Artificial intelligence (AI) is the only realistic way for Pakistan to achieve meaningful financial inclusion, according to a speaker at the Future Banking Forum. Arif Siddique Khokhar, an adviser on federated governance, risk and compliance (GRC) at TransVare Corporation, said this was true for a country with 250m people and a median age of 23. He added that AI could also help Pakistan make progress towards other Sustainable Development Goals.

Mr Khokhar's session focused on digitising audit, governance, risk and compliance in banking. It included a demonstration of TransVare's Federated GRC Platform, which the company says brings audit, risk, controls, compliance, incident handling and remediation together in one secure system that records every action.

He also described the platform's private and secure AI features. According to Mr Khokhar, these can help banking teams analyse audit, governance and risk information more quickly while keeping control of their data and maintaining governance and professional accountability.

He presented AuditVare, the firm's internal-audit product, as a tool suited to an AI-driven financial sector. He said it supports risk-based audit planning, workflow-based audit assignments, evidence management, tracking of audit findings, monitoring of corrective action and reporting to senior management.

When combined with AI analysis, he argued, these tools could help internal auditors strengthen controls and give boards faster information about risks.

Several industry figures expressed confidence in AI-assisted internal auditing in Pakistan's banks. They included Kashif Alam Khan, president of ISACA Karachi, and members of its board, as well as Abdul Qadir, executive director for technology and cyber risk at PwC.

Muhammad Ghazali Aqeeq, a Pakistani-Saudi entrepreneur, also sent a message saying he expected Pakistan's financial sector to make significant progress because of its strengths in AI.

The claims made at the forum came mainly from technology vendors and industry supporters, and the session presented no data on how AI-based audit tools are performing in Pakistani banks. Evidence of results will be needed to show whether AI can widen financial inclusion, as speakers claimed.