A New Service for AI Training Developed in Kazakhstan

Kazakh startup NCSpeech, which collects data for training artificial intelligence, proposed a joint project to the delivery service Glovo. Users of the app could record speech or take photos and receive rewards for it.

The team presented the idea at the Startup Campus program at Glovo's headquarters in Barcelona. Co-founder of the company Sasha Michaud called collaboration with local digital companies one of the directions for its development in Kazakhstan.

Data for AI through applications

CEO and co-founder of NCSpeech Tseren Andzhukaev stated that the team launched the project at the beginning of 2025, relying on the experience of creating voice technologies. Some clients wanted to develop models themselves but needed quality data, and collecting it turned out to be one of the most expensive and labor-intensive parts of the work.

In Kazakhstan, people often mix Russian and Kazakh speech and use colloquial expressions, so models need corresponding examples. The team also collected data and trained models for Malay, Vietnamese, Filipino, and Indonesian languages.

NCSpeech offers to collect materials through popular applications: the user completes a task and receives a reward. The partner earns extra, and NCSpeech saves on promoting its own service. According to Andzhukaev, the company is already collaborating with inDrive in Kazakhstan and Southeast Asia and is starting work in Latin America.

The startup needs participants from other countries, so it wants to collect data through Glovo in Georgian, Armenian, and the Moldovan variant of the Romanian language. Negotiations are proceeding slower than the team would like, and if they cannot reach an agreement, they will look for other options. "We need to move quickly," Andzhukaev emphasized.

How Kazakhstan is building an AI market for business

Such data is needed not only by startups but also by large businesses in the country. Halyk Bank is already integrating AI agents that select products and book restaurants, and then, according to the developers' plan, will start filling out tax forms for entrepreneurs.

For these services to work, computing power is needed, so Kazakhstan is inviting Italian businesses to jointly build data centers and AI infrastructure. Astana is counting not only on capital but also on the transfer of technologies to the country and the training of local personnel.

Data exchange for AI is also reaching the level of states. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev proposed to neighbors a declaration on the responsible use of AI and a partnership program through which Central Asian countries and Azerbaijan can exchange data and experience.