TEKNOFEST and Turkish Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem

Turkey’s artificial intelligence ecosystem; public policies, universities, research centers, technology initiatives, investment mechanisms, data infrastructures and a broad structure where human resources are met. Increasing the use of artificial intelligence in different sectors from production to finance, education to health, making Turkey’s capacity in this field not only in terms of technology companies, but also important in terms of the general transformation of the economy.

Turkey’s approach in the field of artificial intelligence has expanded in recent years from strategy documents to application programs. Turkey Artificial Intelligence Action Plan described in 2026 revealed concrete targets in different areas from human resources to data infrastructure, entrepreneurship power. Besides this, TEKNOFEST competitions stand out as mechanisms that support different layers of the ecosystem, research on TÜBİTAK supports and universities.

What is Turkish Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem?

Turkish AI ecosystem does not only consist of artificial intelligence companies. In this structure, companies using public institutions, universities, research centers, entrepreneurs, investors, technology providers and artificial intelligence solutions are included.

The main purpose of the ecosystem is to carry out applications in the real world from the research phase of artificial intelligence technologies. For this realization, qualified human resources, quality data, sufficient calculation infrastructure, investment, academic knowledge and real needs of companies need to be established.

Published by the Ministry of Industry and Technology Turkey Artificial Intelligence Action PlanThis structure contains important targets on how to develop in the next period. The plan has headers such as increasing artificial intelligence literacy, growing specialist and application professionals, developing access to public data and increasing data center capacity.

Action Plan from Turkey’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy

Turkey’s artificial intelligence policies had a more systematic framework with the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy in 2021-2025. As of 2026, new term targets were expanded with Turkey Artificial Intelligence Action Plan 2026-2030. The current strategy documents of the Ministry of Industry and Technology include this action plan.

The plan described in the period of 2026-2030 is installed on four basic axes: difference, benefit, produce and manage. This approach focuses not only on the development of artificial intelligence, understanding by society, use in public and private sector, production of domestic technologies and management of the ecosystem.

One of the goals described under the plan is to provide training to 5 million citizens in two years through artificial intelligence literacy workshops in 81 provinces. Besides this, 10 thousand advanced AI experts and 100 thousand artificial intelligence applications are aimed to grow professional.

On the data side, areas such as health, agriculture, defense and electronic trade are planned to open access at least 2 thousand public data sets via the National Data Library. Up to 2030, the data center power has at least 1 GW level.

How Much Does Companies Use Artificial Intelligence in Turkey?

One of the ways to measure the development of AI ecosystem in Turkey is to look at what companies use these technologies. Information Technology Research on the Initiatives of TÜİK in 2025 According to the results, 7,5 percent of attempts with 10 and more employees declared that any artificial intelligence technology uses.

This rate was 2,7 percent in 2021. According to the number of employees in 2025, artificial intelligence usage rate was measured as 9,6 percent and 250 percent of employees in initiatives with 10-49 employees. In the information and communication sector, the proportion reached 47,1 percent.

This data shows that the use of artificial intelligence increases between businesses in Turkey. However, differentiation of usage rates according to the business size and the sector reveals that the ecosystem has not yet the same level in terms of all companies.

For users who want to compare AI tools in terms of companies Best Artificial Intelligence Platforms in Turkey The guide is an important resource for evaluation of platforms for different usage areas.

What Does TEKNOFEST Offer in Artificial Intelligence?

TEKNOFEST competitions, one of the most visible areas in terms of young people and developers of Turkish AI ecosystem. 2026 programs included Artificial Intelligence Language Agents Competitionfocuses on large language models, natural language processing, multimodal artificial intelligence and smart agent technologies.

The competition is moving through three different real world scenarios. One of them is the use of multi-factor systems in public paperwork and official correspondence processes. The second scenario is installed on the analysis of financial texts in the banking area and the removal of meaningful information. In the third scenario, it is desirable to develop multimodal systems that can perform incident and risk detection from video data, produce decision support outputs.

This approach is important because it is not expected to develop a model that works only technically than the competitors. It is aimed to handle a real problem of solutions, work with data and reveal a enforceable system.

TEKNOFEST Artificial Intelligence Contests What Does Students Gain?

In terms of educational students in the field of artificial intelligence, competitions offer the opportunity to transform theoretical information into practice. A machine learning model is important difference between developing data for a real problem, creating models, evaluating results and revealing a running application.

Contests such as TEKNOFEST can also contribute to the creation of portfolios of students. specifically GitHub projects, technical reports and teamwork help students not only know what topics, but how to implement them.

How Does Ekosystem Work For Turkish Artificial Intelligence Initiatives?

One of the most important issues in terms of the growth of ventures is that the technical idea can be transformed into a real customer requirement. A part of the support mechanisms in Turkey is trying to strengthen this link.

One of the current examples of this Home TUBITAK 1711 Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem Call. In the program, customer organizations who need artificial intelligence solution, technology provider companies and university or public research centres are predicted.

Five priority areas for 2026 call: smart production systems, smart farming-food, financial technologies, climate change and sustainability.

The important side of this model is directing artificial intelligence research directly to the problems that companies face. Thus, technical information developed in a university can be applied to a real business problem through a technology provider company.

Why is TÜBİTAK Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem Call Important?

1711 program is one of the mechanisms that combine the academy, company and user sides in the Turkish AI ecosystem. According to the description of TÜBİTAK, the aim of the program is to contribute to the transformation of artificial intelligence technologies into product or solutions in accordance with the needs of the customer organizations.

An important update was also made for the application process in the call 2026. TUBITAK announced that the last application date was extended to 2 October 2026 hours 23.59 in the announcement of 16 September 2026.

Which Role Is The Artificial Intelligence Institute in the Ecosystem?

The TÜBİTAK Artificial Intelligence Institute is positioned as one of the important components of the corporate research capacity in Turkey’s artificial intelligence. The Institute is taking part in the work for connecting between the needs of the industry with academic knowledge.

Turkey’s works in Turkish language technologies are taking care of this structure. Within the scope of the Turkish Large Language Basic Model Project in TÜBİTAK resources, various basic models are developed and trained with 300 billion Turkish tokens of the largest model at the current stage.

The importance of such studies is not limited only to developing a new language model. The development of research capacity in terms of Turkish data, natural language processing, local terminology and Turkey-specific usage scenarios can contribute to diversifying local AI applications.

Why Critical Data in Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem?

Data plays a critical role in the performance of artificial intelligence systems. Until model architecture or calculation power, the quality of the data used, scope, currentity and legal access is also important.

Turkey aims to open access at least 2 thousand public data set in Artificial Intelligence Action Plan via National Data Library. Specificity of areas such as health, agriculture, defense and electronic trade shows that public data is addressed as a source to support artificial intelligence practices in different industries.

The main topic here is not only to collect more data. The standardization of the data is critical to the development of the ecosystem as well as the determination of access conditions and the safe use of anonymity.

Why Does Calculator Power And Data Centers Important?

Training and operation of large artificial intelligence models can require a high amount of calculation strength. Therefore, it is not enough to evaluate artificial intelligence ecosystem only through software and human source.

Turkish Artificial Intelligence Action Plan aims to remove data center power from 2030 to at least 1 GW level. Plan also predicts regulations for the development of data centers in accordance with international standards and energy efficiency.

Increased calculation capacity; it is important for researchers, initiatives and companies to train larger models or adapt existing models to their own needs. However, this capacity needs to be addressed with energy consumption, cost and sustainability sizes.

Why Is Human Resources Important in Turkish Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem?

The development of technology infrastructure is not enough alone. We need human resources to design, develop, test and integrate business processes.

TÜİK 2025 research reveals one of the important problems in this regard. One of the reasons suggesting in attempts that do not yet use artificial intelligence is lack of expertise. Therefore, artificial intelligence needs different levels of education from literacy to advanced model development.

In the 2026-2030 action plan of Turkey, 10 thousand advanced AI experts and 100 thousand artificial intelligence practices are the goal of growing the professional, which shows that the human resource is addressed at the policy level.

How Can Students Start In Artificial Intelligence?

It may not be enough to learn only one programming language for students who want to enter the AI field. Python can provide a useful start to create basics in areas such as data analysis, machine learning, natural language processing, computerized vision and large language models.

Besides this, it is important to develop projects. A simple data analysis project, text classification model, image processing application, or developing a small artificial intelligence agent, enables the information learned to be applied to a real problem.

What Does Turkey Understand Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem For Entrepreneurs?

The developments in the Turkish AI ecosystem in terms of entrepreneurs show that different channels are formed for transition from a technical idea to the commercial product.

In particular, quality control and predictive maintenance in production, efficiency and image analysis in agriculture, risk analysis in finance, personalized learning in education, route optimization in logistics and automation in customer service, areas include concrete use scenarios of artificial intelligence.

Here the determination of the problem before the critical point technology itself. It is not enough to say "we use intelligence" an attempt. What problem of the solution is solved, which data needs, how the output will be measured and how to value the customer.

Masqot for those who want to follow the developments on the entrepreneurship side Startup and Entrepreneurship community is one of the areas where entrepreneurship-oriented content and community work can be followed in the ecosystem.

Why is Security And Ethics Important in Artificial Intelligence Use?

The widespread use of artificial intelligence brings issues such as data security, protection of personal data, copyright, algorithmic bias, misuse and cybersecurity.

In particular, productive artificial intelligence systems protect the importance of human control because they can produce convincing but incorrect contents. It does not mean that a model produces a reliable response, the response is automatically correct.

What data is sent to the model in corporate use, where data is processed, the model outputs are checked by who and how critical decisions are correctly identified.

Turkey Artificial Intelligence Action Plan also aims to create a regulatory framework between data privacy and safety.

Opportunities of Turkish Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem

One of the important opportunities in Turkey’s AI ecosystem can be combined with artificial intelligence technologies of strong sector experience. Combining sector knowledge in areas such as production, defense, finance, health, agriculture, logistics and e-commerce with artificial intelligence solutions can provide the development of products for real problems.

Another domain human source. The increase of business associations between universities, technoparks, research centers and technology companies can enable students to experience academic knowledge in real projects.

Turkish AI technologies are also an important research field. The development of Turkish data sets, language models and natural language processing applications can contribute to the development of local solutions in different usage scenarios from public services to educational technologies.

Challenges in the Importance of Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem

With the growth of the ecosystem, some basic problems need to be solved. At the beginning of these, qualified human resources, calculation costs, quality data access and transition to commercialization from research.

TÜİK data shows that lack of expertise in terms of businesses that do not use artificial intelligence but assess use. Cost and legal ambiguities are among the factors that are effective in artificial intelligence usage decisions of businesses.

The cost of models requiring high calculation power from the other side can create an important resource need in terms of initiatives. The development of data centers and cloud infrastructure is therefore important not only in terms of major technology companies, but in terms of the initiative ecosystem.

The Future Period in Turkish Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem

The three areas in the development of the Turkish AI ecosystem in the coming period are particularly remarkable: human resource, application and infrastructure.

On the human resource side, 2026-2030 is the training targets of the action plan. On the application side, programs such as TUBITAK 1711 call aim to develop solutions for real problems. On the infrastructure side, there are targets for increasing data center capacity and developing access to public data.

TEKNOFEST’s artificial intelligence contests stand out as one of the areas of application that support the educational and talent development of this structure. 2026 Artificial Intelligence Language Agents Competition focuses on actual corporate and sectoral problems, it allows students and developers to handle artificial intelligence not only as a theoretical topic, but as a feasible technology.

The development of Turkish AI ecosystem is therefore not a process that can be explained by the work of a single institution or company. Public policies, universities, research centers, initiatives, investors and technologies need to complete each other within the same ecosystem.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Turkish Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem?

Turkey’s AI ecosystem is the construction of businesses using public institutions, universities, research centers, technology companies, initiatives, investors and artificial intelligence technologies.

Why is TEKNOFEST Artificial Intelligence Contests Important?

TEKNOFEST AI competitions allow students and developers to work for real problems on technologies such as large language models, natural language processing, multimodal systems and artificial intelligence agents.

Does Artificial Intelligence Increase in Turkey?

Artificial intelligence usage rate in initiatives with 10 and more employees according to TÜİK data increased to 7,5 percent while 2,7 percent in 2021. However, usage rates vary according to industry and business size.

How to Support Turkish Artificial Intelligence Initiatives?

TUBITAK’s 1711 Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem Call uses the consortium model that combines companies with technology provider companies and research organizations that need artificial intelligence solution. There are five primary areas for 2026 calls.

How Can Students Start Artificial Intelligence Area?

Python can be started with basic topics such as data analysis and machine learning. Then natural language processing can be passed into areas such as computerized vision, large language models and artificial intelligence agents. Participating in contests and developing real projects can also help implement learned information.

What Are The New Artificial Intelligence Goals in Turkey?

During the 2026-2030, 5 million citizens take artificial intelligence literacy training, 10 thousand advanced artificial intelligence experts and 100 thousand artificial intelligence practice professionals are aiming to open access at least 2 thousand public data sets and remove data center power up to 2030 at least 1 GW level.