Oriented on making people closer

On April 4th, the solemn award ceremony of the AICA Awards 2025, the first Central Asian award in the field of artificial intelligence, took place in Tashkent. The award ceremony, named in honor of the great mathematician al-Khwarizmi, was organized by the Central Asian Artificial Intelligence Association (AICA). It brought together leading representatives of the AI industry, promising startups, and investors from across the region.

The AICA Awards 2025 procedure included the collection of applications from startups, developers, and business projects; the selection of a shortlist of the best AI projects of the year; the work of an expert jury comprised of representatives from Central Asian countries; the holding of the first Artificial Intelligence show (Al-Show) in Tashkent; and active interaction with leaders of the largest IT companies in the region.

Turkmenistan can be proud that in one of the six categories – "Best Innovation in Healthcare using AI" – a startup from Turkmenistan, KinesteX, emerged victorious. Its founder is Nikita Starov. The project is a personal AI fitness trainer with computer vision that helps people exercise anywhere, while the AI observes, motivates, tells you what you are doing right or wrong, and even uses humor.

This success marks the first significant instance of recognition for a domestic startup on the international stage and is also evidence of the rapid development of the startup ecosystem in Turkmenistan!

The other winners in the nominations were:

Best Educational Initiative in the field of AI — Shyraq AI (Kazakhstan)

Best Development in the field of AI — Zehn AI (Tajikistan)

Best Use of AI in Agrotechnology — ARA (Kazakhstan)

Best Application of AI in Business — Alsha (Uzbekistan)

Best Startup in the field of AI — Úmit (Kazakhstan)

The organizers of the AICA Awards 2025 thanked all participants for their contribution to the development of artificial intelligence across Central Asia and emphasized the importance of such platforms for promoting innovation and technological cooperation in the region.

The Director General of StartUp Academy from Turkmenistan, Daniil Maykovskiy, participated in the award ceremony and accepted the al-Khwarizmi statuette from a jury representative for its subsequent transfer to the KinesteX team.

It is worth noting that Nikita Starov, the founder of the KinesteX startup, actively participates in the development of startups in Turkmenistan, sharing his experience.

ORIENT

Photo: provided by the StartUp Academy