On September 13th, Zeynep Mavi from Turkey Artificial Intelligence Initiative, who was a speaker at our Digitalzone Exclusive Generative AI event, shared her views on the current state and future potential of generative AI in Turkey.
Founding Ethics Behind Turkey Artificial Intelligence Initiative
Zeynep Mavi opened her talk by describing the Turkish Artificial Intelligence Initiative, founded in 2017 to build an AI ecosystem that would let Turkey keep pace with global developments in the field and lead its own innovations. The initiative has made real progress since then: at its founding, Turkey's AI ecosystem held only 5-6 startups, and it now counts more than 300. That momentum keeps expanding the country's AI ecosystem.
Survey Data Shows Generative AI Adoption
Zeynep Mavi also shared findings from a survey on how leading companies in Turkey are adopting generative AI. Of the companies surveyed, 64.5% are already using generative AI in their business processes, and only 2% said they have no plans to adopt it in the near future. Taken together, the results show that generative AI is valued and widely adopted across industries. You can find more detail in our blog post with predictions and survey results for the future of generative AI!
A Strategic Transformer, Not a Job Killer
Another important finding: the vast majority of companies see generative AI as a strategic transformer rather than a tool that takes people's jobs. 50% of companies characterize generative AI as a tool for improving strategy. These results line up with the Turkish AI Initiative's principle that AI should enhance human productivity and creativity rather than replace jobs, a principle that companies adopting AI to cut costs and automate repetitive tasks also seem to accept.
First Use Cases of AI: R&D and Content Creation
The research shows that content creation and R&D are the most common and earliest areas where companies in Turkey put generative AI to use. Content creation gives an efficiency edge to organizations with high-volume production needs, while in R&D, AI helps teams adapt faster to new technologies. You can learn more about generative AI in our guide, where we cover how generative AI is used, its application areas, the models behind it, and more!
Developing In-House Expertise Instead of Outsourcing
While some companies still prefer outsourcing, 52% of the businesses surveyed would rather build generative AI expertise in-house through training and consulting. Developing that expertise internally is challenging, but it tends to pay off in more efficient results. Companies also still need guidance through the integration process, since AI remains a newly adopted tool in most business workflows.
Overcoming the Barriers to Adopting AI
The research also points to real barriers to adopting AI technology. Data privacy and security remain a key concern, especially in regulated industries such as banking, and the complexity of integration combined with a lack of specialized resources poses further challenges for companies. Still, as Zeynep Mavi's talk and the underlying research show, AI's potential in Turkey keeps growing, and that growing potential is bringing more attention to the opportunities AI offers businesses.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch Zeynep Mavi's full speech and get more detail, or watch it here!
This content was created by Nursena Küçüksoy, Marketing Specialist at Zeo.
