Women in AI Pakistan has announced the speakers for the two panel discussions at its meetup in Islamabad tomorrow, Tuesday, 13 October 2026, at the National Incubation Center for Aerospace Technologies. The meetup is organised by Women in AI Pakistan in collaboration with Ai DataYard and the incubation center, and the two panels bring together women from industry, academia, impact consulting and gender and policy work. One panel looks at the skills that will matter in artificial intelligence, and the other looks at what it takes for more women to lead in the field.
The first panel, titled New Trends in AI Skills, will run from 2:30 PM to 3:05 PM. It asks which AI skills matter most right now and how people can build them, and it looks at where AI skills are heading and what it takes to stay ahead. The speakers are Darakhshan Nazir, a Data Scientist at Afiniti; Dr Momina Moetesum, Head of the Software Engineering Department at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the National University of Sciences and Technology; and Dr Shagufta Jabeen, Founder and Principal Consultant of Next-Gen Impact Consulting and Chairperson of Sukh Saanjh Foundation. Their mix of industry practice, university teaching and consulting gives the audience three different views on the same question of how to keep skills current as AI tools change quickly.
The second panel, titled Women in AI Leadership, will run from 3:10 PM to 3:45 PM and asks what it takes for women to lead in AI and what needs to change to get more of them there. It will cover leadership, inclusion and the road ahead, and its speakers are Dr Joddat Fatima, Associate Professor at Bahria University Islamabad; Dr Anum Abdul Salam, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer and Software Engineering at the College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology; and Aysha Shujaat, a Gender and Policy Expert and Founder of Girls for Girls Pakistan. The topic addresses a real gap, since women make up only about 17 percent of Pakistan’s information technology workforce, and the figure is believed to be lower still in artificial intelligence and data science.
The panels are part of a longer afternoon programme that runs from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM and ends with networking and high tea. The event is open to women only, is by invitation and has limited seats. Women in AI Pakistan is the national chapter of the global Women in AI network, and Ai DataYard is an AI training and community organisation that has worked with women-focused tech groups in Islamabad. For the attendees, the two short panels offer practical views on building skills and leadership in AI from people who work in the field every day.
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