Pakistan is planning to introduce regulatory sandboxes to allow enterprises to safely test and experiment with artificial intelligence (AI) applications. According to the Ministry of Information Technology, 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 mark a major step toward strengthening the country’s AI ecosystem.
The regulatory sandboxes will be coordinated through Centres of Excellence (CoEs), providing companies with a safe space for innovation and helping align regulations more flexibly.
The strategy focuses on compute, data, and connectivity, with the creation of a national AI compute grid at its core. This grid will be 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 support research, development, and adoption across multiple sectors. These resources will be accessible to more than 100 academic institutions nationwide, enabling large-scale AI experiments, training of advanced models, and processing of massive datasets.
The government also plans to establish national and provincial AI data repositories to ensure centralised, high-quality datasets that meet both industry and academic standards, particularly benefiting sector-specific AI applications and innovation.
The policy further outlines the creation of AI hubs in major cities, designed to connect academia and industry, support AI research, and promote commercialisation.
It also encourages the use of cloud and open-source AI platforms, urging industry players to rely on public cloud services and contribute to shared AI resources. Pakistan aims to collaborate with global AI initiatives to develop around 50 new AI models annually, strengthening domestic access to AI data and models while ensuring international cooperation.
Together, these measures reflect Pakistan’s commitment to building a robust AI ecosystem by investing in technology, data, and innovation frameworks, aiming to position the country prominently on the global AI map.
