Yandex Türkiye rolls out AI travel, finance tools as it eyes Istanbul ride-hailing push

Yandex Türkiye has launched a wave of summer updates, unveiling new artificial intelligence-powered tools for finance, travel planning, and search functionality as part of a broader effort to expand its digital services and strengthen its footprint in Türkiye's growing mobility and tech sectors.

The new services, dubbed Yandex Travel and Yandex Finance, aim to help users seamlessly plan vacations or business trips and monitor financial data in real time.

Integrated into the company’s search engine Yazeka and response tool Yandex Cevap, the updates also include a new “Reasoning Mode,” which enables users to receive deeper, more structured answers based on broader information sources.

- 'Ride-hailing sector in Istanbul could support up to ten times more taxis'

Yandex Türkiye CEO and Yandex Search International Chief Executive Alexander Popovskiy outlined the company’s growing ambitions in Türkiye, particularly in mobility and smart services.

Popovskiy said although the ride-hailing market in Türkiye holds significant potential, the services currently offered remain insufficient, and that liberalizing the sector would bring numerous benefits.

“We have always been saying that the Turkish market is significantly underserved in terms of ride-hailing, in terms of taxi services. We believe that the market will benefit a lot from liberalization. The current regulation is very strict. Supply is very limited. It is sensible in such cities like Istanbul,” Popovskiy told Anadolu.

Popovskiy said the ride-hailing sector in Istanbul could support up to ten times more taxis than currently operate, citing the company’s experience in other major global cities. He estimates the market’s financial value could grow fivefold if properly liberalized.

“Our idea is to make it in a way that the whole ecosystem benefits — not only users, not only applications like ourselves, but also, of course, drivers and parked car fleet owners,” he said. “Everybody should win from this liberalization.”

“Our current strategy — before this liberalization comes to market — is to gain experience in places like Ankara, Izmir and Antalya,” he added. “Istanbul is a real diamond from a ride-hailing perspective, not just in Türkiye but globally. So we will be really careful coming here.”

Popovskiy confirmed Yandex Go recently received a license from Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality to provide electronic services — a key step toward entering the city’s competitive ride-hailing market.

Beyond mobility, Popovskiy said Yandex is also pushing forward with innovations in online travel and financial services.

Yandex Travel, the company’s new planning tool, allows users to compare hotel and flight prices from multiple partners.

Popovskiy said the company plans to expand the service to include other transportation modes such as buses. The ultimate goal, he said, is to embed artificial intelligence into the travel experience.

“Our next milestone will be to integrate AI more into this scenario,” he said. “We believe that current traditional representations of hotels and flights will be replaced by a more chat-like experience, further developed with technology.”

Popovskiy invited Turkish data providers, hotel chains, integrators and ticketing services to partner with Yandex, emphasizing that the platform’s API is simple and open to new collaborations.

- Yazeka will be able to create in-depth responses with 'Reasoning Mode'

Meanwhile, Yandex Finance Türkiye has been designed specifically for local users, offering access to currency exchange rates, stock prices, cryptocurrency updates and economic news — all powered by AI.

“Yandex Finance Türkiye is pretty unique,” said Popovskiy. “There are similar finance verticals in other markets, but they are not as comprehensive as the Yandex experience in Türkiye.”

He added that the company is working to further integrate Yandex Finance with Yazeka, potentially enabling it to deliver financial recommendations in the future.

Popovskiy also offered insights into the rising popularity of Yazeka, Yandex’s answer engine, which he said is now used in nearly one in four search requests in Türkiye.

Yandex Cevap has been created, Popovskiy said describing it as an “encyclopedia of verified answers.”

The platform’s newest feature, Reasoning Mode, is designed to provide more in-depth responses by tapping into a broader set of sources.

“With internet search, you should always remember the balance between quality and speed,” Popovskiy explained. “If you want a more comprehensive answer, you just click one button. And then Yazeka starts thinking more deeply about your request.”

Picturing the future of Yazeka, Popovskiy said: “Hopefully Yazeka will have its own separate application, and maybe its own personality.”