The mission came first.
The tech followed.
- Brandeis University (Heller School) · Canadian Mennonite University · University of Balochistan
- PM Youth Excellence Award · ADB Climate Resilience Award · British Council Global Changemaker
- Atlas Corps (U.S. State Dept.) · Rise Up (Gates Foundation) · DO School · ISOC Fellow
- Only Pakistani org selected for Google AI Opportunity Fund: Asia-Pacific
- Funded by AVPN, Google.org, Internet Society & Asian Development Bank
I came to AI through development work — not the other way around. After years studying how communities are shaped by systems of power and exclusion, I watched artificial intelligence become the most consequential of those systems. The question underneath all of my work has always been the same: who gets left out?
220 million people speak Urdu. Almost none of the world’s AI education reaches them. So I built the infrastructure to change that.
Urdu AI grew into Pakistan’s leading AI literacy platform — over one million people through social media, a weekly newsletter, a mobile app, and workshops across the country. The largest Urdu-language AI education community in the world, built without a venture round or corporate backing.
PakSpeed followed — because you cannot talk about digital inclusion without honest data on who actually has connectivity. Pakistan’s first community-owned internet speed network logged over 15,000 tests in its first seven days.
Key Milestones
Different platforms. Different communities. One conviction: AI should belong to everyone who needs it.