Real Changes in Kazakh Labor Market that AI causes

As Minister of Science and Higher Education Sayasat Nurbek predicted at a government meeting on Jan. 6, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will raise productivity for approximately 70% of Kazakhstan’s workforce and transform up to 53% of job functions. According to experts, AI will mainly redistribute the tasks rather than cause mass job losses and urgent challenges for labor policy and education systems.
Also, Nurbek presented a phased action plan is being developed to modernize higher education. On the first stage, in 2025, Quacquarelli Symonds assessed the role of education in building an AI-based economy.
As the International Labor Organization reports, high levels of generative AI already influences approximately 25% of jobs worldwide. Its share is nearly 35% in advanced economies, and is approaches to 10% in countries with lower digital maturity. Nevertheless, the tendency for changing daily work functions with keeping the same job titles prevails everywhere.
According to labor law expert Gulzira Atabayeva, these changes occur gradually and unevenly.
Also, she mentioned administrative and office roles among the most exposed to automatization.
As international research showed, women more often work on these positions.
EY shows that nearly 60% of global employment is already under moderate or high influence from generative AI. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), up to 28% of professions in OECD countries are at high risk of automation.
In response to this challenge, Kazakhstan the Kazakh government adopted an AI law at the end of 2025. It establishes artificial intelligence as a regulated sector under national legislation. The law will take effect in January 2026 and introduce principles of responsibility and transparency, labeling of AI-generated content and banning manipulative AI systems.
The Ministry of AI and Digital Development has also appeared. It approved the 2024-2029 AI Development Concept. Building an ecosystem that combines infrastructure, data access and human capital is the main focus of the strategy. The national Alem.AI platform, designed to provide developers with access to data and tools, and the AI Qyzmet program, which trains civil servants to work with AI-based solutions, are its key initiatives.
As Kazakhstan’s Center for Labor Resources Development assesses, it is possible to automate 29% of the country’s work functions. Approximately 13% have a direct link with AI applications. It means that employment structure may change for up to 2.2 million people, or nearly a quarter of the workforce, in their in the medium term.
As Nurbek stated, all educational programs starting in 2025 introduced AI -related skills: AI-related courses, AI-focused degree programs and AI upskilling courses.
Also, the Tomorrow School project is being implemented in cooperation with Astana Hub at universities nationwide. There are plans to establish a specialized AI university focused on interdisciplinary training and applied research. It should be integrated into the Alem.AI ecosystem and developed in partnership with foreign universities and technology companies.

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