In Q1 2025, world investments in AI startups reached $84 billion, a 22% enhance in comparison with the primary quarter of 2024. Based on researchers, AI adoption might enhance world GDP by 15% by 2035, successfully including one share level to annual development. As know-how evolves at a radical tempo, it’s additionally reshaping how we expect. Kazakhstani entrepreneur Yerzhan Zheldibayev has developed a novel methodology that brings these two transformations collectively — unlocking a brand new degree of enterprise success.
Yerzhan Zheldibayev is an internationally acknowledged entrepreneur and AI strategist with a confirmed monitor file of constructing and scaling multimillion-dollar companies throughout rising markets and past. With over 15 years of hands-on management expertise spanning telecommunications, retail, promoting, and AI consulting, he has efficiently launched and exited ventures producing as much as $280K month-to-month income. Because the founding father of Cosmo AI, he now empowers SMEs and entrepreneurs to leverage cutting-edge synthetic intelligence for operational effectivity, automation, and scalable development.
Yerzhan is an lively member of main world AI associations, together with ACM and AAAI, reflecting his dedication to innovation and moral technological development. A broadcast thought chief and invited decide at worldwide startup competitions, he has personally mentored over 100 purchasers worldwide, serving to them rework their companies by way of mindset shifts and strategic AI integration. His proprietary frameworks and cross-continental experience make him a sought-after voice in the way forward for enterprise and know-how.
Your profession spans over 20 years. Which achievement or milestone stands out probably the most or grew to become a turning level for you?
Over the previous fifteen years, I’ve been concerned in lots of initiatives and acquired numerous awards and recognitions. However what really impresses me probably the most isn’t the diplomas or certificates, it’s the moments when my work genuinely modifications another person’s life. For instance, I as soon as helped a small workforce from an academic startup restructure their enterprise mannequin, and inside a 12 months, they grew to become leaders of their area of interest. Watching them go from uncertainty to success — that’s the actual reward.
If we’re speaking about private turning factors, probably the most pivotal moments was launching a serious retail venture in Kazakhstan, which finally generated a whole lot of hundreds of {dollars} in month-to-month income. That’s after I really realized I might construct techniques that perform independently of me. It modified my total perspective on enterprise and pushed me towards what I do at present.
At the moment, many individuals discuss integrating AI into enterprise, however you additionally emphasize the significance of working with the suitable mindset. What does this truly seem like in follow? How do know-how and private transformation work collectively?
At first look, it’d seem to be know-how and mindset are two fully separate domains. However in actuality, one doesn’t work with out the opposite. When an organization implements AI instruments — like chatbots, automated analytics, or content material assistants — they do cut back the workload. But when the enterprise proprietor nonetheless holds onto outdated beliefs like “I have to control everything myself” or “tech is just not my thing,” the effectiveness hits a ceiling in a short time.
That’s why I all the time method transformation on two ranges. First, we automate key processes. Then we concentrate on mindset: breaking by way of the inner limitations that forestall an individual from embracing a brand new degree of construction and pace. Solely when these two parts work in tandem can actual transformation occur — when AI enhances the enterprise and the entrepreneur stops “putting out fires” and begins to guide strategically, from a spot of readability and confidence.
Your venture, Soul Evolution, focuses on psychological transformation. Why, as a profitable entrepreneur, did you determine to dive into mindset and consciousness evolution?
My shift towards exploring consciousness occurred in Bali. Throughout each day meditations, I saved asking myself a easy query: “What would truly make me feel happy and at peace?” Over time, the reply got here — to share my expertise and assist others transfer past their recurring approach of seeing themselves.
I noticed that many issues can’t be solved on the similar degree at which they had been created. We stay inside our patterns and beliefs, usually unaware that by merely “rising one floor higher,” the answer turns into clear. That’s what I name the evolution of consciousness: the power to see your self and your life from a brand new perspective.
For me, Soul Evolution is a solution to merge entrepreneurial expertise with deep interior work. I assist individuals the identical approach I as soon as helped myself — to look past their day-to-day worries and really feel a way of actual freedom.
You’ve mentored at startup competitions. What’s probably the most surprising however critically necessary criterion you employ when evaluating promising initiatives?
After I assess a startup, in fact, I take a look at the product, the market, and the enterprise mannequin. However there’s one much less apparent issue that I all the time prioritize — the workforce’s vitality and adaptableness.
You’ll be able to have a world-class thought, but when the founders can’t adapt shortly, take suggestions, or pivot their technique, the venture received’t final. Then again, even a modest thought within the fingers of a versatile and chronic workforce can develop into one thing enormous.
That’s why I all the time attempt to “read” individuals: how passionate they’re about what they do, how open they’re to new approaches, and whether or not they’re ready to undergo inevitable challenges. For me, that’s the true indicator of a startup’s potential.
In your method, there’s a powerful concentrate on “consciousness evolution.” How do you assist purchasers overcome concern when going through AI integration and main change?
When individuals first take into account integrating AI or altering long-standing enterprise processes, it’s not the know-how that holds them again; it’s concern. Concern of dropping management, of creating errors, of feeling incompetent. I perceive that nicely as a result of I’ve been there myself.
In my work, I don’t simply current instruments, I assist purchasers shift their perspective. We discover their limiting beliefs and doubts: the place they arrive from, what’s beneath. Then we take small, sensible steps, easy experiments that ship fast wins. The shopper sees: “This works, and it’s not as scary as I thought.”
That inside shift is what I discuss with as consciousness evolution. When an entrepreneur stops seeing know-how as a risk and begins viewing it as an ally, the whole lot modifications. And that’s the second after they develop into really open to transformation, not out of concern, however out of curiosity and inspiration.
