Timur Turlov: Freedom Is Developing an AI Assistant for Customers’ Everyday Tasks

Customers of a digital ecosystem should only need to explain the outcome they want — this was the approach to interacting with services that Timur Turlov outlined at AI & Digital Bridge. Freedom Holding Corp. is developing a personal AI agent to help customers use payment, investment, insurance and travel services without having to navigate every section of the app.

Freedom Holding Corp. expects to launch the first stage of its personal AI assistant in SuperApp by the end of 2026. Founder and CEO Timur Turlov outlined the ecosystem’s plans during The New Economy: Powered by AI session at the AI & Digital Bridge technology forum in Astana. The new service is intended to help customers manage their finances, shopping and travel through requests in everyday language.

“You won’t have to remember how each feature works: just say what you want in everyday language,” Turlov explained.

The session explored how to turn artificial intelligence from a technological experiment into a tool for business and everyday life. Participants focused on practical questions: how AI changes the way companies operate, who is accountable for its decisions, and what infrastructure the new economy requires.

Describe the Task Instead of Searching

Freedom Holding Corp. is integrating AI into SuperApp to make the ecosystem’s services easier to use. The app brings together the holding company’s services, including payments, savings, investments, insurance, grocery shopping and travel planning. Turlov believes a personal agent will help customers move more easily between the app’s different sections.

The developers’ approach is straightforward: rather than searching for services across multiple sections, users will be able to tell the AI agent what they want to achieve. For example, they could ask it to organize a trip by choosing a hotel, making a reservation and helping with a visa application. If their plans change, the assistant should help cancel the reservation or change a ticket.

“The system should work as a highly qualified personal assistant for every resident of the country,” the holding company’s CEO said.

Building a reliable product, however, takes longer than developing a demo. According to Turlov, an individual system can sometimes be assembled in a day, but refining it can take years. The holding company expects to conduct the first stage of testing in 2026.

AI Will Change Management

Within Freedom Holding Corp., AI is already helping accelerate work, improve access to knowledge and statistics, and enhance reporting quality. Turlov said he also uses AI as a manager: connecting a neural network to key databases allows him to ask questions about the company, its procedures and the efficiency of its processes, and receive answers quickly.

However, speakers at The New Economy: Powered by AI argued that improvements in individual employees’ capabilities must be accompanied by organizational change. Kai-Fu Lee, founder of 01.AI and chairman of venture capital firm Sinovation Ventures, suggested that executives assess AI adoption by its impact on the bottom line. For entrepreneurs, the technology offers an opportunity to build businesses with smaller teams and scale faster.

He also emphasized the need to assign responsibility for outcomes. A designated employee, for example, should oversee the AI, check its conclusions and understand the system’s limitations. Lee believes algorithms should be entrusted with tasks, while people remain accountable for errors, financial losses and legal violations.

Bagdat Mussin, chairman of the Management Board of Kazakhtelecom, added that productive employees do not automatically make a company productive. If an idea developed with AI in a few minutes then spends weeks awaiting approval, the technology’s benefits are lost. Business processes therefore need to be reviewed alongside the introduction of new tools.

AI in Finance

Kraken CEO David Ripley identified three areas for AI adoption in financial services: redesigning internal processes, embedding assistants in customer products, and developing payments between AI agents. He said the technology is already improving efficiency in development, compliance and customer support.

The next stage involves agents that can pay for the resources they need and receive payments for services they provide. Ripley expects them to account for a substantial share of payment flows within five to ten years.

Kazakhstan Needs Both Applications and Computing Capacity

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development Zhaslan Madiyev described five layers of the AI economy: energy, chips, cloud platforms, language models and applications. He said Kazakhstan intends to build capabilities across this entire chain through cooperation with other countries and technology companies. In his view, the application layer — solutions for industries and citizens’ everyday needs — could deliver the greatest practical benefits.

Turlov linked the development of these services to Freedom Holding Corp.’s investments in telecommunications, cloud computing and data centers. The holding company is building international connectivity infrastructure and developing an AI supercluster intended to provide the region with additional computing capacity.

He identified Kazakhstan’s strengths as its young population, interest in technology, human capital and growing entrepreneurial community. Further development, he said, depends on maintaining international partners’ trust and access to their expertise.

Addressing AI safety, Madiyev called for governments and developers to participate in establishing protocols for testing new models. Turlov supported global cooperation among technology companies, with participants from different countries, including Kazakhstan, joining the effort.

Kazakhstan’s Year of AI

Kazakhstan designated 2026 as the Year of Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev emphasized that technological progress must translate into tangible benefits for citizens. He also proposed drawing up a list of industrial AI challenges based on the economy’s actual needs and engaging teams to address them.

Freedom Holding Corp. is already putting these principles into practice through specific projects. Together with the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development, the holding company plans to establish a sovereign AI hub using NVIDIA infrastructure. The proposed investment is $2 billion, with 100 MW of available power capacity at the site. Freedom intends to serve as the project’s principal investor and operator.

The ecosystem, the ministry and Citi also signed a memorandum to establish the Freedom AI Super Cluster. Under the announced schedule, the first phase is due to be completed in the first quarter of 2027, with the next two phases to follow in 2027–2028.

In education, the holding company is funding an initiative with OpenAI and the Government of Kazakhstan to provide 165,000 educators with access to ChatGPT Edu. The platform’s tools are designed to help users work with teaching materials, analyze documents and create personalized AI assistants.

In banking, a practical example is the AI-Compliance platform, which combines Freedom Bank’s technology with the methodology of the Financial Monitoring Agency. It helps identify networks of money mules — people who provide their bank cards to move illicit funds — and prepare information on suspicious transactions. The final decision remains with a compliance officer.