As artificial intelligence reshapes industries across the world, Telenor Pakistan is ensuring that the move towards an AI-first future starts from within the organisation. Marking AI Day as part of Telenor Group’s global celebrations, the company highlighted how it is embedding AI not only into systems but also into skills, culture and daily ways of working. The focus is on making artificial intelligence a tool for every employee, aligning technology with people to create an environment where innovation and capability grow together.
At the centre of this effort is AI Verse, a newly launched learning pathway designed to equip employees with practical and inclusive skills for the future. Areej Khan, Chief People Officer at Telenor Pakistan, explained that the initiative reflects a shift in mindset where employees are placed at the core of digital transformation. Becoming AI-first for Telenor Pakistan is about more than adopting technology. It involves building a culture where every employee, whether in software engineering or customer care, can apply AI responsibly within their roles. This integration of AI into everyday learning and decision-making aims to make it a natural extension of how people think and work, rather than a separate or intimidating discipline.
The launch of AI Verse was a key highlight of AI Day, offering a pathway open to all employees regardless of their function. Unlike earlier training programmes, which were often role-specific, AI Verse covers a broad range of skills from prompt engineering and data-driven decision-making to applied AI use cases. This makes the subject accessible to teams from human resources to finance, marketing to operations. Employees gain the chance to future-proof their careers, remain relevant in a rapidly changing environment and build confidence to experiment with AI. What distinguishes AI Verse is its grounding in live projects inside Telenor Pakistan. Participants can see how learning translates directly into initiatives such as AI-based service monitoring or smart energy management, ensuring that training is practical and immediately valuable.
This people-centric approach has already generated strong engagement. More than 100 teams from Pakistan participated in the Telenor Group-wide AI Hackathon, one of the highest numbers across the Group. Such participation underlines both the appetite and creativity of local talent. Yet Telenor Pakistan also recognises that new technology can bring apprehension. Employees may have concerns about displacement or data integrity. By maintaining transparent communication and showing AI’s role in augmenting rather than replacing work, the company is moving its workforce from apprehension to curiosity. As Khan noted, when employees see AI improving service assurance and operational reliability, they adopt it and become advocates.
The practical side of this strategy was visible at the AI Expo in Islamabad, where projects currently in use were showcased. These included an AI-based service monitoring system that detects faults and anomalies across IT systems to reduce outage times for services like recharge and data bundles; a smart energy management solution that predicts grid unavailability, solar production and battery failures to achieve cost savings and support sustainability goals; an AI virtual agent in the design phase aimed at transforming customer service and reducing handling times; and an AI HR assistant chatbot integrated into Microsoft Teams to give staff instant access to HR policies and streamline processes. Together, these initiatives show how AI is enhancing reliability, sustainability and customer engagement across Telenor Pakistan’s operations.
For Khan and her team, the goal of AI Verse and associated initiatives is clear: to ensure that employees are empowered, skilled and confident in an AI-enabled future. By combining learning with exposure to real projects, employees develop leadership capabilities and stay aligned with technological change. This reflects a pragmatic approach in a fast-evolving industry where continuous upskilling is one of the strongest motivators and reassurances for the workforce. The journey also connects global expertise with local innovation, demonstrating that Pakistan’s talent can develop and implement world-class solutions. Telenor Pakistan’s focus on its people places it at the forefront of how organisations in the country can responsibly embrace artificial intelligence in a way that benefits both business and employees.
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