Kazakhstan is testing an AI-powered Digital Employment Service. During the project’s first two months, around 3,000 people found jobs, while participants received approximately 59,000 job offers.
The pilot operates in the Pavlodar and Mangystau regions. Expansion into other parts of the country is planned to begin in November.
How it works
The main difference from a conventional job search website is a proactive approach.
With the person’s consent, the system automatically creates a digital résumé, drawing on information about education, work experience, length of service, skills and other characteristics.
AI then analyzes available vacancies and selects those suited to the individual.
According to Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Protection Bakhtiyar Zhazykpayev, pilot participants received around 59,000 such notifications over two months, and roughly 3,000 people have already found work.
The system identifies people who need work
The Digital Employment Service is intended to gradually change how public services operate.
Previously, people who lost their jobs had to register, create a résumé and start searching for vacancies themselves.
The new model envisages the state identifying people who may need employment support in advance and automatically suggesting options.
The pilot currently includes, among others:
- people who lost their jobs in the past three months;
- university and college graduates;
- registered unemployed people.
The approach is therefore shifting from “a person searches for work” to “the system proactively suggests suitable work.”
AI does not make hiring decisions
Artificial intelligence does not replace the employer here.
The system does not create jobs or decide whom to hire. It helps match an individual’s profile with existing vacancies more quickly.
The employer still makes the final hiring decision.
The phrase “AI employed 3,000 people” is striking, but it is more accurate to say that around 3,000 Kazakhstani residents found jobs after vacancies were matched through the new service.
What else the system could offer
The Digital Employment Service is intended to become more than a vacancy search tool.
The Ministry of Labor plans to build a unified digital pathway from choosing a profession and looking for work to training and employment.
If a person lacks the skills needed for a suitable vacancy, the system could refer them for training or retraining.
It also takes willingness to relocate for work into account, allowing it to show vacancies in other regions as well as near the person’s home.
It is still a pilot
Despite the initial figures, the project cannot yet be considered a fully operational national system.
It has launched in just two regions: Pavlodar and Mangystau.
The government says further expansion of the Digital Employment Service will begin in November.
The project stands out in a broader context: Enbek.kz already has more than 900,000 registered employers and 3.3 million job seekers, while the state is increasingly digitizing job searches and social services.
The central question is how well the algorithm understands people
If the system can account for actual skills, experience and willingness to learn alongside a formal occupation, it could significantly speed up job searches.
But this also creates the principal risk.
An algorithm may rely too heavily on a person’s past experience and suggest only similar roles, even when they want to change careers entirely.
The more the system uses education, employment history and skills data, the more important transparency becomes: which data it considers and why it recommends a particular vacancy.
The project is still at an early stage, and its actual effectiveness can be assessed after nationwide expansion.
