On May 4th, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, during the second meeting of the Council for the Development of Artificial Intelligence, held in Almaty, declared that Kazakhstan must rapidly transition to a fully integrated, data-driven economy powered by artificial intelligence, otherwise it risks falling behind in the global technological race. According to Tokayev, a fundamental challenge is the lack of a clear measurement of the real impact of the digital economy. General indicators, such as GDP growth, can mask how much progress stems from innovation compared to traditional industries. He urged the government to establish a clear way to measure the contributions of digitalization and AI to the economy. And more recently, on May 6th, the Community of Madrid and the Republic of Kazakhstan presented the Global GovTech Lab, a technology laboratory focused on developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions for public administration and citizen services. The initiative was unveiled during the GovTech 4 Impact World Congress, the leading international forum for innovation and digital transformation in the public sector.
The project aims to simplify administrative management, improve the efficiency of public services, and strengthen the digital security of institutional systems, as well as advance data interoperability between countries.
The presentation included the participation of Miguel López-Valverde, Minister of Digitalization for the Community of Madrid, and Dimitri Mun, Deputy Minister of Artificial Intelligence for Kazakhstan, who outlined the progress of the collaboration between the two institutions.
Below, we exclusively interview Dimitri Mun, Deputy Minister of Artificial Intelligence for ElMundoFinanciero.com readers.
Q1: Kazakhstan has recently been recognized for its rapid digital transformation and AI adoption in the public sector. What is the foundational infrastructure that makes this advanced AI development possible?
Vice-Minister: Artificial intelligence cannot exist without high-quality, structured data. We understood this early on, which is why Kazakhstan’s AI revolution didn't start yesterday – it began with the creation of Smart Data Ukimet (SDU) in 2019. SDU is our national, depersonalized data lake that securely connects and synchronizes information from across dozens of isolated state databases.
Because we spent years building this robust data foundation, we can now launch sophisticated AI tools. A prime example is our Digital Family Card. This is a flagship initiative that analyzes over 100 socioeconomic parameters to assess the well-being of families across the country on a daily basis.
To make this data actionable, we integrated an AI Decision Support System. This AI tool continuously analyzes the Digital Family Card data to identify risks and shocks at the municipal level, proactively suggesting to local authorities which families need targeted state support before a crisis occurs. All of these initiatives are now being consolidated under our National AI Platform, which provides the sovereign computing power and ecosystem needed to scale these intelligent agents across the entire government.
Q2: Moving from infrastructure to everyday life, how exactly is Artificial Intelligence practically helping regular citizens, as well as easing the daily burden on your civil servants?
For citizens, AI is transforming the government from a bureaucratic machine into a personalized digital concierge. We have integrated an eGov AI Assistant directly into our public service portal. Instead of navigating complex menus or searching for specific forms, a citizen can simply type their life situation into a chat interface. The AI assistant understands the context, navigates the government services in the background, and guides the citizen through the process step-by-step.
For our civil servants, AI is an invaluable tool for reducing routine administrative burdens. We have deeply integrated AI into e-Otinish, our national electronic appeals system. Every day, the government receives thousands of inquiries, complaints, and appeals from citizens. Our AI models now help instantly categorize these appeals, route them to the correct department, and monitor the processing deadlines. This not only drastically speeds up response times for citizens but also frees up our civil servants to focus on solving complex, non-standard problems rather than doing manual sorting.
Q3: Technology is only as effective as the people managing it. How is the government preparing its civil servants to understand and work alongside artificial intelligence?
Vice-Minister: You are absolutely right; human capital is our most critical asset. You cannot build an AI-driven state with analog-era management. To address this, we have launched two major, targeted capacity-building programs.
The first is AI 500 Governance. This is an elite, intensive training program designed specifically for 500 top-level government managers and decision-makers. It equips them with the strategic understanding needed to implement AI solutions within their respective ministries and agencies safely and effectively.
The second is the AI-Sana program ("Sana" translates to consciousness or mind in Kazakh). This is a broader, nation-wide initiative aimed at raising the baseline AI literacy of the wider public sector. We are teaching our civil servants how to use AI for daily tasks, data analysis, and report generation, ensuring that the entire government apparatus speaks the same technological language.
Q4: Looking at international cooperation, there is an upcoming launch of the joint Madrid-Kazakhstan GovTech Lab. Could you elaborate on this initiative and what you hope to achieve with this Open Innovation Platform?
Vice-Minister: We view digital public infrastructure as a global good, and the challenges of digitizing a modern state are universal. The Madrid-Kazakhstan GovTech Lab is a strategic bridge between Central Asia and Europe.
At its core, it is an Open Innovation Platform – a secure sandbox environment. Here, tech teams from Kazakhstan and Spain will work jointly to pilot and stress-test new AI agents and data management tools against real-world municipal and state digitalization challenges.
However, our vision goes beyond just testing software. We are building this Lab to serve as a vibrant hub for the global GovTech community. By demonstrating successful, scalable digital government solutions in Madrid, we intend to use this platform to attract international startups, foster B2B partnerships, and draw venture capital investors who are looking to fund the next generation of GovTech innovations for the European and Latin American markets.