He was speaking while chairing a training workshop titled “Artificial Intelligence (AI) Governance: Principles, Ethics, Risks & Regulatory Readiness”, organised to raise awareness among the business community about responsible AI adoption, governance frameworks, ethical considerations and emerging regulations.
The workshop featured a detailed presentation by Shakeel A. Mian, Founder and Executive Director of TechGov Intelligence, who highlighted the importance of structured AI governance frameworks to ensure that AI is used responsibly, securely and transparently.
Faheem Ur Rehman Saigol said artificial intelligence was rapidly transforming the way businesses operate and had significant potential to improve productivity, innovation, decision-making and competitiveness.
However, he said the growing use of AI also required businesses to adopt responsible governance practices so that technological development remained aligned with ethical standards, transparency and accountability.
He stressed the need for greater awareness of emerging AI regulations and international best practices, enabling Pakistani businesses to adopt the technology confidently while minimising associated risks.
The LCCI president said AI governance should not be viewed merely as a regulatory requirement but as an essential part of sustainable digital transformation. He highlighted the importance of human oversight, data protection, cybersecurity, transparency and continuous monitoring in building trust in AI systems.
Shakeel A. Mian said effective AI governance required clear accountability, risk-based management, transparency, explainability and alignment with international regulatory frameworks.
He explained that responsibility for AI systems must ultimately remain with humans, with clear ownership throughout the AI lifecycle, along with board and management oversight, audit mechanisms and compliance procedures.
The workshop also covered risk-based AI management, with systems categorised into prohibited, high-risk, limited-risk and minimal-risk applications. Participants were told that higher-risk AI systems required stronger controls, monitoring and regulatory safeguards.
The importance of human oversight was also highlighted, particularly for AI systems involved in critical decisions. The session covered human intervention, override mechanisms, escalation procedures and continuous supervision.
Participants were also briefed on data governance, including data quality, accuracy, privacy, data minimisation, purpose limitation, ownership and traceability.
The speaker said reliable data was essential for producing reliable AI outcomes. He also discussed model transparency and explainability, noting that businesses needed to understand an AI system’s purpose, limitations, assumptions and input-output relationships.
The workshop further focused on bias monitoring and fairness, with emphasis on preventing discriminatory outputs and unfair decision-making through bias testing, fairness validation and continuous monitoring.
Cybersecurity, auditability and traceability were also discussed. The speaker stressed the importance of access controls, data protection, model robustness, activity logging, version control and evidence of compliance.
He said AI systems also required continuous monitoring because their performance could decline over time. Regular accuracy checks, performance tracking and revalidation were therefore necessary.
The session also covered incident response mechanisms for AI-related failures, including detection, escalation, investigation, remediation and reporting, as well as role-based access, data restrictions, approval procedures and usage monitoring.
LCCI Executive Committee member Firdos Nisar, Convener Standing Committee on Coastal Maritime Atif Khan, Nadia Khan, Hamid Ullah Khan, Imran Haider, Ilyas Majeed, Uzma Nadeem, Naila Tanveer, Omer Fareed and Mehwish Addas also attended the workshop.
