Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday highlighted the importance of getting expertise in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to compete in the world markets and achieve the goals of national development. “The AI is a new driver or paradigm which will redefine the (country’s) future economy. Today in the world, AI is bringing a revolutionary impact in every sector,” he said while addressing a ceremony here. During 2017-18, he said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had done a strategic intervention for putting the country in the 4th industrial revolution by setting up national centers for AI, Cyber Security, Automation & Robotic, Big Data & Cloud Computing, Applied Mathematics, GIS Technology, and Genomics. “The future game is all about algorithms. The established centers were supposed to prepare us for the 4th industrial revolution,” he said. The minister said these national centers contributed significantly during the last 4-5 years as they greatly helped in developing quality human resources in collaboration with industry and academia. Ahsan Iqbal said the incumbent government had set up a Task Force, comprising experts from different sectors within the country and abroad, to devise a road-map and identify the sectors where effective use of AI could be beneficial for national development and tackling the future challenges on the economic front. “This Task Force has a very important role and it can be a great game-changer for Pakistan.” He was of the view that the country had great potential in the form of youth that could be transformed into quality manpower to compete in the world markets and aligned the country’s key sectors like exports, textile, and agriculture with international standards.