ISTANBUL

Yandex Search Türkiye Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Alexander Popovskiy said the company achieved significant growth in 2025 thanks to its artificial intelligence (AI)–powered products, with the number of users of its search engine in Türkiye increasing by more than 75% compared with the end of last year.

Speaking to Anadolu during the 8th Türkiye Artificial Intelligence Summit organized by the Türkiye Artificial Intelligence Initiative (TRAI), Popovskiy said Yandex Türkiye, which entered the market at the end of 2024 with “Yazeka with Yandex Search,” an AI-integrated search service specifically tailored for Turkish users, has seen rapid adoption.

“2025 was indeed a good year. We completed a full relaunch of the search engine at the end of 2024 and introduced artificial intelligence features that became very popular, making Yandex Search much more successful. The audience of Yandex Search has increased by more than 75% since the end of last year,” he said.

“Yazeka is also very popular — more than 40% of all search requests are now answered with its help. The audience of Yazeka has doubled since the beginning of 2025, so it has been a really successful year,” he added.

‘Focusing on Türkiye’s language and culture will pay off’

Highlighting the shift in how people, especially the younger generation, use the internet, Popovskiy said AI has fundamentally changed digital habits.

“We see that the younger generation uses the internet in a completely different way. I’m not only talking about short videos or TikToks, but about how they approach the internet itself,” he said.

“AI search has made traditional web use much easier for young people, but they have also embraced AI chatbots. They talk to chatbots not just for information, but even for advice — how to speak with classmates or parents, or even medical advice. This increases the level of responsibility for all companies in the industry.”

He added that Yandex Türkiye will continue expanding in 2026 with new products tailored for local users.

“We believe that focusing on Türkiye’s local market, its language and culture, will really pay off. We plan to introduce a new application by the end of this year which will reflect these key trends. We invite everyone to join the waitlist and be among the first users of this new product,” he noted.

Describing the upcoming app as a gateway to the “next-generation internet,” Popovskiy said: “Search engines used to be gateways to the internet for earlier generations. The new product aims to become a gateway to the new internet -- the internet of the next generation.”

‘Agentic AI marks the start of a new era’

Popovskiy underlined that Turkish users are particularly enthusiastic about technology and AI.

“Many people told me Turkish users are very interested in new technologies, and I can confirm that. They are curious, open-minded, and quick to try new things. AI is already becoming part of everyday life for many Turkish people. This makes Türkiye very different from our other markets,” he said.

Explaining the concept of agentic AI, Popovskiy described it as a technological leap that will redefine human-computer interaction.

“Agentic AI means asking the computer to do something instead of you. It’s a new era — until now, computers only helped us, but soon they’ll be acting for us,” he said.

“Of course, this raises many questions and concerns. The current technology is still in its early stages, sometimes even experimental, but in certain areas it is already showing great results. For example, we use agentic AI in Yandex Search for shopping. It helps users find the best prices across different websites, and this feature has already proven very useful for hundreds of thousands of users.”