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Yandex Search Türkiye grew its user base by more than 75% in 2025, driven by new artificial intelligence features rolled out after a full relaunch at the end of 2024, according to CEO Alexander Popovskiy.
Speaking at the eighth Türkiye Artificial Intelligence Summit organized by the Türkiye Artificial Intelligence Initiative (TRAI), he said AI is reshaping how people in Türkiye search and interact online.
Popovskiy said the company’s AI-integrated service “Yazeka with Yandex Search,” tailored for Turkish users, has seen fast uptake since launch.
He noted that “2025 was indeed a good year,” as AI additions made the service more successful and widened its audience. He added that more than 40% of all search requests are now answered with the help of Yazeka, whose audience has doubled since the start of 2025. Yazeka refers to an AI layer embedded in search that helps interpret queries and deliver synthesized results.
Pointing to changing habits, Popovskiy said younger users approach the internet differently and increasingly turn to AI for everyday questions.
He observed that many now consult chatbots not only for information but also for advice on social situations or health, which raises the industry’s responsibilities around accuracy and safety.
The company plans to keep expanding in 2026 with products designed for local needs in Türkiye. Popovskiy said focusing on the country’s language and culture will pay off, and flagged a new application targeted for release by the end of this year, inviting users to join a waitlist to be among the first to try it.
Explaining “agentic AI” as systems that act on a user’s behalf rather than merely assist, Popovskiy called it the start of a new era. He acknowledged that the technology is still early and sometimes experimental, yet said it already delivers results in specific tasks.
As one example, Yandex Search uses agentic tools for shopping to surface the best prices across websites, a feature he said has proved useful for hundreds of thousands of users.
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