Fahim ul Haq

🤝 𝐀 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐀𝐈 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 Incredible news from Islamabad — the official launch of the 𝐆𝐎 𝐀𝐈 𝐇𝐮𝐛 & 𝐆𝐎 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐇𝐮𝐛 marks a powerful step forward in building a shared innovation bridge between 𝐒𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐢 𝐀𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐚 and 𝐏𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧. This initiative connects talent, infrastructure, and opportunity — aligning with 𝐒𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐢 𝐀𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐚’𝐬 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟑𝟎 and 𝐏𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧’𝐬 rapidly growing digital ecosystem. With 17 partnerships signed across strategic, government, and private sectors, the foundation has been laid for an AI innovation corridor that will empower people, strengthen industries, and unlock sovereign compute capacity for the region. As someone who has worked closely across both ecosystems, I’m truly proud to see this collaboration take shape — linking Riyadh, Islamabad, and Silicon Valley through a common vision for the future of AI. Kudos to Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of Saudi Arabia, Ministry of IT and Telecommunication Pakistan, Special Investment Facilitation Council, Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), Shaza Khawaja, Yahya Al-Mansour, Abdullah Alswaha, Mostafa Elamin ,MBA,CPM®, and all the partners driving this mission forward. The speed, clarity, and shared purpose behind this project are inspiring. This is just the beginning of a new AI era — powered by collaboration, trust, and vision. 🌍✨ Learn more 👉 www.goaihub.ai #GOAIHub #MCIT #MoITT #SIFC #PSEB #SpeedOfGO #SaudiArabia #Pakistan #AI #Vision2030 #Innovation #Partnerships #DigitalTransformation #TechEcosystem

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How Pakistan’s IT Industry Can Benefit from the $100K H-1B Fee? Offshore Delivery Advantage: Pakistani firms can present themselves as cost-effective alternatives to expensive H-1B hires. A $100K visa fee can fund entire teams offshore for months. Retaining Skilled Talent: With fewer avenues for relocation, top engineers may stay in Pakistan and work remotely — fueling the domestic tech ecosystem instead of contributing to brain drain. Boost to Exports & Foreign Exchange: More U.S. firms outsourcing directly translates into higher IT export revenues, strengthening the economy. Niche Expertise & Premium Services: By focusing on Agile delivery, QA as a Service, Cloud/DevOps, and Digital Transformation, Pakistani consultancies can secure high-value engagements instead of competing on price alone. Strengthening Consulting & Advisory: Organisations moving away from H-1B reliance will require help with process audits, governance, and digital transformations — services where Pakistan can grow its consulting footprint.

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I still remember the face of the senior developer who walked into my Lahore office last year, résumé in hand, asking if his 10 years of experience still mattered. "Mr. Usman," he said, "I built systems that run dozens of Technology and retail organizations, but today a 22 year old with three months of AI training just got promoted over me." That moment haunts me, because it represents the greatest challenge facing every technology leader today. The World Economic Forum estimates that nearly six in ten workers will require training before 2030, with 22% of jobs globally changing due to technological advancements. Yet 80% of organizations say upskilling is the most effective way to reduce employee skills gaps, but only 28% are planning to invest in upskilling programs over the next two to three years. This disconnect isn't just a statistic; it's a crisis of vision. Gartner projects that generative AI will require 80% of the engineering workforce to upskill through 2027, while 60% of employees report insufficient training for core job skills. We're essentially asking people to swim while refusing to teach them. But here's what I've learned building Devsinc across three continents: the solution isn't more training programs. It's about creating what Deloitte calls a "whole work approach to development" that integrates skill building with practical, contextual experience. When you redesign roles and workflows to reduce reliance on missing skills while providing intensive, hands-on management support, you don't just close gaps; you create cultures of continuous learning. That senior developer? He's now leading an AI integration team. Not because we gave him a course, but because we paired him with younger engineers in a true knowledge exchange. His decades of system thinking combined with their AI fluency created something neither could achieve alone. 46% of leaders identify skill gaps as the most significant barrier to AI adoption. But the real barrier is our failure to see that experience and innovation aren't competitors. They're collaborators waiting to be unleashed. The question isn't whether your people can adapt. It's whether you're brave enough to invest in their transformation before your competition does.

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Most people are unaware of the magnitude of effort being invested in digitizing Pakistan’s public sector. Over the past few months, I’ve been actively meeting government officials and bureaucrats across different levels of administration — listening to their challenges and witnessing the intricate machinery of how our systems operate. But my perspective has always been… different. 🎮 As an avid PC gamer with countless hours in strategy and city-building games like Cities: Skylines and the Anno series, I’ve simulated urban planning, supply chains, public utilities, citizen satisfaction, trade networks, and policy decisions. And this left me with a question - what if real-world governance could learn from game mechanics and system design where processes are paperless and efficient. That curiosity led me to explore E-Governance — not as a buzzword, but as a transformational force (highly recommend watching Taha Ahad's podcast featuring Sir Aftab Haider on this - I'll drop the link in comment section, it's a great starting point to understand the impact of digitization). 💼 At Pakistan Single Window (PSW), I’ve been fortunate to witness real-world digitization in action (which was my motivation to join PSW by the way). I’ve seen how technology — when applied strategically — can radically streamline composite workflows like trade systems, bureaucratic workflows, and inter-agency collaboration. I see every institution as a system — and every system has inefficiencies that can be optimized. Sounds simple? I used to think so too. But the truth is: digitizing large-scale governance requires robust infrastructure (tremendous amount of compute resources for instance), uncompromised security, cross-ministerial coordination, and national-level scalability. It’s not easy. It’s not fast. But it is happening. Pak Identity, EZFILE by SECP are two of many examples in our context. 💡 Apart from that, I’ve been closely following the E-Government Development Index (EGDI) 2024, where countries like Denmark (Ranked #1 with 0.9847) and Estonia are global benchmarks. Their success is established on: - User-first digital services - Nationwide digital identity systems - Interoperable platforms - Long-term political commitment 🧠 E-Governance is not just for policymakers. It needs: - Technologists who can reimagine legacy systems - Product thinkers who design for real users - Developers who understand policy trade-offs - Curious minds who view bureaucracy not as a burden, but a puzzle worth solving So, if you’re someone who: 1. Wants to solve meaningful, large-scale problems 2. Is tired of inefficiencies in the system 3. Believes Pakistan can leapfrog through smart digital governance Then E-Governance is a field you should explore. It’s one of the most underappreciated, yet high-impact domains of our time. And if you’re already researching, writing, or building in this space — let’s connect and collaborate. #EGovernance #DigitalPakistan #SmartGovernance

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Back in 2006, I picked up a few books from the Pragmatic Programmers series, and those completely changed how I built software. I became (at the time) probably one of the very few engineers in Pakistan applying things like unit testing, continuous integration, etc., long before they became mainstream here. So you can imagine my excitement when I came across a new Humble Bundle today: 19 Pragmatic Programmers books for just $18. The collection covers everything from Kanban, OKRs, A/B testing, Agile retros, estimation, data governance, engineering management, to open-source strategy. If you're an engineer, PM, or product leader looking to level up your craft or your team’s delivery excellence, this one is definitely worth grabbing. https://lnkd.in/dKM2Ekrb

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𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝟭 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗘𝗘𝗘 𝗜𝗕𝗖𝗔𝗦𝗧 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲! Following the invited talk, I had some of the most thought-provoking discussions about AI and Generative AI with brilliant minds from across Pakistan. The conversations spanned from responsible AI development to fascinating insights on how GenAI is transforming software engineering practices, code quality assurance, and the entire software development lifecycle. The caliber of researchers, industry leaders, and academics here is exceptional - their perspectives on everything from LLMs in local languages to AI ethics frameworks, and particularly on GenAI's impact on software quality and development methodologies, were both nuanced and forward-thinking. The energy and expertise gives me tremendous optimism for Pakistan's role in shaping the future of AI and software engineering! #IBCAST2025 #ArtificialIntelligence #GenerativeAI #SoftwareEngineering #SoftwareQuality #PakistanTech #Innovation #IEEE

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I recently spoke to someone who works closely with fiscal and economic strategy. Naturally, I asked the question many of us carry quietly: 𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒘𝒆 𝒃𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝑷𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏’𝒔 𝒇𝒖𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆? The answer I got was optimistic. In fact, very optimistic. I was told the destiny of Pakistan will change forever. That our 𝟔𝟓% youth population will drive growth. That we’ll become a serious global player. That the future is in good hands. It sounded very reassuring. So I asked the next question, the one that actually matters: 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒈𝒚? And one word: “𝐈𝐓” At first, I nodded in conformism. But then decided to do the disrespect of asking him “𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝑰𝑻?” He explained that if a certain percentage of Pakistan’s youth enters IT, we’ll produce millions of IT graduates. With global demand rising, AI progressing, and developers charging up to $𝟔,𝟎𝟎𝟎 a month, even if 𝟓 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 people, a meager 𝟐% of the population enter the workforce, that is 𝟑𝟎𝐁$, and mind you that’s just monthly revenue added. The math “𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒔.” Then came the cliche comparison with India. India exports $𝟐𝟎𝟎+ 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 in IT. We export roughly $𝟑–𝟒 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧. Given our population size, he argued, we should be exporting far more. If we reach that number, he said, we won’t need foreign debt. The economy will fix itself. I could not tolerate him further and that’s when it hit me. My dear friends, no one here has any strategy. All they have is fantasies. Fallacious claims based on fallacious assumptions. An economy doesn’t grow because degrees exist. It grows because 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬. More graduates don’t automatically mean more value. More developers don’t automatically mean more exports, for God’s sake. And services-heavy thinking doesn’t magically turn into global dominance. You don’t fix an economy by multiplying salaries on paper. You fix it by building products, platforms, intellectual property, and companies that scale without proportional labour. India didn’t win because it produced engineers. It won because it built ecosystems, firms, and global trust over decades, and is now itself facing the limits of services-led growth. If our entire national bet is: to “𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑰𝑻 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒖𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎,” we’ll keep mistaking optimism for strategy. Hope is important. But hope without a real plan is just comfort. And comfort doesn’t build countries.

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“We’re the best in the world when it comes to computer vision and operational AI—observing what’s happening, generating highly reliable, high-precision predictions, and enabling our customers to act on them.” I feel like I got to learn so much about this AI wave early on from Shoaib Makani. Motive was AI-native before that was even a buzzword. In 2017 (at only $1M in ARR), we acquired a small, failed startup working on consumer photo sharing and stitching, led by a founding team of PhDs in computer vision. Working quietly in stealth within Motive (the KeepTruckin — it was a mistake to name a company after a Grateful Dead song), they built a dataset of images from our sensors and forward-facing cameras, then trained our own AI models. You have to rethink your Customer Success motion when selling an AI-native product. Customer-specific training data matters, and a forward-deployed approach to accelerate onboarding is critical. At Motive, our CS motion often felt so different from the traditional SaaS playbooks that I sometimes questioned if we were doing it right. In hindsight, we were operating well ahead of our time. Through it all—and probably why I loved building at Motive so much—is that the founding team truly cares about its customers. That’s also why we’ve continued to succeed. There were lean years, failed bets, and no shortage of incredible challenges, but supporting customers and the teams that serve them was never in question. We always over-invested in support and CS. That's the winning formula! Awesome article by my friend Alex Konrad. (Fun Fact: I decided to work at Motive because of a back-channel reference Alex set up for me with Byron Deeter. I’ll never forget Byron telling me that Bessemer had passed on Motive, but they thought very highly of the founding team. He said he wouldn’t hesitate to take the job there—which ended up being exactly what I needed to hear. Every year when Motive lands on the Cloud100 list, I make a point to remind Byron that it was really good life advice. Motive changed my life) https://lnkd.in/eVddWNaa

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