We live in an era of technology where the AI race has become a global race. In Pakistan, we often hear that AI will eat up jobs. What is the reality, and where does Pakistan stand in this global scenario? It is important to examine this.
According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, by 2030, 170 million new jobs will be created in the world, while 92 million jobs will be eliminated or completely transformed. Thus, there will be a net increase of 78 million jobs. According to the report, 39% of current skills will become obsolete and will be replaced by new skills such as AI, Big Data, and Cybersecurity. According to the WEF, 85% of employers consider upskilling and 77% consider retraining of their employees essential.
That is why countries around the world are preparing themselves for the future with their national AI strategies. The United States started with the National AI R&D Plan in 2016 and today OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft are at the forefront of the global race. China set a goal in 2017 to lead the world in technology by 2030, with a focus on manufacturing and smart cities. Europe has regulated the responsible use of AI through the EU AI Act, while the UK emphasized the safe use of AI through the first AI Safety Summit in 2023.
In our region, India has included AI in its national development goals through the National Strategy for AI and the IndiaAI Mission. According to the WEF, India is prominent alongside the US in Generative AI training. Singapore has linked AI with continuous reskilling through its National AI Strategy 2.0 and SkillsFuture model. Similarly, South Korea is advancing in AI chips, Japan in Care Robotics, and Vietnam with its own national strategy, while in the Middle East, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are also working on major AI projects.
Where does Pakistan stand in this global race? Pakistan presented its Draft National AI Policy in 2023, which was a good start. At the practical level, two important developments have recently taken place.
First, Pakistan’s first purpose-built AI data center “Sky47 Karakoram-01” has been inaugurated. This project was completed by Mari Technologies in collaboration with ZTE in just 8 months. It is located in the Silicon Village (STZA Zone) of Capital Smart City and provides 99.982% uptime according to Tier-III standards. Its current capacity is 8.5 megawatts, which will be increased to 50 megawatts and more than 3,000 racks. This is important because it will provide the capability to keep sensitive data of banks, startups, and government institutions secure within the country (Sovereign Cloud). The company is now building new data centers in Karachi at Port Qasim under the name Indus-01 and also in Lahore. Along with the AI workload data center equipped with Nvidia chips in Karachi and the existing data centers of PTCL and NTC, a strong ecosystem is being built.
But some challenges still exist. First, the curriculum of our universities is still lagging behind the pace of the industry; we will have to include skills like Prompt Engineering and MLOps in the curriculum. Second, the use of AI in banking and textiles is limited, and small businesses need low-cost AI solutions.
Pakistan’s biggest asset is its 60% young population. If their upskilling and reskilling is done in a timely manner, AI will not be a threat for us but can become the biggest opportunity to move the economy forward.