The government of Uzbekistan has approved an ambitious educational initiative titled Five Million AI Leaders. The program aims to rapidly scale up the number of skilled professionals in the digital economy and introduce a motivation system for students and teachers who achieve top results, Fergana News reports.
This new project continues the earlier One Million Uzbek Coders initiative. The Uzbekistan – 2030 strategy outlines specific targets: by 2026, 500,000 people are expected to receive AI training, with the total number reaching five million by 2035.
One of the program’s key components is content localization — by May 2026, courses from leading global educational platforms must be translated into Uzbek. To engage students and educators, a national annual competition will be introduced.
The program includes an incentive system. One hundred teachers whose students show the best results will receive one-time bonuses of $1,000. Ten of them will be awarded international trips. Among students, 1,000 winners will be selected: 500 will receive laptops, while the rest will be awarded tablets, smartwatches, and other valuable prizes. Cash prizes will be given to three universities, and the two best-performing schools will receive electric vehicles as gifts from the president.
A special commission, chaired by Minister of Digital Technologies Sherzod Shermatov, will oversee implementation. The commission will set regional targets and monitor the use of funds. Program funding — including training and prize procurement — will come from the Digital Technologies Development Fund and the Reconstruction and Development Fund.
The initiative also includes the expansion of the Heirs of Muhammad al-Khwarizmi project. A model tested in Khorezm region will now be rolled out in the Republic of Karakalpakstan and regional centers. Gifted 8th-grade students will be placed into special groups offering free training in IT subjects and foreign languages.
Another new measure relates to reimbursement for international IT certifications. Young professionals will be eligible for a 100% refund of certification costs for professional-level credentials, provided they demonstrate English proficiency at B2 level or higher. For beginner and intermediate levels, partial refunds of 30% and 40% are available. Training centers preparing applicants must be officially licensed.
The launch of the Five Million AI Leaders initiative was first announced in November 2025, when it was revealed that experts from the UAE had joined the effort. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev stated that by 2030, the program aims to train 4.75 million students, 150,000 teachers, and 100,000 civil servants. AI integration is planned across schools, vocational institutions, and universities.
A total of $100 million has been allocated to the program. In 2026, in cooperation with U.S.-based Nvidia, Uzbekistan plans to launch a large-scale supercomputer cluster to support the development of its AI ecosystem. These efforts are expected to help increase the country’s IT service exports to $5 billion by 2030 and create thousands of high-paying jobs.
