Key takeaways
- Generative AI could affect up to 300 million jobs worldwide (Goldman Sachs).
- Only about 10% of Pakistan's graduates have market-relevant IT skills (World Bank).
- India plans to train two million workers in emerging technologies by 2026.
- Weak cyber governance and data protection leave Pakistan exposed to AI-enabled fraud.
- Talent, governance and public-sector adoption are the three pillars proposed.
In this Minute Mirror column (December 2025), Dr. Ghulam Mohey-ud-din asks whether Pakistan is ready for artificial intelligence, and warns that the country has a history of arriving late to technological shifts.
The argument
Pakistan lagged during industrialisation, globalisation and the IT boom, and each delay left a generational disadvantage. AI will move faster. Goldman Sachs estimates that generative AI could affect up to 300 million full-time jobs worldwide, and the column expects disruption in Pakistan’s logistics, manufacturing, textiles, retail, finance and call centres within a decade.
The skills base is not ready. The World Bank’s human capital review found only about 10 percent of Pakistani graduates with market-relevant IT skills, and teaching still rewards memorisation over analysis. By contrast, India aims to train two million workers in emerging technologies by 2026. Low-value freelancing, the author argues, cannot carry long-term development; the aim should be high-value AI products and services.
Security is another gap. Weak cyber governance and the absence of modern data-protection law leave citizens and institutions exposed to deepfakes and AI-enabled fraud. The public sector, meanwhile, could use AI to cut losses in tax collection, utilities and service delivery if bureaucratic obstacles were removed.
What needs to change
- Talent: redesign curricula, fund upskilling, create dedicated AI institutes and support private certification.
- Governance: modern cybersecurity institutions, AI-ethics rules and comprehensive data-protection law.
- Adoption: use AI in taxation, policing, health, agriculture and transport with measurable benefits for citizens.
- AI innovation zones, R&D incentives and structured links with the Pakistani diaspora.