ForteBank Invited Datathon’26 Participants to Solve a Real Business Case Using AI

ForteBank served as the General Sponsor of Datathon’26 and presented participants with its own business case, challenging them to develop solutions based on data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Within 24 hours, students and young professionals delivered projects that were evaluated by the Bank’s experts.
The competition took place on October 17–18 at Nazarbayev University, bringing together 830 participants in 275 teams from universities and cities across Kazakhstan. Following the selection stage, 186 teams submitted their projects, 27 of which advanced to the final and presented their solutions to the jury.
“For us, Datathon is an opportunity to see how young professionals approach real-world business challenges using data and artificial intelligence. It was important to assess not only the technical side of the projects, but also how well the proposed solutions addressed the task at hand and whether they could be implemented in practice and scaled. Competitions like this allow participants to test their knowledge in conditions close to real work, while giving businesses the chance to discover new ideas and promising talent,” said Nurzhan Smailov, Chief Data and AI Officer ForteBank.
Datathon’26 was organized by the NU Data Science Club, a student organization, with the support of the NU Impact Foundation. According to club president Amina Baizak, ForteBank’s support helped participants gain a better understanding of business requirements and receive feedback from financial sector experts.
As the General Sponsor of Datathon’26, ForteBank gave young professionals the opportunity to gain hands-on experience, showcase their skills, and exchange ideas with industry experts. Initiatives of this kind help strengthen ties between the academic community and the business sector.