Nepal’s national AI policy 2082 (2025)

Nepal’s National AI Policy 2082 (2025) provides a comprehensive framework for developing a human-centric AI ecosystem. It emphasises infrastructure, human capacity, sectoral adoption, ethical safeguards, and international collaboration, aiming to position Nepal as an active participant in the global AI landscape while addressing local socioeconomic challenges.

In Nepal’s context, AI is seen as a tool for bridging the digital divide, improving governance, generating employment, and supporting sustainable socioeconomic development. The background section highlights existing foundations, such as the Electronic Transactions Act 2006, the ICT Policy 2015, the Digital Nepal Framework 2019, the National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2019, and the National Cybersecurity Policy 2023, which paved the way for a dedicated AI policy.

It also identifies challenges: lack of quality datasets, insufficient infrastructure, legal and institutional gaps, limited investment, cybersecurity risks, and ethical issues such as data privacy, bias, deepfakes, and employment displacement. The necessity of the policy is grounded in aligning with UNESCO’s AI ethics guidelines, ensuring safe, transparent, and accountable AI systems, and fostering local innovation and research.

Vision, mission, goals, and objectives

• Vision: Ethical, safe, and human-centric AI development in Nepal.
• Mission: Promote inclusive and sustainable socio-economic growth through responsible use of AI.
• Goals:
  1. Increase ICT’s contribution to GDP by 1% through AI.
  2. Rank Nepal among the top 50 countries in the AI Readiness Index.
  3. Train 5,000 AI professionals within five years.
  4. Establish AI excellence centres in all seven provinces.
  5. Ensure AI literacy from school level upwards.
• Objectives: Build a reliable AI ecosystem, boost economic productivity, improve public services, and strengthen governance.

Core policies

The policy sets six pillars:

1. Ecosystem building – Legal frameworks, institutional arrangements, and infrastructure.
2. Education and research – Prioritising AI-related study, research, and skilled human resource development.
3. Sectoral application – Using AI in agriculture, health, education, tourism, finance, energy, and governance.
4. Entrepreneurship and industry support – Encouraging startups, innovation, and investment.
5. Public service delivery – Making government services efficient, transparent, and citizen-friendly.
6. Ethics and risk management – Ensuring AI use minimises risks and upholds ethical standards.

Strategies and implementation measures

The strategy chapter translates these policies into actions:

• Establish AI Governance Council for policy direction.
• Create a National AI Centre to coordinate implementation, research, and international cooperation.
• Develop AI Excellence Centres in provinces for training, innovation, and research.
• Introduce regulatory sandboxes for safe experimentation.
• Build infrastructure like data centers, cloud systems, and high-performance computing.
• Integrate AI in curricula from school to university, provide scholarships, internships, and vocational training.
• Promote AI incubation hubs and brain-gain programs to involve diaspora talent.
• Apply AI in agriculture (predictive analytics, crop monitoring), health (diagnostic imaging, disease prediction), tourism (virtual guides, safety systems), energy (smart grids), finance (fraud detection), transport (traffic management), and environment (disaster response, pollution control).
• Encourage public–private partnerships and international investment.
• Protect intellectual property, data privacy, and introduce national AI benchmarks and indices.
• Promote Nepali languages in AI development.
• Collaborate with UNESCO and other international bodies on ethical and safe AI use.

governance, financing, and review

• Governance: The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology is the lead agency. Coordination is mandated with provinces, local governments, the private sector, academia, and international organisations.
• Financing: Implementation relies on national budgets, supplemented by the private sector, international partners, and donor agencies.
• Risk management: Recognises risks such as resource constraints, lack of coordination, and limited capacity. The AI Governance Council and National AI Centre are tasked with monitoring, risk assessment, and mitigation.
• Monitoring and review: The policy includes annual monitoring, a two-year review cycle, and adjustments based on outcomes and evolving technology.