Reporting snapshot · 7 October 2026 (Asia/Karachi). Pakistan's Software Export Board (PSEB)-organised Pakistan Pavilion is open on the second and final day of AI Everything Global 2026 in Abu Dhabi, with five Pakistani technology companies presenting AI, data-intelligence and sales-solution products. The figures below — a 42% jump in Pakistan's IT exports to the United Arab Emirates to $536 million in FY26 from $376m in FY25 — come from Pakistani officials speaking to Geo News at the pavilion on 6 October, with the Press Information Department (PID) photo caption carrying the same context. The exhibition continues today (7 October) and closes at the end of the day; specific deal values, partner announcements, or new contracts at the pavilion are not yet on the record.
What happened in Abu Dhabi
The Pakistan Pavilion at AI Everything Global 2026 was inaugurated on 6 October by Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UAE, Shafqat Ali Khan, Geo News reported. The pavilion, organised under the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), is hosting five Pakistani technology companies that are presenting AI, data-intelligence, monitoring, sales-solution and related products and services during the two-day event. The Press Information Department’s photograph of the inauguration was carried by Geo News and gave the expo its first major Pakistani-media footprint.
AI Everything Global 2026 itself brings together more than 500 exhibitors and 150 investors from 70 countries, Geo News said, citing the event’s official profile. The two-day exhibition is being held in Abu Dhabi on 6 and 7 October and is aimed at showcasing AI products and their applications across industries. Pakistani companies have taken a dedicated pavilion for the first time at this edition, the PSEB’s framing suggests, after a series of smaller presences at Gulf tech events.
Pakistan’s goal at the show is broader than a single deal. Officials say Islamabad is using the platform to expand technology exports and to promote “Made in Pakistan” and “Developed in Pakistan” products in international markets — a message the Ministry of IT and Telecommunication has carried into earlier Gulf engagements this year.
The $536m figure and the 42% jump
The most concrete fresh data point is the FY26 IT-export figure. Pakistani officials told Geo News at the pavilion that Pakistan’s IT exports to the UAE rose 42% to $536 million in the 2025-26 financial year, up from $376m in 2024-25. The same 42% and $536m figures were carried in the PID photo caption distributed alongside the inauguration.
The UAE remains one of Pakistan’s fastest-growing IT destinations. The $160 million year-on-year rise (from $376m to $536m) is larger in absolute terms than the rise in some other regional markets, and it is large enough to be cited as the headline Pakistan-technology-export number of the event. Officials did not break out which sub-sectors — software services, AI products, IT-enabled services, or hardware — drove the increase.
The $536m figure sits inside a wider Pakistan IT-export push. The State Bank of Pakistan’s monthly IT-export series, the Ministry of IT’s quarterly reviews, and PSEB’s annual numbers are the three main public sources for these flows; this article relies on the officials’ figures published in Geo News, not on a separate SBP release.
The companies and the products
Five Pakistani technology companies are presenting at the pavilion. The full company list has not been published in the Geo News report or in the PID caption, but the categories Geo News identifies — AI, data intelligence, monitoring and sales solutions — describe the breadth of the offering rather than naming specific firms. The Pakistani IT-export ecosystem spans AI startups, B2B software companies, freelancer platforms, and established IT-services firms; the pavilion’s mix is consistent with that range.
The companies are presenting products and services “developed in Pakistan”, Geo News says, in line with the federal government’s wider push to brand Pakistani technology abroad. The Ministry of IT and Telecommunication and PSEB have run several export-promotion programmes in 2026, including the PSEB-GIKI-NED semiconductor design and verification training that began in May and a separate freelancer-economy push that brought in $856 million of IT services earnings in the first nine months of FY26.
The pavilion is also a chance for Pakistan to plug into Gulf AI investment flows. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are the two largest AI-investment destinations in the Middle East, and Pakistan has sought to position itself as a services and talent supplier rather than a competing AI-lab destination. Pakistan’s ambassador opened the pavilion himself, which is itself a sign that the federal government is treating the engagement as a foreign-policy as well as a commercial event.
Why the UAE matters for Pakistan’s IT exports
The UAE has become one of Pakistan’s fastest-growing trade-and-investment partners in services. The two countries run a Joint Ministerial Commission, and bilateral trade has widened since the UAE’s 2020 visa and labour reforms made Pakistani professionals easier to recruit. Pakistani IT companies in Dubai have grown rapidly over the past five years, and the IT-export line is now a substantial component of services trade.
The 42% rise also reflects base effects. Pakistan’s IT exports to the UAE were $376m in FY25, a relatively modest starting point compared with the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union as destinations. The State Bank of Pakistan’s monthly breakdown shows IT-export growth to the Gulf has been consistently faster than to traditional Western markets, in part because Gulf clients are willing to engage Pakistani firms on shorter integration cycles and because the cultural and time-zone overlap is small.
Pakistan’s wider IT-export pipeline faces constraints. Internet slowdowns and recurring submarine-cable faults have been a recurring drag on freelancer and IT-services exports. The Ministry of IT and the Pakistan Software Export Board have asked internet-service providers and the Universal Service Fund to address these constraints, and the freelancer-economy expansion that helped generate the $856m FY26 nine-month figure is partly a function of the country’s broadband expansion. The Abu Dhabi pavilion is part of a wider effort to translate that export pipeline into Gulf contracts.
What is still uncertain
Several things remain open. The full list of the five Pakistani companies at the pavilion has not been published, so the article cannot say which sub-sectors or products are most represented. The $536m figure is given as a year-on-year headline; officials did not publish the underlying SBP monthly breakdown or a sub-sector split, and any update may revise it. Pakistan’s negotiators have also not announced any signed partnership, MoU, or contract value from the show; the article will need to be revised if a deal is announced during or after the exhibition.
The wider question is whether the 42% growth rate is sustainable. Pakistan’s IT-export growth has been strong in 2026, but a 42% rise from a smaller base can compress quickly if Gulf demand cools or if Gulf AI-investment priorities shift. Officials have not yet published a forecast for FY27 IT exports to the UAE, so the article does not claim one. The most that can be said is that the Abu Dhabi pavilion has given Islamabad a specific announcement — a 42% rise to $536m in FY26, with five Pakistani companies on the floor and the ambassador opening the stand — at a moment when the Gulf AI market is growing.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a synthesis of published material, not eyewitness reporting. Sources were reviewed on 7 October 2026 (Asia/Karachi). The $536m FY26 figure and the 42% year-on-year rise come from Pakistani officials speaking to Geo News at the Pakistan Pavilion on 6 October 2026; the Press Information Department (PID) photo caption distributed the same day carries the same headline figures. AI Everything Global 2026's official profile, the list of exhibitors, and the participating Pakistani companies are described but not fully published in the cited reporting.
- Primary source — Geo News: Pakistan showcases AI and technology products in Abu Dhabi6 October 2026 · The Pakistan Pavilion at AI Everything Global 2026, Ambassador Shafqat Ali Khan's inauguration, the PSEB's role, the five Pakistani technology companies, the $536m FY26 IT-export figure and the 42% year-on-year rise from $376m in FY25, and the wider "Made in Pakistan" branding push.
- Independent source — Press Information Department / Associated Press of Pakistan distribution via Geo News photo caption6 October 2026 · The PID photo caption confirms the same $536m / 42% figures, the Pakistan Pavilion, and PSEB's role as the institutional organiser.
- Independent source — Profit by Pakistan Today: Pakistan, IFC advance plans for entrepreneur and startup fund6 October 2026 · Context on Pakistan's wider tech-sector engagement with multilateral and Gulf partners, including the parallel IFC push for an entrepreneur and startup fund announced the same week.
