From AI demos to production systems: lessons from CodeIB Tashkent 2026
AI adoption is entering a new phase.
Across industries, organisations are moving beyond AI experiments and looking for solutions that deliver measurable business outcomes. This was one of the main themes at CodeIB Tashkent 2026, where Apifonica’s Chief Product Officer Ilya Ostrovskiy and Voice AI expert Kristaps Drikis shared their perspectives on the future of AI-powered customer communication.
Held at the Uztelecom Centre in Uzbekistan, the conference brought together technology leaders, telecom companies, financial institutions and digital transformation teams exploring how AI can improve operations.
The real challenge is not the AI model
Ilya’s presentation focused on a common issue across enterprise AI projects: the difference between an impressive demo and a production-ready system.
Technology is rarely the cause of failure. The missing piece is almost always the foundations.
Successful AI implementation requires:
- A clearly defined process before development starts
- Measurable KPIs before launch
- Ownership after deployment
- Continuous monitoring after the system goes live
Without these elements, even a strong AI solution can slowly lose effectiveness.
The interesting part was that the same challenges appear across different markets. Uzbekistan’s technology ecosystem is experiencing many of the same AI implementation patterns seen in European enterprise projects: ambitious pilots, high expectations and the need to connect innovation with real operational processes.
Uzbekistan signals growing demand for AI automation
According to Kristaps, the strongest conversations at the event focused on practical AI adoption.
Organisations are looking for ways to:
- Reduce contact centre costs
- Handle increasing customer communication volumes
- Provide 24/7 support
- Improve customer experience
- Scale operations despite workforce shortages
The strongest interest came from the telecom and banking sectors, where customer communication is a critical operational area.
Large telecom operators are exploring AI to modernise customer service and introduce new digital experiences. Banks are looking at automation opportunities across customer support, onboarding and engagement.
The next step for voice automation
One of the clearest market signals was the shift away from traditional voice automation.
Many existing solutions in the region still focus on outbound campaigns, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) flows and pre-recorded voice messages.
The market is increasingly looking for something more advanced: AI-powered conversations that can understand customers, respond naturally and complete tasks in real time.
This creates a strong opportunity for AI Voice Agents that combine automation with a human-like customer experience.
A market ready for practical AI
Uzbekistan is developing into an important technology market in Central Asia, with strong digital transformation initiatives and growing demand for automation.
The conversations at CodeIB Tashkent showed that organisations have moved past asking what AI can do. The question now is how to make it work reliably at scale.
For our team, this reinforces an important belief. The future of AI communication is production systems that deliver measurable results.