Bangladesh’s AI Moment: AI software development in Bangladesh

The UNESCO Artificial Intelligence Readiness Assessment Report for Bangladesh provides a structured and data-driven view of where Bangladesh's current state of AI readiness (or stood in 2025, in this AI age, every week is an eon, so by the time you read this post it will alredy be ancient information.) The findings show a country with strong digital foundations, but uneven AI maturity across policy, infrastructure, and innovation.

Current state of AI in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has a draft National AI Policy and a draft Data Protection Bill, but neither is finalized yet. This places the country in a transitional phase—aware of AI’s importance, but still formalizing the rules of engagement. The report also notes gaps in cybersecurity readiness and the absence of AI-specific procurement frameworks, which limit large-scale public-sector adoption.

From an education and research standpoint, Bangladesh shows encouraging momentum. Nearly 2,000 scholarly AI publications were produced in 2021 alone, reflecting rapid growth in academic engagement. However, overall research spending remains low at around 0.3 percent of GDP, and structured AI curricula—especially around ethics and applied AI—are still limited across primary and secondary education.

Economically, Bangladesh’s AI ecosystem is still nascent. Only a handful of companies currently develop proprietary AI systems, and private investment data remains sparse. Most organizations are still users or adapters of AI rather than creators of core AI technologies.

On the infrastructure side, mobile penetration is high, but only about 44.5% of the population uses the internet, with significant rural-urban and gender gaps. Data center availability and cloud infrastructure remain constrained, especially for AI workloads.

Taken together, the report paints a picture of a country with strong digital adoption and service delivery capability, but one that needs targeted policy, infrastructure, and investment to fully unlock AI at scale.

How Bangladesh Compares to Peer Economies

When compared to countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Cambodia, Bangladesh occupies a distinctive middle position.

Pakistan has slightly higher AI research spending relative to GDP and a larger academic AI footprint, but struggles with political instability and fragmented digital governance. Sri Lanka has stronger education indicators and internet penetration, but a smaller technology workforce and limited export-oriented AI services. Cambodia, while improving rapidly in digital adoption, is still at an earlier stage in both AI research and applied enterprise AI.

Bangladesh’s key advantage lies in scale and execution. It produces a large number of software engineers every year and has decades of experience delivering complex software projects for global clients. While peer economies may excel in isolated areas—policy, academia, or niche innovation—Bangladesh’s strength is its ability to operationalize technology at scale.

This is where companies like Kaz Software become especially relevant. They act as bridges between global AI demand and local technical capacity, translating international use cases into deployable systems built by Bangladeshi teams.

From Readiness to Leadership

The AI Readiness Assessment makes it clear that Bangladesh is not yet a global AI leader—but it is no longer an AI outsider either. The foundational pieces are in place: digital public infrastructure, a growing research base, a large technical workforce, and real-world AI deployments already delivering value.

What remains is coordination. Finalizing AI policy, strengthening data protection, expanding AI education, and investing in infrastructure will determine how fast Bangladesh moves from readiness to leadership.

In the meantime, private-sector actors are already moving. Kaz Software’s experience shows that AI development in Bangladesh is no longer hypothetical. It is happening now, in production systems, across borders, and across industries.

How Kaz Software Has Been Building Real AI Systems

Kaz Software’s work in AI has been deeply practical rather than theoretical. Instead of focusing on abstract research alone, the company has helped global startups and enterprises deploy AI where it directly impacts operations.

In the education space, Kaz Software has supported a US-based startup, Kreebo Inc., in building one of the first conversational AI-powered edtech tools designed specifically for children. The platform combines age-appropriate conversational interfaces with structured learning flows, and its innovation was recognized with the Gold Award at the Asia Smart Innovation Awards—one of the highest regional honors for applied technology.

In agritech, Kaz Software is working with UK-based Virus Bio Shield to develop AI-driven drone software that analyzes aerial imagery to detect crop disease patterns. The system identifies infected zones using computer vision, maps GPS coordinates, and instructs drones to spray insecticide only where needed. This approach dramatically reduces chemical use while increasing crop yield and operational efficiency.

Within manufacturing, Kaz Software has partnered with large-scale producers like Hatil to apply AI-based video analytics and data modeling on factory floors. These systems help identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and defects in real time—areas where traditional reporting methods often fail.

In the enterprise SaaS domain, Kaz Software has helped US company P1ston add an AI layer that automates the sorting and alignment of supply-chain documents with inventory and delivery systems, removing hours of manual reconciliation work.

And in regulatory technology, Kaz Software has supported Reganalytics in transforming tax and trade compliance workflows using AI-driven document analysis and rules engines—cutting compliance costs by up to 90 percent and reducing timelines from months to hours.

These examples matter because they demonstrate something critical:

Bangladesh already has teams capable of building, adapting, and deploying AI systems at a global standard.

If the next phase is executed well, Bangladesh has a realistic chance to distinguish itself not just as a destination for software services but as a country that builds, adapts, and exports applied artificial intelligence at scale.