IN a historic move, Pakistan’s federal cabinet approved the country’s first National Artificial Intelligence Policy in July 2025.
Framed as a transformative blueprint to catapult Pakistan into the digital future, the policy promises sweeping reforms, from training one million AI professionals by 2030 to launching 1,000 local AI products and embedding artificial intelligence across public services, agriculture, health, education and governance. The vision is bold, inclusive and economically ambitious, projecting a 7 to 12 percent increase in national GDP and 3.5 million new AI-linked jobs by the end of the decade.
Yet as the ink dries on the policy document, a wave of skepticism has emerged. Experts, technologists, educators and digital rights advocates are increasingly asking whether the aspirations of this policy are grounded in Pakistan’s socio-economic and technological realities. Beneath the ambitious targets and polished prose, many detect a critical gap between imagination and implementation.
The National AI Policy outlines six strategic pillars: innovation ecosystem, awareness and readiness, secure AI environment, transformation and evolution across sectors, AI infrastructure and international partnerships. It commits to establishing Centres of Excellence in major cities, funding 3,000 AI scholarships annually, certifying 200,000 professionals per year and supporting 1,000 AI research projects. Additionally, it proposes launching an AI Innovation Fund and a Venture Fund to spur startups and product development. The inclusion of women and persons with disabilities as specific beneficiaries of training and certification efforts is lauded as a move toward digital equity.
Furthermore, the policy emphasizes ethical AI deployment, data sovereignty and the development of a local Large Language Model (LLM) tailored to Pakistani languages and cultural nuances. Governance is to be handled by a National AI Council with input from academia, industry, civil society and global partners such as UNESCO, Google and the Asian Development Bank. On paper, Pakistan is setting the stage to become a serious player in the global AI landscape.
Despite the lofty goals, significant challenges loom. Pakistan suffers from chronic infrastructure deficits, including unreliable electricity, limited internet coverage an insufficient computational power. AI development, particularly at the scale envisioned in the policy, demands not only a skilled workforce but also a backbone of high-performance computing, cloud storage and accessible datasets. Without substantial investment in this hardware ecosystem, the AI dream may remain a digital mirage. Technologists and researchers warn that Pakistan’s current digital infrastructure cannot sustain large AI model training or widespread AI-enabled services, with unreliable internet and power supply hindering progress. Online discussions among IT professionals reflect doubts, citing the lack of basic utilities. Additionally, the policy’s governance framework is expected to clash with bureaucratic inefficiencies, as civil services remain paper-based and ill-prepared for a fast-evolving technological agenda. Critics contend the document is heavy on buzzwords yet light on actionable plans, raising concerns that without addressing these foundational issues, the National AI Policy’s ambitious vision may remain aspirational rather than achievable.
A major concern raised by digital rights experts is the weak ethical and regulatory framework surrounding AI deployment in Pakistan. While the policy nods to the importance of transparency, accountability and ethical safeguards, it lacks a robust mechanism for enforcing these principles. Given the global debates around AI bias, surveillance and misinformation, Pakistan’s regulatory lag could lead to serious consequences.
In fact, recent reporting by international media has highlighted the proliferation of low-quality AI-generated content—often referred to as “AI slop”—within Pakistan’s digital landscape. This includes misleading videos, fake news and manipulated images circulated across social media platforms. The absence of comprehensive laws governing AI-generated content means that misinformation can spread unchecked, eroding public trust and undermining the credibility of the government’s AI initiatives.
Digital rights advocates have called for immediate legislative action to address data privacy, algorithmic accountability and the misuse of AI in political and social contexts. Without such guardrails, the very tools that are being promoted as engines of progress could become vectors of division and exploitation. Another fault line lies within Pakistan’s education system, which is structurally unprepared to produce the kind of talent needed for a thriving AI ecosystem. The rote-learning model prevalent in schools and universities does not encourage critical thinking, problem-solving, or interdisciplinary learning—all of which are essential for AI innovation.
While the policy envisions training one million AI professionals and certifying 200,000 individuals annually, educators argue that the pipeline simply does not exist. Many private institutions focus more on profitability than pedagogy and public universities suffer from underfunding and outdated curricula. Without foundational reforms in the education sector, the human resource targets of the AI policy may be unattainable.
Digital literacy remains a critical concern, particularly in rural and underserved areas where access to basic digital tools is limited. Without a comprehensive strategy to bridge this divide, AI’s benefits risk concentrating in urban centers, deepening inequalities. While the National AI Policy is a commendable step toward digital modernization—envisioning technology as a catalyst for economic growth, inclusion and governance reform—realizing this vision requires grounded planning, infrastructure investment, institutional reform and robust regulation.
Policymakers must avoid treating AI as a cure-all for complex socio-economic challenges, instead adopting a phased, localized approach focused on sectors like agriculture, health diagnostics and public service delivery. Building public trust through transparency, ethical governance and stakeholder engagement is equally vital. International partnerships should be pursued not only for funding or technology transfer but also to strengthen institutional capacity and regulatory expertise. Pakistan can lead regionally in AI, but only with sustained, pragmatic action matching its policy ambitions.
—The writer is a senior media academic, former Dean of Mass Communication at Beaconhouse National University and University of Central Punjab, and currently a Professor at the University of Central Punjab.
