The global debate on AI and jobs has become much more serious in 2025. It’s no longer just Silicon Valley talk—major labour and economic bodies are now offering real data on how AI is reshaping work. The International Labour Organization says generative AI is more likely to change how people work than to eliminate jobs, though clerical and administrative roles—many held by women—are already feeling the pressure.
The World Economic Forum’s ‘Future of Jobs 2025’ report echoes this: some routine roles will shrink, but employers expect strong growth in AI, data, green industries, care work, and education. PwC’s new AI Jobs Barometer adds another signal—AI skills now come with a clear wage premium. Together, these findings show a job market in transition, where the bigger risk is not mass unemployment but falling behind.
South Asia’s experience with AI is more complex than the global narrative. The World Bank’s ‘Jobs, AI, and Trade’ report (October 2025) estimates that only about 7 percent of jobs in the region are “highly exposed” to automation by AI. That’s because South Asia still relies heavily on low-skill, informal or manual work in agriculture, construction, retail, and basic services—jobs AI cannot easily automate today.
But the same report highlights a major opportunity. Around 15 percent of jobs in South Asia are “AI-complementary”—roles where AI can boost productivity rather than replace workers. These include data-focused professional services, certain back-office functions, and parts of tech-enabled manufacturing. Workers in these roles already earn more: the World Bank finds that jobs requiring AI skills offer a wage premium of about 30 percent over similar white-collar positions. The question now is whether young workers—especially in call centres, IT-enabled services, and routine office roles—can upskill quickly enough to move into these higher-value jobs. As the Bank notes, the real issue for South Asia today is not job loss, but whether it can shift workers into the fast-growing, AI-complementary segment.
At first glance, Pakistan looks relatively insulated from AI-driven job losses. Most workers are in low-skill, informal or agricultural roles—jobs today’s AI cannot easily automate. In that sense, Pakistan resembles Bangladesh or Nepal more than India or Sri Lanka. But lower exposure does not mean low risk.
A closer look shows clear pockets of vulnerability. A detailed study by LUMS MHRC finds that around 17 percent of Pakistan’s jobs are at high risk from automation or AI—more than twice the regional estimate. The research highlights three especially exposed areas: manufacturing, customer service and even parts of agriculture, where repetitive or process-heavy tasks can be transformed by AI tools or robotics.
Industry voices see the same pattern emerging. Speaking to BR Research, Harris Mukarram, VP of Engineering at FiveRivers Technologies, notes that white-collar and knowledge-worker roles are likely to feel the strongest impact of AI worldwide. In Pakistan’s IT sector, he says, the pressure is most evident at the entry and mid levels—partly because much of the country’s top talent has already moved abroad, leaving lower-skill roles more exposed to automation. And with Pakistan’s low labour costs, blue-collar work is unlikely to face major disruption anytime soon. But several low-skill digital jobs are clearly at risk. “Data-entry operators, call-centre agents, basic graphic or web designers, and content or copy writers are the first in line,” he explains—roles where AI tools are already capable of doing much of the work.
His assessment lines up with IPRI’s 2025 findings, which warn that Pakistan’s routine office roles, low-end BPO jobs, clerical work and basic IT support are exactly the functions generative AI can already handle at scale. At the same time, both IPRI and industry experts point to emerging demand in data management, cybersecurity, cloud engineering, and AI operations—but only if Pakistan upgrades skills and adoption quickly.
Pakistan’s real risk isn’t a sudden wave of AI-driven job losses—it’s the possibility of quietly missing out on the better, higher-paying work that’s emerging across the region. With AI-complementary roles earning a 30 percent wage premium, countries that invest early in skills and digital infrastructure will surge ahead, while Pakistan could remain stuck in low-productivity work even if employment levels look stable.
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