Systems Limited: A global company with Pakistani roots

In an interview with Nuktaon Friday, Systems Limited CEO and Managing Director Asif Peer highlighted his company's global expansion, Pakistan's digital transformation challenges, and the urgent need for infrastructure development.

"Our company has completed 45 years, but every three to five years, we reinvent ourselves," Peer said. "We have proudly embraced digital transformation for cloud and AI alongside waves of progression and change. I can proudly say that our setup is comparable to any major company in the world. We are currently operating in 12 countries."

The company first entered the United States in 1997, focusing solely on America for 15 years before expanding to the Middle East, starting with the UAE. "After the Gulf countries, we continued to penetrate into the United Kingdom, Germany, and European countries, building our brand."

Peer emphasized the company's core mission throughout this expansion: "The important thing is that we have showcased Pakistani talent, which is our responsibility."

The AI revolution reshaping business

Artificial intelligence has existed since 1951, but its recent accessibility has transformed adoption rates. "ChatGPT took only 1.5 years for adoption after its launch, breaking records. We call this the network effect," Peer noted.

"Now with ChatGPT, you can do prompt engineering yourself. You have so much data that you can perform intelligent interrogation," he explained.

"Microsoft's CEO said, 'What is your UI for AI?' meaning 'user interface for Artificial Intelligence.' ChatGPT has given you a user interface; artificial intelligence existed before, but you didn't know how to use it."

Pakistan's digital infrastructure gap

Pakistan faces significant challenges implementing AI: "Cash payments are still flourishing today, with digital payment channels not even working at 10% capacity. Only 13% of the population has bank accounts in the country."

This creates a critical data gap: "How can we implement AI if the nation's and public sector's data is not digitized? We need to work on an emergency basis on the more than 85% of data that we don't have."

On data storage and infrastructure: "Organizations like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are not in the mood to set up data centers in Pakistan right now. Only through government-to-government or government-business partnerships can this level of investment be possible."

Education reform and talent development

"Pakistan's education system is not compatible with the era of artificial intelligence," Peer stated. "Our institutions need to make creativity, critical thinking, and analytical capability an essential part of the curriculum."

Creating employment remains vital for developing IT talent: "Our youth are hopeless, so we need to give them hope. There are 35,000 to 50,000 IT graduates, but they are not export-ready. The way to make youth export-ready is to provide them with job opportunities and on-the-job training."

Peer concluded by comparing Pakistan's IT sector with India's ecosystem: "India built infrastructure, focused on education, enabled global travel, and created a complete ecosystem. Export requires brand, infrastructure, and travel working together – an ecosystem that, unfortunately, we don't have yet."