AI Revolution/Bangladesh faces three key challenges— technology, talent and investment

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly changing the world economy, industries, and business. While Bangladesh is seeing increased adoption of AI, experts say relying on foreign technologies won’t be enough to keep up with the ever-changing AI world.

To increase long-term economic strength they need to develop AI, research, talent and technology.

While the government plans to develop sovereign AI technology in the next 12 months, there are also new investment opportunities being created in the AI, semiconductor, datacentre, cloud computing and tech industries.

However, experts believe the development of technology, investment and talent will be the main challenges in this area.

“We will be starting our sovereign AI infrastructure in the next year,” Prime Minister’s Adviser on Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Rehan Asif Asad said in a recent programme.

“We’ve got the arrangements to get the right type of computing chips and memory modules.”

The infrastructure will allow private companies, startups, universities and students to get involved, giving local technologists the opportunity to develop their own large language models (LLMs) in Bangla.

“We’re going to start small and have a small modular system,” he said.

Local companies will also have the opportunity to get involved in the infrastructure as demand grows from the private sector. They are currently in talks with overseas companies to get high performance GPU’s.

Currently, Bangladesh suffers due to lack of computing infrastructure, high performance GPU’s, large data sets and research. Due to this, local companies and developers tend to use AI models and cloud services from overseas tech companies.

By developing local infrastructure, experts believe this could reduce reliance on foreign companies, allowing local entrepreneurs to create new products and services.

The Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) sees huge investment opportunities in the AI and semiconductor industries.

“We think technology driven industries, high value addition and higher production is very important,” BIDA Executive Chairman Chowdhury Ashik Mahmud Bin Harun, popularly known as Ashik Chowdhury, said recently at an event.

“We have huge investment opportunities in the semiconductor industry. But it won’t create jobs in the same way the ready made garment industry does. It will however provide opportunities for high level tech skills, value addition and new markets.”

There are huge opportunities for investment in developing AI software, datacentres, cloud computing, semiconductor manufacturing, chip design, cybersecurity, software development and AI based industrial services.

However, local companies and entrepreneurs will need to be developed to create a sustainable tech industry.

"We need to stop relying on foreign tech and build the capability to create our own," said Sakif Shameem, chairman of the Centre for Strategic and Economic Research (CSER) and managing director of Labaid Hospital Group.

"Using software, cloud and AI models from overseas will give us some quick wins but to create real sustainable value we need to invest in local research, talent, data, tech and innovation.

"The issues facing Bangladesh are very different to developed countries. Our agriculture, climate, population densities, language and industries are different so we cannot rely on overseas tech to give us solutions to all our problems."

Creating AI technologies locally can help predict flash flooding, give advice on crops based on weather, reduce urban congestion, increase productivity in the garment industry and ensure digital services are accurate in Bangla.

He stressed the importance of creating AI which understands Bangla, including regional dialects and the social and cultural aspects.

This would need high quality digital data in Bangla, research into language processing and long term investment in local AI models.

Collaboration between universities, research and industries is also important.

Collaboration is needed through research, technology transfer, funding research and protecting IP to ensure research can be done to solve real world problems.

Opportunities should be created to give practical knowledge in AI, data science, machine learning, robotics and cybersecurity. Current employees should also be given opportunities to gain new skills.

"To move into the next stage of Bangladesh’s digital revolution, we need to look at creating our own tech," Shameem said.

"We will still need foreign tech but we need a solid base of knowledge, research and innovation."

Opportunities are growing in investing in AI as it can be used in many industries. This includes banking, healthcare, agriculture, education, garment, transport and supply chain to increase productivity and quality of service. This creates new markets for local tech companies.

Shameem is also involved in AI tech in healthcare at Labaid. They have developed their own AI models to help analyse medical information and give second opinions to physicians.

They are currently working on creating their own large language model with between 200-300 million medical data sets. Over 1000 employees and 4 institutions are involved in the project (information from organisation).

This shows how local companies can be involved in AI development.

An analysis by CSER highlighted that Bangladesh needs to create its own technology.

AI is no longer a futuristic technology. It is transforming the global economy, production, trade, healthcare, agriculture and public sectors.

Developed economies are increasingly looking to AI to increase productivity, create new industries and increase their competitiveness globally.

This can be used for automation in industries, weather and soil analysis in agriculture, detecting diseases in healthcare, risk management in financial services and decision making in public sectors.

Bangladesh is also starting to use AI in banking, telecoms, e commerce, healthcare, garment and digital. However, using technology is different to developing technology.

One of the biggest opportunities for Bangladesh is developing AI that can be used locally.

This can be used to predict sudden flooding in haor regions, advice farmers on crops and weather, reduce congestion in urban areas and increase productivity in garment.

It is important to develop AI that can understand local accents, regional languages and cultural differences to make digital services accessible to more people.

While Bangladesh has talented graduates from universities in engineering, maths, statistics and computer science, more collaboration is needed between academia and industry.

By investing in collaboration between universities, innovation, technology transfer, funding research and support from institutions, knowledge can be turned into real products.

Young people in Bangladesh need to gain skills other than coding software and IT. They need to be able to identify problems, conduct research and develop innovative solutions.

More practical opportunities should be created in AI, data science, machine learning, robotics and cybersecurity. Employees should also be reskilled.

The private sector also needs to get involved. Rather than just seeing AI as a way to buy foreign tech, industries should invest more in R&D and work with local tech companies to solve their problems.

However, having good computing facilities, reliable power, fast internet, quality data centres and talented professionals will be an important factor in creating large AI research and development.

Data protection, cybersecurity and responsible data handling must also be prioritised. The storage, control and use of data in AI directly links to economic and national security.

Bangladesh has opportunities to enter international markets. Many developing countries in Asia and Africa face similar issues.

If we can create affordable and effective AI products using our experience, these can be sold to other developing markets. This will increase IT exports, create jobs and attract foreign investment.

Overall, a strategy is needed across education, research, investment in industries, technology, data protection and entering international markets (analysis by CSER).

The next stage of Bangladesh’s digital revolution should focus on creating technology.

Experts believe to position themselves in the global AI economy, they need to not only adopt new technologies quickly but also create solutions locally, develop talent and compete internationally.