ISLAMABAD, Aug 28 (APP): Pakistan is planning to launch regulatory sandboxes to allow enterprises to safely test and experiment with artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
According to Ministry of Information Technology documents available with Wealth Pakistan, at least 50 companies are expected to benefit from these controlled testing environments by 2027.
The sandboxes are part of the government’s broader AI infrastructure strategy and a major step towards strengthening the country’s AI ecosystem.
The regulatory sandboxes will be coordinated through Centres of Excellence (CoEs), which will provide companies with a safe space for innovation and help align regulations more flexibly.
The strategy places a strong focus on compute, data, and connectivity. At its core is the creation of a national AI compute grid, built on a network of High-Performance Computing (HPC) centres equipped with specialised AI hardware.
Industry-led data centres will also provide compute resources to drive research, development, and adoption across multiple sectors.
These resources will be made available to more than 100 academic institutions across the country, enabling large-scale AI experiments, training of advanced models, and processing of massive datasets.
The government also plans to set up national and provincial AI data repositories, ensuring centralised, high-quality datasets that meet both industry and academic standards. This will particularly benefit sector-specific AI applications and innovation.
The policy further outlines the establishment of AI hubs in major cities, designed to act as innovation ecosystems connecting academia with industry, while supporting AI research and commercialisation.
It also promotes the use of cloud and open-source AI platforms, urging industry players to rely on public cloud services and contribute to shared AI resources. In addition, Pakistan aims to partner with global AI initiatives to develop around 50 new AI models annually, strengthening domestic accessibility to AI data and models while ensuring international collaboration.
Together, these measures reflect Pakistan’s strong commitment to building a robust AI ecosystem by investing in technology, data, and innovation frameworks, ultimately aiming to place the country on the global AI map.
