Artificial Intelligence · Azerbaijan
AI regulation in Azerbaijan: laws & policy (2026)
Azerbaijan shaded by its artificial intelligence status
AI in Azerbaijan: sectoral rules, anchored by Artificial Intelligence Strategy of the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2025-2028 (Presidential Decree No. 530, 19 March 2025); Ministry of Digital Development and Transport; AZS ISO/IEC 42001:2025 national AI management standard; Criminal Code amendments on AI-generated deepfakes (2026).
Azerbaijan does not yet have a comprehensive horizontal AI law, but has enacted a national AI Strategy by presidential decree (March 2025) mandating a dedicated legal framework by 2027, adopted ISO-based AI management standards, and passed sectoral Criminal Code amendments criminalising non-consensual AI-generated deepfakes and synthetic media. The overall regulatory architecture remains under construction, with the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport tasked with drafting binding AI legislation.
Key points
President Ilham Aliyev signed Presidential Decree No. 530 on 19 March 2025, approving the Artificial Intelligence Strategy of the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2025-2028. The strategy covers AI governance, data infrastructure, talent development, and business environment, and explicitly mandates development of a dedicated legislative framework by 2027.
Draft amendments to the Criminal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, and information-protection and media laws were introduced to the National Assembly on 17 March 2026 and subsequently passed in a third reading. The law criminalises creation or distribution of non-consensual AI-generated likeness/voice content with penalties of up to 3-7 years' imprisonment and mandates visible AI-watermark labels on synthetic media.
The Azerbaijan Standardization Institute (AZSTAND) adopted AZS ISO/IEC 42001:2025 (AI Management System), AZS ISO/IEC 23894:2025 (AI Risk Management Guidelines), AZS ISO/IEC 23053:2025 (ML Framework), and AZS ISO/IEC 24029-2:2025 (Neural Network Resilience Evaluation), providing technical conformity benchmarks ahead of binding legislation.
The 2025-2028 Strategy action plan assigns the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport, Ministry of Economy, State Security Service, and Special Communication and Information Security State Service joint responsibility for drafting a standalone AI law. No such comprehensive law is in force as of May 2026; the target deadline is 2027.
As of mid-2026, Azerbaijan has no single competent authority for AI oversight. Regulatory coordination responsibilities are distributed across the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport and other ministries under the strategy's governance pillar, pending establishment of a formal institutional structure.
A parallel 2025-2027 Digital ID and Government Strategy (also approved by presidential decree, January 2025) provides the e-government infrastructure backdrop for AI deployment in public services, reinforcing the government's intent to institutionalise AI as part of a post-oil economic diversification agenda.
Timeline - major decisions & events
President Aliyev signed a decree creating the National Cybersecurity Agency under the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport with an expanded remit covering AI-system security, critical-infrastructure resilience, personal-data protection, and enforcement against prohibited online content, directly relevant to overseeing AI deployments.
Ministry of Digital Development and Transport, Azerbaijan ↗President Aliyev simultaneously established a Digital Development Council (chaired by First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva) and signed the three-year Action Plan that makes a National Supercomputer Centre, a regulatory sandbox for proven AI solutions, 'Government Cloud' migration, and Digital Nomad/Talent visas binding state targets.
Ministry of Digital Development and Transport, Azerbaijan ↗State ICT operator AzInTelecom inaugurated the first national supercomputer centre, providing domestic high-performance compute for government AI projects; the Ministry of Agriculture became an early user, reducing dependence on foreign cloud infrastructure for sensitive state data.
Azernews ↗The Ministry of Digital Development and Transport officially launched the AI Academy, operated under AZCON holding, to train AI specialists with all tuition state-funded; the opening also featured a prototype large language model trained on 10 billion tokens, operationalising the workforce pillar of the 2025-2028 AI Strategy.
Ministry of Digital Development and Transport, Azerbaijan ↗President Aliyev approved Azerbaijan's first national AI strategy, mandating a dedicated AI legal framework by 2027, a regulatory sandbox, high-performance computing investment, an AI Academy, and regional-hub ambitions; the decree acknowledged that no specific AI law existed at enactment and set a combined EU-US approach as the model for future regulation.
Digital Watch Observatory (citing Presidential Decree No. 530, 19 March 2025) ↗The Azerbaijan Standardization Institute adopted AZS ISO/IEC 42001:2025, aligning the country with international norms on AI risk management, transparency, and ethics for organisations designing or deploying AI systems; adoption was explicitly linked to implementing the AI Strategy.
APA (Azerbaijani state news agency) ↗The Azerbaijan Standardization Institute adopted national equivalents of ISO/IEC TR 24028 (trustworthiness in AI) and ISO/IEC TR 24372 (computational approaches for AI systems), providing the first technical reference standards for AI developers and public procurers operating in Azerbaijan.
Azernews ↗Azerbaijan approved its first dedicated cybersecurity strategy, assigning responsibilities to the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport, Electronic Security Service, and State Security Service; provisions on critical-infrastructure protection and personal-data security now form the baseline governance layer for AI system security pending the planned 2027 AI law.
APA (Azerbaijani state news agency, reporting official presidential decree) ↗Azerbaijan enacted its primary personal-data law, establishing data-subject rights (including rights against automated decision-making), written-consent requirements, and criminal penalties of up to seven years' imprisonment for serious breaches; it remains the principal statute governing data processing in AI systems until the planned sector-specific AI law is enacted.
ILO NATLEX (official text of Law No. 998-IIIQ) ↗Azerbaijan - other topics
Artificial Intelligence in other countries
Last verified 5/24/2026 · Orientation, not legal advice - verify against the primary sources linked above. Methodology & how to cite · Explore the full world map →