Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal said Pakistan must rapidly strengthen its capabilities in artificial intelligence and emerging technologies to take advantage of a global technological transformation and bridge the gap with developed countries. Addressing the first International Dental Conference organized by Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University, the minister said the world was undergoing an unprecedented shift driven by knowledge, innovation, the digital revolution, and artificial intelligence, describing AI as a technological breakthrough greater than the invention of the internet.
The minister said major technological transitions create opportunities for countries that adapt quickly, while those that fail to build new capabilities risk being left behind. He added that the ongoing AI revolution offered Pakistan a historic chance to recover lost ground by embracing emerging technologies, framing the moment as a rare window for a developing country to close a gap with more advanced economies rather than simply catch up incrementally over time. He said artificial intelligence would transform education, healthcare, industry, and society more broadly, and stressed that higher education institutions should reposition themselves as centres of innovation instead of remaining focused solely on conventional teaching and research.
Speaking to an audience gathered at a dental conference, the minister connected the broader AI theme to advancements within the medical field specifically, noting that artificial intelligence, regenerative medicine, advanced materials, and 3D printing were rapidly changing dentistry as a profession, making interdisciplinary knowledge increasingly important for practitioners. He added that future dentists would need expertise extending beyond their traditional field as the boundaries between medicine, engineering, data science, and AI continued to blur, a framing that positioned even a specialized medical discipline like dentistry as directly affected by the same technological shifts reshaping other sectors of the economy.
The minister also urged universities to prioritize applied research addressing national challenges rather than focusing solely on improving journal impact factor rankings, arguing that innovations should directly improve people’s lives and contribute to Pakistan’s development rather than existing purely as academic output. Highlighting the importance of preventive healthcare, he described oral health as a key component of overall human health and invited the Dental College and the Pakistan Association for Dental Research to prepare a comprehensive national oral health policy, assuring that the government would process and implement it on a priority basis. Recalling the establishment of the university’s dental facilities, the minister noted he had laid the foundation stone of the project in 2016 with the vision of creating a state-of-the-art institution that would set national standards in dental education, tying his remarks on the future of AI back to a project he has been personally associated with for nearly a decade.
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