On May 28, Alexey Ivanov, Director of the BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre, participated in the session “Artificial Intelligence and the New Paradigm of Competition: Risks or Drivers of Cross-Border Market Development in the EAEU?” held as part of the V Eurasian Economic Forum in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Artificial intelligence is becoming one of the key drivers of economic transformation, creating both new opportunities for businesses and regulators and new challenges for competition policy. During the session, participants discussed the use of AI in antitrust regulation and the search for a balance between protecting competition and fostering innovation.
The global AI market is estimated at $757 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow to $4.2 trillion by 2035.
Alexey Ivanov noted that AI can serve not only as a source of challenges for regulators but also as a tool for modernizing competition policy. On the one hand, digital platforms and AI contribute to greater market concentration and give rise to business models that, in their logic, resemble cartel structures. On the other hand, AI holds significant potential for advancing antitrust enforcement, as traditional competition policy tools are losing effectiveness in increasingly dynamic digital markets.
In the photo: Alexey Ivanov © Eurasian Economic Commission
Competition authorities possess vast amounts of economic data; however, its use remains fragmented and constrained by procedural frameworks. According to Ivanov, the development and deployment of AI agents within regulatory agencies would enable a more systematic analysis of transactions, better identification of concentration risks, and the creation of a stronger analytical foundation for regulatory decision-making.
“How can such an agent be useful? Most importantly, it provides contextualized information rather than the static market picture we are accustomed to. Today, analyzing a market ‘at a particular moment’ is no longer sufficient—the moment itself hardly exists anymore. In the industrial era, change occurred relatively slowly; today, conditions evolve continuously. While we are holding this session, a new AI model could be released and immediately affect competitive dynamics. That is why regulators need to be not in the moment, but in the flow of change. Existing analytical frameworks are not yet fully equipped for this reality. At the same time, technology already allows us to move to a new level of competition analysis, and AI agents are, in our view, among the most effective tools for achieving this.”
Ivanov also argued that such tools could help address the challenge of stimulating SME development and creating more competitive, decentralized markets—an objective reflected throughout the Eurasian Economic Union’s strategic documents.
Nazgul Bazhayeva, Director of the Department of Artificial Intelligence and Data Governance of the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan, spoke about the implementation of AI agents across government agencies.
“The National AI Platform was launched this year and serves as a development environment for creating AI agents. More than 120 government databases have already been integrated into the platform, enabling public authorities to build their own AI agents. To date, more than 50 such agents have been created. One example is eGov AI, a personal assistant for accessing public services, which has already processed over two million requests and inquiries.”
In the photo: Maxim Yermalovich © Eurasian Economic Commission
Artificial intelligence is both an object of regulation and an effective enforcement tool for competition authorities, emphasized Maxim Yermalovich, Member of the Board (Minister) for Competition and Antitrust Regulation of the Eurasian Economic Commission.
“Analyzing ecosystems, detecting algorithmic collusion, and identifying signs of hidden coordination are tasks that require significant resources when carried out using traditional methods. Neural networks are effective at finding publicly available facts and aggregating information, but meaningful antitrust enforcement remains impossible without data verification and the expertise of regulators.”
In the photo: Grigory Radionov © Eurasian Economic Commission
Yermalovich’s view was echoed by Yerlan Alzhan, Deputy Chairman of the Agency for Protection and Development of Competition of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Grigory Radionov, Deputy Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation, who shared their experience using AI technologies to detect anticompetitive practices, including in public procurement.
“In 2025, 21% of cartels uncovered in public tenders were identified using information from the GIS ‘Anti-Cartel’ system. By May 2026, that share had reached nearly 40%,”
Radionov reported.
In the photo: Elena Zaeva © Eurasian Economic Commission
Elena Zayeva, Director for Government Relations at Ozon, described how the marketplace uses AI to combat unfair practices, fraud, and consumer deception. Ozon processes more than 100 orders per second, offers around 400 million products, hosts 750,000 sellers, and serves approximately 67 million customers annually. AI is used for content moderation, fake review detection, customer support automation, warehouse operations, and helping sellers create content, generate visual materials, and analyze sales performance.
Alexia Vaverou, Head of Legal Affairs at the Competition and Consumer Commission of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), presented the organization’s approach to AI regulation across its 21 member states. She highlighted the adoption in December of the COMESA Competition and Consumer Protection Regulations 2025, which establish conditions for the development of AI and digital platforms while ensuring user data protection and preventing unfair practices.
V Eurasian Economic Forum took place in Astana, Kazakhstan, on May 28–29, 2026, as part of the Republic of Kazakhstan's 2026 chairmanship in the Eurasian Economic Union's governing bodies. The event is focused on involving heads of large, small and medium-sized businesses from the Member States and third countries, heads and representatives of the EAEU countries' public authorities as well as heads and cabinet officers of third countries, representatives of international organizations interested in developing interaction within the Union.
