The Complete Guide to Using AI as a HR Professional in Turkey in 2025

Turkey's HR landscape in 2025 is a fast-moving mix of opportunity and urgency: positioned literally:

at the crossroads between Europe and Asia,

businesses face rising wages, new remote-work rules, and a workforce that must be reskilled quickly as automation and digitization reshape roles (a reported 50% automation potential in some sectors).

AI isn't a distant trend - it's already trimming HR costs and scaling recruiting, onboarding, analytics and learning programs - with studies showing major cost and efficiency gains when AI is applied to talent acquisition and workforce planning.

Academic research on

artificial intelligence-based human resources practices

shows growing, practical uses of machine learning, NLP and computer vision in Turkish firms and calls for closer AI–HR collaboration to turn pilots into measurable impact.

For HR teams that need hands-on skills (prompts, tools, workflows), practical training such as the AI Essentials for Work bootcamp can make adopting these technologies less risky and far more strategic for 2025.

Bootcamp	Length	Early bird cost	Registration
AI Essentials for Work	15 Weeks	$3,582	Register for AI Essentials for Work (15-week bootcamp)

Practical AI for HR teams in Turkey is already less about sci‑fi and more about everyday wins: generative and conversational systems can draft clearer job specs and personalised outreach to speed sourcing, synthetise multi‑source feedback into a first‑pass performance review for human refinement, and power chatbots that speed onboarding by verifying documents and delivering tailored induction content; these uses mirror global HR trends and are directly relevant as Turkish businesses demand Turkish‑language models and localized solutions.

Recruiters benefit most in large skill pools - AI helps tag skills over credentials and surface internal talent for mobility - while learning platforms can map career paths and recommend micro‑learning to close those gaps.

For operations, AI reduces routine workload (think fast responses to common IT or HR queries) so HR can focus on coaching and strategy, and market data shows a growing local ecosystem and investment: enterprises are integrating generative AI across hiring, learning, and workforce intelligence even as vendors and consultancies in Turkey scale localization and governance.

Imagine a newly hired call‑centre rep reaching 80–90% of full proficiency because an AI assistant puts institutional knowledge at their fingertips - that concrete lift makes the “so what?” obvious.

For practical next steps, explore how generative AI in HR can draft recruiter‑facing artefacts and pilot Turkish‑language models while keeping the human in the loop and governance front and centre.

Metric	Value (USD)
Turkey generative AI market (2024)	$128.16 Million
Market forecast (2033)	$546.31 Million
Projected CAGR (2025–2033)	17.48%

“A chatbot may not take your job - but it will almost certainly change it.”

AI is changing recruitment in Turkey from a time‑consuming slog into a speedier, more targeted process: AI-driven resume screening and skill‑matching tools quickly surface candidates with the right skills, chatbots keep applicants informed 24/7, and sourcing engines mine social channels to reach passive talent - strategies laid out in Qureos' Top Hiring Trends in Turkey (2025) and the broader playbook in TechForing's AI in Talent Acquisition.

For Turkish HR teams that screen hundreds (or thousands) of applications, the

“first sift”

becomes an actionable shortlist in minutes, freeing recruiters to build relationships and assess cultural fit; employers should still pilot tools with human oversight, audit for bias, and localize workflows and language support so recommendations reflect Turkish job titles, labour rules and candidate expectations.

Practical wins include shifting to skills‑based job ads, automating interview scheduling to reduce time‑to‑offer, and using conversational AI to improve candidate experience across Instagram and LinkedIn where 57.5 million Turks are already active.

Start small - test AI resume screening on one role, measure time‑to‑hire and candidate satisfaction, then scale the tools that demonstrably raise quality of hire rather than simply speed.

Learn more in Qureos' hiring guide and TechForing's deep dive on AI recruiting best practices.

Metric	Value	Source
Unemployment Rate (Jan 2025)	8.4%	Qureos
Social Media Users (2024)	57.5 million (66.8% of population)	Qureos
Labour Force	36.15 million	Qureos
Companies using AI in recruitment (2025)	87%	TechForing

Onboarding in Turkey is shifting from paperwork and one‑off meetings to automated, measurable journeys that get new hires productive on day one: AI chatbots and generative agents handle routine questions and build knowledge bases, workflow automation sequences trigger tasks and approvals, and automated QA + reporting spot learning gaps so managers can coach where it matters most - a playbook summarized in Zendesk's guide to onboarding automation with AI and automation.

Security and compliance are non‑negotiable in TR, so combine automated “joiner” functionality and role‑based provisioning (Okta, Azure AD, SailPoint examples discussed in the TURCOMAT study) to enforce least‑privilege access and avoid day‑one delays (Turcomat study on automated joiner functionality and role‑based provisioning).

Local vendors matter: a growing Turkish market offers tailored onboarding platforms that respect KVKK and language needs - see a directory of KVKK-compliant onboarding software providers in Turkey.

The practical result is vivid: imagine a new contact‑centre rep logging in, receiving role‑based access automatically, practising with an AI call simulation and getting instant, scored feedback - all before their first live customer interaction, turning onboarding into a consistent, scalable experience rather than a gamble.

Vendor (Turkey)	Core focus
SOFT İş Çözümleri (SOFT)	SOFTEASY® modular onboarding for start‑ups
PeopleBox	SaaS HR tech: recruitment, assessments, onboarding
Techsign	Document, identity & biometric verification (KYC)
Sorwe	Digital HRM with people analytics and culture‑first onboarding

“We have multiple types of employees. We have an office employee, union employees, and we have a hybrid union employees. Rival has been able to create different pathways for all of these different types of employees.” - David Pelayo, Director of Technology & HR

Performance management in Turkey is shifting from yearly ratings to continuous, AI‑enabled coaching that turns signals into action: AI can aggregate real‑time feedback, flag early disengagement, and recommend personalised learning pathways so managers coach higher‑impact behaviours instead of filling forms - a shift backed by global trends and local vendors who are scaling quickly.

Mercer reports 32% of companies are considering AI‑enabled continuous feedback in 2025, while F4e's work in Turkey shows how structured 1:1s, AI‑supported feedback and goal‑alignment reduce churn and raise sustainable performance; practical wins include automated nudges to keep goals current, predictive alerts for retention risk, and AI summaries that free managers to focus on development conversations.

Local momentum matters: F4e recently closed funding to expand its AI platform in Turkey, signalling vendor maturity and faster adoption for Turkish HR teams that want measurable lifts in engagement and skill growth.

For HR leaders, the clear play is to pilot AI for continuous feedback, tie learning recommendations to performance gaps, and measure whether coaching time increases while administrative load falls.

Metric	Value	Source
Companies considering AI-enabled continuous feedback	32%	Mercer report on performance management and AI (2025)
Employees who can maintain high performance across cycles	2%	F4e performance management best practices (Turkey, 2025)
Burnout cost per employee (annual)	$4,000–$21,000	F4e analysis on burnout and performance (2025)
FLO Group: satisfaction & performance uplift using AI tools	+12%	F4e case study: FLO Group AI tools impact
F4e investment to scale AI platform in Turkey	$1M	F4e press release: $1M investment to scale AI platform in Turkey

“Our mission is to enable any level of company manager to focus their team on excellence.” - İrem Yelkenci, Co‑Founder & CEO, F4e

For Turkish HR teams, AI is fast becoming the backbone of reliable payroll, finance and compliance operations: AI-driven automation reduces manual entry and errors, while predictive analytics helps forecast payroll costs and spot anomalies before they become pay-day headaches - points well explained in Zalaris' trends guide on payroll in 2025.

Practical wins for Turkey include automated collection of time and attendance, live syncing of benefits and tax rules, and chatbots that answer payslip queries in Turkish, all use cases described in Employment Hero's breakdown of how AI will change payroll; these tools also help keep up with evolving rules by flagging regulatory changes and applying them automatically.

Integrated solutions that “self‑start” each period and surface pending issues let employees preview and correct problems before submission, a pattern Paycom's Beti calls a route to dramatic accuracy and time savings (Forrester-backed results cite large reductions in processing time and errors).

The result for Turkish HR is vivid and immediate: fewer late payments, faster reconciliations for companies with cross‑border teams, and less risk in compliance audits - so payroll moves from a risky, manual bottleneck into a monitored, automated service that protects employees and reduces financial liability.

Start with a narrowly scoped pilot that connects your time system, benefits feed and tax engine, measure error rates and time‑to‑close, then scale what demonstrably lowers risk and boosts trust.

“Since we've launched Beti, I'm down to 90 minutes, and that's for both salary and hourly. So huge, huge time savings.”

AI governance and ethics are frontline concerns for Turkish HR teams because Turkey is building a risk‑based framework that treats some HR tools - especially automated recruitment, assessment and scoring systems - as potentially high‑risk and therefore subject to registration, audits and human‑in‑the‑loop requirements; practical steps include KVKK‑aligned data minimisation, bias testing with representative Turkish datasets, board‑level oversight and an AI inventory that tracks where automated decisions touch hiring or payroll.

The National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (2021–2025) sets the governance scaffolding - from a Public AI Platform and regulatory sandboxes to pilot a “Trustworthy AI Seal,” to sectoral co‑creation labs coordinated by the Digital Transformation Office and the Ministry of Industry and Technology - while analysts note Turkey's approach intentionally aligns with the EU AI Act to ease cross‑border compliance.

Governance requirement	Why it matters for HR (source)
Risk‑based classification & registration	High‑risk HR tools (hiring, scoring) may require registration and audits (Nemko AI regulation guide for Turkey)
KVKK / data protection	Personal data rules, consent and minimisation are mandatory for AI processing (Nemko AI regulation guide for Turkey)
Transparency & human oversight	Automated decision duties require explainability and human review (Dataguidance Turkey AI governance overview)
Sandboxes, certification & Trustworthy AI Seal	Regulatory sandboxes and pilot certifications support safe rollout (National Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2021–2025 (Turkey))

For HR professionals this means piloting AI with documented risk assessments, certifying high‑risk systems where required, and keeping transparency duties front‑and‑centre so candidates and employees understand automated decisions; Nemko AI regulation guide for Turkey and Dataguidance Turkey AI governance overview are useful references when mapping policy to procurement and vendor audits.

Turkey's National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (NAIS 2021–2025) and its follow‑on action plan turn high‑level ambition into a concrete playbook that HR leaders need to watch: the strategy - coordinated by the Presidential Digital Transformation Office and the Ministry of Industry and Technology - lays out six strategic priorities (skills and employment, R&D and entrepreneurship, data & infrastructure, regulatory adaptation, international cooperation, and structural labour transformation) and 24 objectives with 119 measures to build an agile AI ecosystem; HR teams can expect practical infrastructure like a Public AI Platform, sectoral co‑creation laboratories and a “Trusted AI” certification to appear in procurement and pilot programs (read the full strategy at the Digital Transformation Office summary).

The 2024–2025 Action Plan updates these steps with a sharper push on generative AI and large Turkish‑language models, workforce certification and a Central Public Data Space to make anonymized public data available for safe model training - so picture a future procurement notice stamped with a Trustworthy AI seal that signals a vendor passed technical and legal audits.

For Turkish HR this means strategic opportunities to source local AI vendors, demand audited models for hiring and assessment, and align training pipelines with national occupational standards and incentives set out in the action plan.

Objective (2025 target)	Target / Value	Source
AI contribution to GDP	5%	Turkey National AI Strategy 2021–2025 (NAIS) - AI contribution to GDP
Employment in AI (total)	50,000 people	Turkey National AI Strategy 2021–2025 (NAIS) - Employment in AI
AI employment in public institutions	1,000 people	Turkey National AI Strategy 2021–2025 (NAIS) - AI employment in public institutions
New graduate diplomas in AI	10,000	Turkey National AI Strategy 2021–2025 (NAIS) - New AI graduate diplomas

“Taking part in the field of artificial intelligence is not a matter of choice... Unknowingly, we are transforming from people struggling with nature to individuals stuck between algorithms.” - Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Turn national strategy into practical steps: map every HR process that touches data, build an AI inventory and a simple risk assessment that flags hiring, scoring and payroll tools as high‑risk, then pilot one scoped use case in a regulatory sandbox or on the Public AI Platform to prove value before scaling - exactly the two‑layered, test‑and‑learn approach the Turkey National AI Strategy (NAIS 2021–2025) prescribes for public and private organisations (Turkey National AI Strategy (NAIS 2021–2025)).

Operational best practices include using sectoral co‑creation laboratories for shared data and model testing, documenting human‑in‑the‑loop checkpoints for explainability, building role‑based access and anonymised data flows to respect KVKK, and pairing pilots with clear HR KPIs (quality‑of‑hire, time‑to‑productivity, error‑rates) so success is measurable.

Invest in workforce certification and upskilling aligned to the updated action plan - whose 2024–2025 focus on generative AI and large Turkish‑language models creates new sourcing and training opportunities - and demand audited models or a pilot “Trustworthy AI” seal in procurement so a vendor tender literally signals it has passed technical and legal audits (National AI Strategy 2024–2025 Action Plan).

Start small, document outcomes, iterate, and ensure board‑level oversight so AI moves from experiment to governed HR capability that protects employees while lifting productivity; imagine a single, repeatable pilot that reduces onboarding variance across sites so every new hire reaches the same baseline of readiness - that's where strategy meets impact.

Objective (2025 target)	Target
AI contribution to GDP	5%
Employment in AI (total)	50,000 people
AI employment in public institutions	1,000 people
New graduate diplomas in AI	10,000

Final next steps for HR professionals in Turkey in 2025 are practical and immediate: map where AI would touch hiring, payroll or performance (flagging scoring, screening and payroll as high‑risk), run a tightly scoped pilot with human‑in‑the‑loop checks and KVKK‑aligned data minimisation, and invest in role‑focused upskilling so teams can evaluate vendor claims instead of accepting them on faith - concrete training options include the 15‑week, practitioner‑focused Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp (15 weeks) to learn promptcraft and applied workflows, short HR certificate courses running in Istanbul for analytics and performance topics (see the extensive Human Resource Management courses in Istanbul - BMC), or a compact, senior‑leader focused AI certification for HR & TA that combines hands‑on generative AI labs and governance modules (Cielo AI Certification for HR & TA).

Start with one measurable pilot (e.g., resume screening + candidate‑satisfaction metric or an automated onboarding flow that cuts time‑to‑productivity), measure quality‑of‑hire and error‑rates, then scale the workflows that reduce risk and boost coaching time - and remember the practical, memorable benchmark: a 15‑week applied program or a focused 10‑hour certification can move a team from curiosity to operational competence in under a business quarter.

Program	Duration	Cost (as listed)	Link
AI Essentials for Work	15 Weeks	$3,582 (early bird)	Register for Nucamp AI Essentials for Work (15 weeks)
Cielo: AI Certification for HR & TA	10 hours / 4 classes	$600	Cielo AI Certification for HR & TA
Human Resource Management courses (Istanbul)	One week (many short courses)	Varies by course	Human Resource Management courses in Istanbul - BMC