Türkiye among countries with highest AI adoption

More than 70% of Turkish users say they are using artificial intelligence every day, putting Türkiye among the countries where consumer AI adoption is advancing most rapidly, a senior executive of Russian tech giant Yandex said Monday.

Alexander Popovskiy, international CEO of Yandex Search and general manager of Yandex Türkiye, said generative AI was becoming part of consumers’ daily lives faster than expected and that Türkiye was one of the most advanced markets in this respect.

“More than 70% of Turkish users say they used AI every day last week. This is an extremely striking rate,” Popovskiy said, citing Yandex data. “For example, this rate is much higher than in Russia, another market where we operate.”

Users initially experimented with generative AI for entertainment, image creation and animating photographs, but increasingly began incorporating the technology into their everyday routines, he told Anadolu Agency (AA).

AI applications have already begun to emerge as alternatives to traditional internet searches and browsers, according to Popovskiy.

Turkish users were not limiting AI use to complex tasks, he said, noting that they also used it for everyday needs such as getting news, following football matches and understanding the latest developments in television series.

“Turkish users are using AI to make their experiences easier across all their traditional areas of interest,” Popovskiy said. “They even use AI to understand what happened in the latest episode of a television series and what might happen in the next one.”

Local companies need share of AI market

Popovskiy said Turkish stakeholders understood the importance of developing local AI models and data centers, but argued that AI sovereignty involved more than building domestic models and infrastructure.

“The more important issue in AI sovereignty is gaining a share as the market grows and being able to engage directly with users,” he said.

Consumers should be able to use AI services from Turkish companies as well as global firms, Popovskiy said, adding that Yandex was ready to support local businesses by offering proven solutions through a white-label model.

“This would help them develop their own services around this technology and gain a share of the growing AI sector,” he said.

Popovskiy identified telecommunications as the sector with the greatest potential for consumer AI, followed by banks and other financial institutions.

Companies in these sectors have large customer bases and digital platforms through which they can offer additional services, he said.

AI could be used not only to improve customer support but also to strengthen customer relationships and increase loyalty by providing access to AI assistants and chatbots as part of a broader service ecosystem, Popovskiy added.

He said Yandex was holding talks with telecommunications companies and banks in Türkiye and other markets on developing white-label AI applications.

Yandex AI use rises

Sedat Öztürk, general manager of Yandex Search and AI, said Türkiye had been quick to adopt new technologies and that the share of Yandex AI users in the country had risen by nearly 75% over the past two to three months.

AI integration could make a range of telecommunications services more intelligent, including starting or ending subscriptions, changing packages, checking tariffs for use abroad and accessing billing information, Öztürk said.

He also highlighted the importance of developing skilled human resources if Türkiye is to become a regional AI and datacenter hub.

Yandex Türkiye has established Türkiye’s first master’s program in AI engineering with Middle East Technical University (METU), he said.

Öztürk added that Yandex Türkiye had launched work with the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBITAK) on “BILGE,” a Turkish large language model.

Through its “Yandex AI for Business” solution, the company aims to help businesses develop their own applications around AI or integrate their existing services with Yandex AI, he said.

In e-commerce, an AI assistant could help users search for products more intelligently, provide style and purchasing recommendations, analyze previous purchases and manage budgets more effectively, Öztürk said.

“We have prepared our products and functions to make customer journeys fully AI-based,” he said. “We have already started discussions with some companies.”

DAILYSABAH