quarter for education and self-development (24.2%), and one in ten for analytical and research tasks (11.1%). In practice, this reflects AI’s growing presence in areas that shape the country’s human capital: labor, skills, learning and analytical capacity. All this reflects significant changes in the labor structure. Just two years ago, AI was largely used for routine operations such as drafting text, translations and basic information searches. Today, routine use is giving way to higher-order tasks including interpretation, critical thinking and decision-making. In practical terms, this demonstrates how AI augments rather than replaces people, taking over repetitive tasks and boosting the pace of intellectual work.
For years, debates about AI in many countries centered on fears that it would push people out of the workforce. But real-world examples show the opposite. AI does not replace specialists; it amplifies them by taking over routine, technical and preparatory tasks, freeing time for analysis, interpretation and decision-making. This boosts the intellectual pace of work, enabling people to process information faster, learn more quickly and handle complex assignments.
In education, AI has become part of daily practice for students, teachers and those engaged in self-learning. It helps users prepare for exams, search for information, break down difficult topics and acquire new skills. This is shaping a new model of continuous learning, where the boundaries between formal and informal education are increasingly blurred.
One of the most significant shifts in how people search for and receive information is the move from search engines to AI. A total of 11.1% of AI users in Kazakhstan say they now use it instead of traditional search tools. This reflects a fundamentally different type of cognitive behavior: not looking for links, but receiving an explanation or a ready-made solution. The novelty lies in the shift from “find this for me” to “explain this to me.”
Understandably, this raises concerns, especially among educators who fear that students may gradually lose the ability to search for information independently. But current data show that AI primarily supplements learning practices rather than replaces them. Even so, this shift is influencing the quality of choices people make, at work, in education, and in everyday life, and demonstrates that conversational models are already competing with familiar digital tools.
The spread of AI is not limited to the development of new individual skills. It is also driving broader socioeconomic changes. The structure of work is already shifting, as AI automates basic operations, strengthens expert functions and speeds up the completion of complex tasks. In practice, this affects how workplaces are organized, what qualifications are required and how roles are distributed within teams.
A new type of professional behavior is emerging, in which specialists work in tandem with algorithms, and the ability to quickly master new tools becomes a competitive advantage. At the same time, soft skills such as analytical thinking, the ability to formulate tasks for AI, interpret results and adapt to new methods are gaining value.
No doubt that we are witnessing the formation of a new model of human capital in which knowledge matters, but the ability to work with digital assistants matters just as much. The capacity to collaborate with algorithms is becoming a defining skill of the AI generation and this directly shapes which competencies are now in highest demand: digital literacy, analytical thinking, the ability to formulate tasks for AI, interpretation of results, flexibility and rapid learning.
Aigul Zabirova is a chief research fellow at KazISS. She is a doctor of sociology and a professor. Her opinion pieces are regularly published at The Astana Times. The latest can be found here.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of The Astana Times.
