Yandex sees strong AI adoption among Turkish users

Alexander Popovskiy, CEO of Yandex Search International and General Manager of Yandex Türkiye, said that more than 70% of Turkish users reported using artificial intelligence every day last week.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Popovskiy discussed the growing role of generative AI in consumers’ daily lives and the opportunities offered by the Turkish market in this field, CE Report quotes Anadolu Agency.

Noting that the adoption of AI technologies in the consumer market is increasing faster than expected, Popovskiy said Türkiye is one of the most advanced countries in this regard.

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

Popovskiy explained that users initially experimented with generative AI for purposes such as entertainment, creating images or animating photographs, but gradually made the technology part of their everyday lives.

Pointing out that Yandex AI users are increasingly turning to the application to access the internet and search for information, Popovskiy said AI applications are beginning to emerge as alternatives to traditional internet searches and web browsers.

Popovskiy stressed that Turkish users do not rely on AI only for complex tasks. “We see that Turkish people also use AI for everyday needs, such as getting news or finding information about football matches. In fact, they use AI to make their experience easier across all their traditional areas of interest. Turkish users even use AI to understand what happened in the latest episode of a television series and what might happen in the next one,” he said.

“In AI sovereignty, the important thing is gaining market share as the market grows”

Popovskiy emphasized that stakeholders in Türkiye understand the importance of developing local AI models and AI-ready data centers, but said AI sovereignty is not limited to building local models and infrastructure.

He continued:

“The more important issue in AI sovereignty is gaining market share as the market grows and being able to establish direct contact with users. People need to use AI services not only from global companies but also from local Turkish companies. I believe this can be achieved. As Yandex, we understand this and are ready to support it by offering solutions that we use ourselves and that have already proven successful in Türkiye. We are ready to offer these solutions to Turkish consumer companies through a white-label model, helping them develop and grow their own services around this technology and take a share of the growing AI sector.”

Popovskiy said they see the greatest potential for consumer AI in the telecommunications sector, followed by banks and other financial institutions.

He noted that companies in these sectors have large customer bases and digital platforms through which they can offer additional services. He outlined the potential benefits of AI for strengthening customer relationships:

“We believe telecommunications companies, banks and other financial institutions can benefit not only from better customer support — that is, using AI in frontline customer service — but also from using AI to further strengthen customer relationships. These companies can increase customer loyalty to their ecosystems by offering access to AI and chatbots as part of a comprehensive portfolio of services, alongside media, television and music.”

Popovskiy added that they are holding talks in various markets, including Türkiye, with telecommunications companies and banks about developing white-label AI applications.

“We have already started talks with some companies”

Sedat Öztürk, General Manager of Yandex Search and AI, noted that new technologies are being adopted rapidly in Türkiye. He said the share of users of Yandex AI, which was launched in Türkiye in February, has increased by nearly 75% over the past two to three months.

Öztürk said many operations in telecommunications applications could be made smarter through AI integration, including starting or terminating subscriptions, changing packages, finding out which tariffs can be used abroad and accessing billing information.

Emphasizing that Türkiye needs to develop qualified human resources if it is to become a regional AI and data-center hub, Öztürk recalled that Yandex and Middle East Technical University (METU) had launched Türkiye’s first graduate program in AI engineering.

Öztürk also highlighted the importance of local integrations and local language models in AI development. To this end, he said Yandex Türkiye had joined forces with TÜBİTAK to launch “BİLGE,” a Turkish large language model initiative.

Öztürk said that through the “Yandex AI for Business” solution, the company aims to help businesses develop their own applications around AI. He added that companies can also integrate their existing services with Yandex AI or integrate Yandex technology into their own applications.

Regarding potential applications in the e-commerce sector, Öztürk said:

“An AI assistant integrated into an e-commerce website or application can enable users to search for products in a much smarter way. It can provide style and purchasing recommendations, analyze previous purchases, help users manage their budgets more effectively and enable smarter shopping. We have prepared our products and functions with the aim of making the entire customer journey AI-based from end to end. We have already started talks with some companies.”

Photo: Chat GPT