Indus AI Week 2026: Pakistan invites global partners for a national push on AI adoption
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan will host Indus AI Week 2026 from Feb. 9-15, an open, week-long initiative to move artificial intelligence from policy to implementation across government and industry. The event builds on last year's National Artificial Intelligence Policy and signals a clear message to international partners: Pakistan is ready to collaborate, invest, and ship practical AI use cases.
"With the introduction of Pakistan's National AI Policy last year, we laid the foundation for responsible and inclusive AI development," said Federal IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja. "Indus AI Week reflects our determination to take that work further by moving beyond dialogue and toward adoption."
Organized by the IT ministry through a public-private partnership, the program will convene policymakers, technology firms, startups, universities, students, investors, and the wider public. Interest is expected from across the Global South as governments look to improve productivity and skills while managing regulatory and ethical risks.
Why this matters for public sector teams
For government leaders, the week is a chance to turn AI policy into projects that save time, cut backlog, and improve service delivery. It creates direct channels between agencies, researchers, builders, and funders-so pilots can move faster and with fewer blind spots.
Program at a glance
- Indus AI Summit (Feb. 9): Opening forum at Jinnah Convention Center, Islamabad.
- Innovation & Learning Arena (Feb. 9-10): Hands-on demos, training, and certification opportunities at Islamabad Sports Complex.
- National participation (Feb. 9-15): Universities, companies, and public institutions will run parallel events across the country.
- Startup-Investor sessions: Founders get in front of capital and mentors to speed up deployment.
- Public engagement: Activities focused on translating policy into practical use cases citizens can feel.
Who should attend
- Federal and provincial secretaries, additional secretaries, and department heads
- CIOs, CDOs, and IT leads across ministries and agencies
- Program directors for health, education, finance, tax, interior, and municipal services
- Regulators, policy units, and digital transformation teams
- University leadership, research labs, and student groups
- Startups, technology firms, and investors
What government teams can do now
- Nominate a small cross-functional delegation (policy, IT, ops, legal) for the full week.
- Shortlist 2-3 high-impact use cases with clear owners (e.g., case triage, citizen support, inspections, analytics).
- Run a quick data readiness check: where data lives, access rules, quality, and privacy constraints.
- Set guardrails: ethics, bias testing, human-in-the-loop review, and audit logging.
- Prepare a one-page problem statement and success metrics for each potential pilot.
- Review procurement pathways that support pilots and sandboxes.
Sample public sector use cases
- Citizen services: AI-assisted help desks, document intake, and multilingual FAQs.
- Public finance: Anomaly detection for payments and audits; revenue analytics.
- Health and education: Triage support, scheduling, and content generation for training and outreach.
- Safety and inspections: Prioritizing field visits using risk signals from existing data.
- Back-office: Drafting, summarization, and meeting notes to cut administrative load.
Key dates and venues
- Feb. 9: Indus AI Summit - Jinnah Convention Center, Islamabad
- Feb. 9-10: Innovation & Learning Arena - Islamabad Sports Complex
- Feb. 9-15: Parallel events by universities, companies, and public institutions nationwide
How to engage
Agencies and public institutions can plan showcases, announce pilot challenges, and schedule stakeholder meetings during the week. Registration and agenda updates will be communicated by the Ministry of IT & Telecom.
For official updates, visit the Ministry of IT & Telecom website: moitt.gov.pk.
If your team needs structured skills development or certification pathways ahead of the event, explore independent training options here: AI certifications (Complete AI Training).
Bottom line: Indus AI Week is a working platform. Bring real problems, real data (within policy), and decision-makers who can approve pilots. Leave with partnerships and a plan you can execute.
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