JazzWorld CEO Aamir Ibrahim highlighted AI factories as key to bridging an emerging “intelligence divide,” warning that the rise of artificial intelligence could widen the gap between those with access to AI powered capabilities and those without. Delivering welcome remarks at the Leaders in Islamabad Business Summit during the inaugural session, “The Next Move: Reading the Moment,” Ibrahim was joined by Muhammad Azfar Ahsan, Founder and Chairman of Nutshell Group and former Minister for Investment, and Dr Faisal Hashmi, Senior Director Public Affairs, Sustainability and Communication for the Coca-Cola Company’s Pakistan and Afghanistan region. He said Pakistan must look beyond existing export sectors and deliberately build the infrastructure and capabilities required to participate in the rapidly expanding global AI economy.
Discussing what an AI factory actually requires, Ibrahim said it depends on inputs such as energy, compute, data centres, and data, while its outputs can range from AI inference and tokens to software, code, video, and audio. With significant global investment flowing into AI infrastructure, he said Pakistan has an opportunity to develop these capabilities rather than remain a passive consumer of technology built elsewhere. “Pakistan has woken up to these realities. We need to be very intentional about building this capability and turning it into an export opportunity. One of our biggest opportunities is to export inference through AI,” he said, framing AI inference specifically as a concrete, monetizable service Pakistan could offer international markets rather than treating AI purely as an internal productivity tool.
Ibrahim said Pakistan should aspire to become an “AI maker” rather than simply consuming technologies developed elsewhere, building systems that serve global markets while understanding the country’s languages, culture, security requirements, and local context. He also underscored the importance of sovereign AI, saying it goes beyond keeping data within national borders to ensuring greater control over the country’s cognitive layer, extending sovereignty from a data storage concept into something closer to control over how AI systems reason and process information for Pakistani users and institutions. Highlighting the risk of the intelligence divide specifically, Ibrahim said AI will increasingly determine access to capabilities such as education, analysis, information, and software development. “The digital divide was about access to connectivity and information. The intelligence divide will be about access to capability. We need to make sure that there is an intelligent future for every Pakistani, a smartphone in every hand, and intelligence available to everyone,” he said, drawing a direct parallel between the earlier connectivity gap and a new capability gap he expects AI to introduce.
Later, addressing the closing leadership dialogue, “From Strategic Relevance to National Advantage,” during the summit’s closing session, Ibrahim joined former caretaker Prime Minister Senator Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, Federal Minister for Climate Change and Environmental Coordination Senator Dr Musadik Malik, former Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman, and Pakistan Business Council Chairman Ziad Bashir, in a discussion moderated by Express Tribune Executive Editor Fahd Husain. Building on his earlier remarks, Ibrahim emphasized the need to translate Pakistan’s strategic potential into economic opportunity, saying compute, data centres, reliable energy, and connectivity will be critical to participating meaningfully in the global AI value chain, while stronger local AI capabilities can address domestic needs, broaden access to intelligence, and create new opportunities for exports and economic growth. His remarks build on comments he made earlier this year at Indus AI Week, where he similarly argued that Pakistan’s opportunity lies in moving from being an “AI taker” to an “AI maker” through deliberate execution rather than rhetoric.
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