The AI Divide: An Inequality Between Educated and Less-Educated Workers in Pakistan

Overview

Artificial intelligence is reshaping how work is performed, but its benefits and risks are unlikely to be distributed equally. In Pakistan, disparities in education, digital access, skills, and occupational opportunities may create an emerging AI capability divide, one that runs through who can use AI productively rather than simply who is educated and who is not.

The brief examines why Pakistan is particularly exposed to this risk: an 80.8% informal workforce with uneven access to structured training, a large youth population where 28.4% are not in employment, education, or training, and digital connectivity that has expanded rapidly but remains unevenly distributed in affordability, skills, and quality. It argues that the emerging divide is less about education alone and more about AI capability, the combination of digital access, skills, occupational opportunity, and the ability to use AI effectively.

The brief recommends integrating AI literacy into technical and vocational skills development, prioritizing vulnerable and informally employed workers for reskilling, expanding affordable digital access, and establishing a mechanism to monitor how AI is reshaping Pakistan's labour market, framing an inclusive AI transition as essential to both economic growth and the Sustainable Development Goals.