Around half of all professions in Kazakhstan are expected to change under the impact of AI over the next decade, with some jobs declining and others disappearing entirely, lawmakers and government officials have said.
Daniya Yespayeva, Deputy Chair of the lower house of parliament, the Mazhilis, citing data from the Ministry of Labor, stated that by 2035, transformations will affect 562 jobs, about 44% of the labor market, equivalent to roughly 4 million workers.
According to her, employment in 46 professions, covering around 362,000 people (about 4% of the labor market), is expected to decline, while 14 professions, employing approximately 49,000 people, may disappear completely.
Yespayeva did not specify which professions are at greatest risk. However, Minister of Science and Higher Education Sayasat Nurbek noted that couriers and taxi drivers could be among the first affected.
He said that around 700,000 people in Kazakhstan currently work in these sectors through platforms such as Glovo, Yandex, and Wolt.
“These are temporary forms of employment. As early as this year, several Kazakh companies are launching autopilot technologies in both taxi services and delivery, so within a few years, couriers and taxi drivers may no longer be needed,” Nurbek said, urging citizens to focus on more sustainable career paths.
Earlier reports indicated that a pilot drone delivery project could be launched in Almaty, while driverless taxis are planned for introduction in Astana.
Askhat Aimagambetov, a Mazhilis deputy, also warned about risks facing several popular academic fields. According to him, in 2025, the highest competition for university admissions was in programs such as Translation Studies, International Relations, and Law, fields that, in his view, could be among those most affected by automation.
Aimagambetov stressed the need to revise the allocation of state-funded educational grants to avoid encouraging training in professions at high risk of decline.
He also noted that employment among young developers aged 22-25 declined by nearly 20% over the past year, despite significant investment in IT education.
“We are training an army of coders at a time when AI is already writing code itself. It is no longer enough to train ‘coders of yesterday,’” he said.
Nurbek agreed with this assessment, pointing to a shortage of specialists in eight key sectors, including advanced manufacturing, digital technologies, clean energy, finance, life sciences, defense, creative industries, and professional services.
According to him, part of the gap is being addressed through private-sector involvement. Kazakhstan has established 75 joint laboratories across 19 universities in partnership with companies such as Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Huawei, Schneider Electric, and Honeywell, as well as Eurasian Resources Group, Freedom Holding, and KEGOC.
More than 7,500 students are currently studying in these laboratories across 179 disciplines.
Business investment in these initiatives has totaled around $5.2 million, although the minister noted that such efforts remain limited in scope.
“If this gap is not addressed, the education system will continue to train specialists for yesterday’s economy,” Nurbek said, emphasizing that aligning education with economic needs has become a matter of national security.
