Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming one of the biggest opportunities for countries seeking to expand their digital economies. Pakistan is also aiming to make AI a major part of its technology and export strategy, but the country faces a basic challenge: the infrastructure needed to support widespread AI use is still developing.
A recent World Bank assessment points to gaps in mobile broadband and electricity access as important obstacles. At the same time, Pakistan has a growing technology workforce, rising IT exports and ambitious plans to invest in artificial intelligence.
AI Ambitions Meet Infrastructure Reality
Pakistan wants to establish itself as a destination for AI-related services, particularly by using its large pool of young and technically trained workers.
However, advanced AI applications require more than skilled people. They depend on reliable internet connections, consistent electricity, computing capacity and access to relevant digital information.
Pakistan’s mobile broadband penetration remains below what the World Bank would expect given the country’s income level. This means that while internet access is widespread enough to support a growing digital economy, the depth and quality of connectivity remain concerns.
For AI adoption, having an internet connection is only the starting point. Workers and businesses need connections capable of supporting cloud applications, data-intensive services and continuous digital operations.
Electricity Could Limit Digital Growth
Power availability presents another challenge.
According to the World Bank, electricity access in Pakistan covers approximately 95.7% of the population. This is a significant achievement, but it still leaves millions of people without access.
Reliable electricity is especially important for the digital economy. Telecom networks, data centers, computers and AI infrastructure all require stable power.
Even where electricity connections exist, reliability and continuity can influence how effectively individuals and businesses can use digital technologies.
Closing the remaining electricity gap could therefore play an important role in expanding access to AI and other advanced technologies.
Pakistan Has a Strong Human Resource Base
Infrastructure challenges are only one side of the story. Pakistan also has a potentially valuable asset: its technology workforce.
The country produces around 75,000 IT graduates annually, creating a steady supply of young professionals who can potentially work in software development, data science, AI and other technology-related fields.
Pakistan’s digital services industry is also expanding. ICT services exports reached around $4.6 billion in FY2025-26, demonstrating the country’s growing participation in the global technology market.
This existing export base gives Pakistan an opportunity to move toward higher-value AI services rather than relying primarily on traditional IT outsourcing.
Government Plans Major AI Investment
Pakistan is also attempting to build a stronger national AI ecosystem through significant investment.
The country’s AI programmed is expected to involve approximately $1 billion through 2030. Its objectives include expanding computing infrastructure, developing a locally focused multilingual AI model and increasing the number of highly trained AI specialists.
The programmed also includes plans for 1,000 AI PhD scholarships and AI training for one million people outside the traditional IT sector.
The emphasis on non-technical workers is particularly important. AI is increasingly becoming relevant to areas such as banking, agriculture, healthcare, education, manufacturing and public administration.
AI Adoption Is Already Underway
Pakistan is not starting from zero when it comes to artificial intelligence.
The World Bank’s analysis of usage data from Anthropic’s Claude platform found that Pakistan had the highest absolute number of conversations among MENAAP economies.
Much of this activity, however, is concentrated in creative and media-related fields. Graphic design, content generation and translation are among the areas where AI usage is particularly visible.
This pattern may be linked to Pakistan’s large freelance community and its participation in global online work platforms.
The next challenge is to broaden AI adoption across more industries and move from simply using AI tools to redesigning business processes around them.
Urdu Needs Greater Representation
Another obstacle is language.
Much of the world’s AI training material is dominated by English and a handful of other widely represented languages. Urdu, despite being spoken by a large population, has a comparatively small digital footprint.
The World Bank reports that Urdu represented just 0.03% of global URLs collected by Common Crawl in July 2026.
Its share was higher in some open-source AI datasets, reaching around 0.6% on Hugging Face, but it remains far below English.
Limited training data can affect how accurately AI systems understand and generate a language. This can reduce the usefulness of AI tools for people who primarily communicate in Urdu.
Developing more high-quality Urdu digital content could therefore become an important part of Pakistan’s AI strategy.
Why “Small AI” Could Matter
Not every AI application requires powerful computers and high-speed internet.
The World Bank highlights the potential of what it calls “small AI”—lightweight applications designed to operate with limited computing power, lower bandwidth and intermittent connectivity.
Such solutions could potentially work through basic smartphones, SMS, voice systems or offline applications.
For Pakistan, this could provide a practical way to bring AI services to communities that are not fully connected to high-speed digital infrastructure.
Localized AI applications could also be particularly useful in areas such as agriculture, education, healthcare and public services.
Bridging the AI Divide
Pakistan’s AI challenge is ultimately about more than building sophisticated technology.
The country needs to ensure that the underlying infrastructure allows ordinary workers, businesses and communities to benefit from it.
That means expanding reliable broadband, improving electricity access, increasing digital and AI skills, building local-language datasets and encouraging businesses to adopt AI beyond a handful of creative occupations.
These areas are interconnected. Weak connectivity can limit AI use, insufficient skills can prevent businesses from benefiting from available technology, and limited local-language data can make AI less useful for large sections of the population.
Turning Potential Into Economic Growth
Pakistan has several ingredients that could support an expanding AI economy: a large young workforce, tens of thousands of IT graduates every year, a growing technology export industry and increasing interest in AI.
But these advantages will only translate into broad economic gains if the infrastructure keeps pace.
The World Bank’s assessment highlights both sides of Pakistan’s AI story. The country has the talent and ambition to participate in the global AI economy, but broadband, electricity and localization gaps could determine how widely those benefits reach.
For Pakistan, the next phase of the AI journey will therefore be about building the foundations as well as the technology. If infrastructure, skills and local-language capabilities improve together, AI could become an important new source of digital exports, productivity and employment.