Businesses in Central Asia and the Caucasus are deploying artificial intelligence into production at twice the global average rate, according to a recent report by KPMG. The findings reveal that 53 percent of surveyed companies in the region have achieved industrial-scale AI implementation with measurable returns, compared to just 24 percent globally.
KPMG Report Highlights Regional AI Adoption Surge
According to KPMG’s research surveying more than 2,500 technology leaders across 27 countries—including 40 respondents from the Caucasus and 32 from Central Asia—companies in the region are outpacing many more mature markets in specific areas of AI integration. The data shows that 44 percent of regional firms opt for proactive experimentation, compared to 21 percent worldwide.
Konstantin Aushev, partner and head of the technology practice at KPMG Caucasus and Central Asia, noted a crucial caveat regarding the findings. Speaking to Euronews, Aushev suggested that some respondents may have broadly interpreted the definition of “production.” He stated that investigators suspect regional participants included fragmented cases, such as basic text and voice bots, in their responses.
Despite this statistical nuance, regional operations feature genuine large-scale deployments across telecommunications and heavy industry.
Industrial Implementations at Kazakhtelecom and ERG
At Kazakhtelecom, Kazakhstan’s national telecommunications operator, AI has been integrated since mid-2025 across customer service, call centers, procurement, human resources, administration, finance, regulatory documentation, workplace safety, and recruitment.
“The deployment model is hybrid,” Yerzhan Assanov, head of AI at Kazakhtelecom, told Euronews. He explained that the central team manages platforms, security, quality, and complex products, while employees use a dedicated platform to build simpler agents without coding skills.
Similarly, Business & Technology Services (BTS)—the IT arm of Eurasian Resources Group (ERG), which produces chrome, iron, and aluminum in Kazakhstan—relies on computer vision to inspect equipment integrity at mining sites. BTS also uses data analytics to process geological reports.
Rustem Uvaliyev, head of the digitalization department at BTS, told Euronews that his company maintains continuous AI pilots. While roughly 10 percent of generative AI pilots transition to production, the success rate climbs to nearly 80 percent for classical AI applications like machine learning and computer vision.
Strategic Governance and the Regional Paradox
Despite high deployment numbers, KPMG’s research highlights a strategic paradox. Only 34 percent of companies in Central Asia and the Caucasus report having a clear, enterprise-wide AI strategy aligned with business and technology goals, trailing the 76 percent global average. Furthermore, cross-functional AI governance structures exist in just 25 percent of regional firms, compared to 69 percent worldwide.
Aushev characterized this gap as one of the study’s most striking outcomes. Companies are deploying AI at rates significantly higher than the global average while lagging in formalizing governance frameworks and measuring return on investment.
However, industry leaders note that the approach is maturing. Aushev observed that while the region’s earlier AI efforts involved chaotic competition to announce the highest number of use cases, firms are now exercising greater selectivity.
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