Freedom Holding Corp. head Timur Turlov said that talent will remain the key asset in the era of artificial intelligence, while human value will shift from routine execution toward creating original ideas. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

He made the remarks to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and participants of a plenary session dedicated to the future of film production on the sidelines of the Digital Bridge forum in Astana on October 2.

AI film festival called a bold decision

Timur Turlov called the holding of an AI film festival a bold decision that will help set standards for a new industry at the stage of its formation.

"Dozens of technology events have been held in Astana, but today's event is truly unique because it brings together technology and culture. This is an interesting combination that is still quite rare," Timur Turlov noted.

Creative economy as a growth driver

The businessman stressed that the creative economy has already become an important driver of economic growth. As an example, he cited the launch of the Freedom Media platform, which in one year of operation demonstrated high demand for local product.

"In just one year we launched dozens of original projects, and today almost 80% of views on the platform come from Kazakhstani content, including content in the Kazakh language," said the CEO of Freedom Holding Corp.

According to him, Freedom Media's goal is to create original content together with Kazakhstani authors. As a successful case, Timur Turlov cited the Qara Dombyra project, an animated universe inspired by Kazakh mythology and seven national musical instruments.

AI will not fully replace people in creative professions

Discussing generative networks, Timur Turlov expressed confidence that AI will not be able to fully replace people in creative professions.

"Technology will increasingly take on routine tasks, and human value will shift higher, from execution to the original idea. That is why our main asset, as before, will remain talent, and investment in young authors should become a priority for both the state and business," said Timur Turlov.

According to him, a rare combination of conditions for success has formed in Kazakhstan. The state is creating the legal and financial base, while business sees a real market for a whole generation of young people who are fluent in AI tools.

About Freedom Holding Corp.

Freedom Holding Corp. is an international financial group registered in the state of Nevada, USA. The group's main market remains Kazakhstan, and its headquarters is located in Almaty. The holding develops brokerage, banking, insurance and payment businesses, as well as telecommunications, media and other digital services. Freedom Holding Corp. shares are traded on Nasdaq under the ticker FRHC, as well as on KASE and AIX.

The holding also develops telecom, data centers, cloud services, payment and lifestyle projects in Kazakhstan. By September 2026, the audience of Freedom SuperApp reached 6 million users.

One of the key areas has become Freedom Telecom. The company is building fiber-optic networks, base stations, public Wi-Fi and its own network of data centers. By September 2026, more than $300 million had been invested in telecom infrastructure. Turlov expects telecom to eventually become the group's fourth major source of income after the brokerage, banking and insurance businesses.

A separate block is computing and AI infrastructure. In 2025, Freedom Holding, NVIDIA and the relevant ministry agreed to create a sovereign AI center worth $2 billion with a capacity of 100 MW. In July 2026, Freedom Holding, Citi and the ministry signed a memorandum to create a large AI cluster with GPU infrastructure for the state, business and science.

Elected FIDE president

On the eve of Digital Bridge, on September 26, 2026, Timur Turlov was elected president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE). The elections were held in Samarkand as part of the organization's General Assembly. In the second round, the CEO of Freedom Holding Corp. received 110 votes out of 196. Along with him, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand was elected deputy president of FIDE.