The Institute of Smart Systems and Artificial Intelligence (ISSAI) at Nazarbayev University hosted a high-level delegation from Alibaba Group to discuss potential areas of collaboration in artificial intelligence, cloud technologies, and international academic–industry partnerships.
The Alibaba Group delegation included Frank Ludwin Schaefer, Head of International Government Affairs, Alibaba Group; Eric Wan, Vice President of Alibaba Cloud International and General Manager of Alibaba Cloud Middle East, Turkey, and Central Asia; Jammy Chen, Head of AI and Hybrid Cloud Solutions, Alibaba Cloud; Mingshan Chen, Head of Key Accounts, META, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence; and Aziz Iskakov, Senior Advisor at Aretera Public Affairs.
ISSAI was represented by Huseyin Atakan Varol, Founding Director; Yerbol Absalyamov, Executive Director; Alaidar Amirseiit, Government Relations Manager; and Aigerim Sarsenova, Senior External Affairs Manager.
During the meeting, Alaidar Amirseiit presented an overview of ISSAI, highlighting the Institute’s mission, strategic priorities, core research areas, and ongoing projects. The presentation included live demonstrations of MangiSoz, a speech translation engine supporting 11 languages, including Chinese, and Oylan, Kazakhstan’s first vision-language model developed for multimodal reasoning, document understanding, and educational applications.
The Alibaba Group representatives expressed strong interest in ISSAI’s research capabilities and noted that they were already familiar with the Institute’s AI models prior to the visit. They emphasized Alibaba Group’s strategic focus on expanding collaboration with leading universities and research institutions across different countries, as well as their interest in entering the Kazakhstani market through partnerships with local companies and organizations.
The meeting concluded with discussions on potential cooperation in AI research, cloud infrastructure, applied AI solutions, and talent development, positioning ISSAI as a promising academic partner for Alibaba Group’s regional and global initiatives.