By The Tribune International Desk
SAN FRANCISCO: A vibrant mix of Pakistani founders, engineers, and investors came together this week in San Francisco for an event that spotlighted the country’s growing influence in the global AI scene.
Titled “Building AI Products with Pakistani Talent,” the gathering was hosted by Mehroz Azam, founder of Ejad Labs, and brought together voices from startups making serious moves in the AI and automation space.
Among the speakers was Amsal Naseem, founding engineer at Newton, a U.S.-based AI platform building workflow automation tools for dental and healthcare practices. Newton recently raised $3.8 million in seed funding, a milestone Amsal said reflects growing investor belief in globally distributed engineering teams.
“We’re building AI-native workflows that connect voice, scheduling, patient engagement, and analytics in one seamless system,” Amsal explained. “What makes Newton special is that we’re a global company from day one — and a lot of that DNA comes from the incredible engineering talent in Pakistan.”
Joining him on stage was Kashif Ali, founder and CEO of TaxGPT, an AI-powered tax automation platform that’s quickly gaining traction among accounting and tax firms worldwide. TaxGPT recently closed a $4.6 million round to scale its co-pilot for tax professionals.
“Tax is one of those fields that’s overdue for disruption,” Kashif said. “We built TaxGPT to take the pain out of compliance and give firms time back. Our engineers and researchers — many of them based in Pakistan — are building tools that help advisors focus on strategy instead of spreadsheets.”
Also featured was Qasim Asad Salam, founder of Remotebase, a platform that connects Pakistani software engineers with global startups. Qasim, whose company raised $1.4 million in 2021, spoke about the evolution of Pakistan’s tech workforce and how it’s maturing beyond outsourcing into genuine product innovation.
“Remotebase started with a belief — that Pakistani engineers can build and lead on the world stage,” Qasim said. “What’s exciting now is that we’re seeing those same engineers move into founding roles, not just support ones.”
The event’s host, Mehroz Azam, summed up the mood of the night in his opening remarks: “Talent knows no borders. The real challenge today isn’t geography — it’s mindset. The best founders are global thinkers who happen to be from Pakistan, not the other way around.”
Throughout the evening, the discussion circled around a shared theme: Pakistani talent is no longer confined to service roles or backend engineering. Instead, it’s increasingly shaping core product decisions, AI research, and company culture at fast-growing startups around the world.
The attendees — a mix of founders, VCs, and young engineers — spoke about the opportunities and challenges of building across time zones, navigating funding networks, and maintaining product velocity with remote teams.
Beyond the individual success stories, the event reflected a broader shift. Pakistani entrepreneurs are carving out a space in the global AI ecosystem, not by competing on cost but by competing on innovation.
Newton’s healthcare automation push, TaxGPT’s AI-driven compliance tools, and Remotebase’s mission to export technical excellence all represent different paths leading to the same goal: proving that world-class startups can come from anywhere.
Read also: UNESCO engages tech entities to advance Ethical AI discourse in Pakistan
As the night wrapped up, Mehroz left the crowd with a message that captured the energy in the room: “Build global. Start local. The only borders that matter are the ones we create for ourselves.”
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