Astana hosted the large-scale MBA Impact Forum 2026, bringing together business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, experts, and members of the MBA alumni community. The forum was dedicated to the 30th anniversary of GSB AlmaU, the Graduate School of Business at AlmaU, which was the first institution in Kazakhstan to launch an MBA program and lay the foundation for business education in the country.

The central theme of the forum focused on growth strategies in an era of profound uncertainty, values-based leadership, and the impact of business education on the real economy of the region.

“The most important thing that MBA and DBA programs provide is not diplomas or lecture notes. What truly matters is the community of knowledge — people who trust one another, speak the same language, and share their experience. It is more than networking: alongside connections comes shared knowledge that everyone can draw upon,” said Assylbek Kozhakhmetov in his opening remarks.

Opening the forum, Timur Buldybayev, Rector of Almaty Management University (AlmaU), noted that in today’s world academic success can no longer be measured by the number of diplomas awarded. The true strength of a business school lies in the measurable impact its graduates create in the real economy.

“At AlmaU, we measure our success by the footprint — the impact — our graduates leave on the real economy. We firmly believe that knowledge which cannot be applied in practice and transformed into concrete managerial decisions is not education; it is merely decoration. We have chosen to be a laboratory of living business,” he emphasized.

Global Futurism and Human Values in the Age of AI

The international keynote speakers agreed that technological breakthroughs — including mass automation and artificial intelligence — represent far more than new software solutions. They signify a complete transformation of the logic of human labor, where the scarcest resource is becoming humanity itself.

According to Tariq Qureishy, CEO of Future Readiness Forum:

“The more technological and AI-driven the world becomes, the more human we need to be. Everything that can be transferred to AI will be transferred, because it will be a million times faster and a million times cheaper. But everything that cannot be digitized — love, compassion, trust, and wisdom — will become a million times more valuable.”

Experts noted that while advances in AI offer unprecedented opportunities, the uncontrolled commercial deployment of neural networks may also lead to a severe human capital crisis and transform technology into a potential threat.

AI futurist Pavel Luksha described the phenomenon as a “leapfrogging effect”:

“The arrival of artificial intelligence creates a leapfrogging effect, allowing countries and organizations to skip several stages of development and enter a new technological paradigm without going through every intermediate step. In other words, it enables them to bypass investments in parts of outdated infrastructure and move directly to where they need to be.”

The discussion also explored how emerging technologies are reshaping the rules of the game in Kazakhstan’s market, why AI may temporarily displace entry-level professionals, and how digitalization and biometric technologies are helping build consumer trust in e-commerce.

Dana Tokmurzina, CEO of Fortune Partners, shared practical business cases and noted that her company has already stopped hiring junior-level specialists.

“Yes, in some ways we may be shooting ourselves in the foot because young professionals may struggle to find jobs in their field due to AI adoption. However, this is no longer the responsibility of business. If the Ministry of Education and university leaders encourage AI and prepare these graduates, then they must ensure that the specialists entering the market are valuable and employable for companies like ours,” she said.

Victoria Torgunakova, Member of the Supervisory Board of Freedom Ticketon, spoke about AI implementation within the company:

“To combat ticket resellers and enhance security at large-scale events, we are introducing biometric technologies. In the near future, Ticketon will be integrated with access control systems and venue turnstiles, allowing visitors who have given consent to enter using facial recognition instead of presenting a ticket. This will make the entry process seamless and significantly faster.”

Mukhit Yeleuov, Partner at ADL Disputes and a graduate of Harvard Kennedy School, argued that no one today possesses a fully objective understanding of reality.

“We perceive the world through our own experiences, knowledge, emotions, personal traits, and cognitive limitations. Behavioral science demonstrates that people do not always act rationally, and our decisions are strongly influenced by context and heuristics,” he noted.

Another significant milestone of the forum was the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation between AlmaU Graduate School of Business and BIArt School of Creative Industries. The event concluded with the presentation of a new lifelong membership model for continuous learning and the distribution of exclusive anniversary merchandise to all participants. Guests then continued networking and informal discussions at AlmaU FEST.