Turkish businesses trail public AI usage as SME adoption remains low, raising risks of a two-speed economy and widening digital gaps across emerging markets.
Turkey’s public ranks among the most AI-aware populations globally, yet AI adoption among Turkish businesses remains limited, particularly across small and medium-sized enterprises, according to new research.
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A report by the Turkish Artificial Intelligence Policy Association shows that over 80% of Turks are familiar with artificial intelligence, with nearly 60% actively using AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok. This places Turkey among the world’s most engaged populations at the individual level.
That momentum, however, drops sharply inside the corporate sector.
Data from Turkstat, Turkey’s national statistics authority, reveals that while business AI usage rose by more than 50% in 2025, adoption remains modest. In 2024, fewer than 5% of Turkish companies deployed AI, a figure that declined from the previous year. Adoption rebounded in 2025 to 7.5% of businesses, but still trails the EU average of 20% by a wide margin.
The divide becomes more pronounced when company size is considered. Only 6.6% of SMEs with fewer than 50 employees use AI, compared with 24% of large enterprises employing over 250 staff.
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Despite Turkey’s strong performance in digital payments, e-commerce, and consumer technology usage, much of the business ecosystem remains disconnected from AI-driven transformation.
Emrehan Aktuğ, assistant professor of economics at Sabancı University, warned that the imbalance could become structural without intervention.
“Companies with strong capital bases and international networks are ready for AI,” Aktuğ said. “However, SMEs, which account for over 50% of GDP and 72% of employment, face very low digitalization levels. This limits their readiness for AI adoption.”
He cautioned that without targeted incentives, training, and infrastructure support, Turkey risks developing a two-speed economy, where AI-enabled firms advance rapidly while the majority fall behind.
Why Turkish AI Adoption Matters to MENA
Turkey’s AI adoption gap mirrors a broader challenge across MENA markets, where public enthusiasm for AI is rising faster than enterprise readiness. Like Turkey, many MENA economies show strong consumer engagement with AI tools but lag in SME-level digital transformation, which is critical for productivity, job creation, and competitiveness.
As governments across the region push national AI strategies, the Turkish case highlights a key lesson for MENA policymakers: AI leadership cannot be built on consumer usage alone. Without structured SME support—through incentives, cloud access, skills development, and regulatory clarity—the region risks widening economic divides between digitally mature firms and the rest of the market.
For MENA economies positioning themselves as AI and innovation hubs, closing this adoption gap will be essential to translating policy ambition into real economic impact.
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