Iran's artificial intelligence portfolio is nothing short of impressive

Artificial intelligence, one of the fastest growing fields of technology which is fundamentally changing many aspects of today's life, has made significant progress in Iran, a country with unique opportunities and challenges.

The number of startups operating on data analysis, machine learning, and computer vision is growing in Iran where they provide a variety of services to customers by using artificial intelligence-based innovations.

Some of these startups have managed to attract domestic and international investments and are gradually developing and expanding their activities.

One of the key features of the AI ecosystem in Iran is the growing cooperation between universities and industry. These collaborations help new companies and startups to exploit knowledge and scientific research and provide new products and services based on artificial intelligence.

The commercialization of academic knowledge is increasingly seen as a potential economic development model, particularly for improving the capabilities and economic performance of regions.

The interaction between science and industry not only helps to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence in Iran, but also leads to increasing the efficiency and competitiveness of these companies in domestic and foreign markets.

Iran’s digital economy wonders in face of sanctions

Economic sanctions and other challenges have not deterred Iran from carving out a strong niche in the international digital economy by using domestic knowledge and capabilities.

Iran’s development of Surena series of humanoid robots is the biggest feat of the country in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence. Analyzed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the humanoid named after the Parthian General Surena, is viewed among the prominent robots in the world.

The fourth generation Surena, unveiled in 2019, can walk on uneven terrain and grasp objects with force control.

Another success story is Balad, an AI-based navigation application with millions of installs on phones. The idea of ​​creating this local mapping service that uses speech recognition technology was incepted after Google Maps stopped working in Iran due to foreign sanctions.

The application helps users find the best route for trips within and outside the city, as well as choose the best place for entertainment, sightseeing, and services.

The Nature Index tracks the affiliations of high-quality scientific articles ranks Iran as 13th in the world for AI in terms of research publications from 2015-2019 - higher than Brazil, the Netherlands and Russia.

In the Scimago Institutions Rankings, Iran is listed 15th in the world and first in West Asia in terms of published articles related to artificial intelligence, after Brazil, above Russia and Turkey.

SCImago is a public service that lists scientific journals and publication rates by countries, combing three different sets of indicators based on research performance, innovation outputs and societal impact.

Also, in cognitive science, a subset of psychology, which is one of the disciplines related to AI, Iran ranks 36th in the world and third in West Asia.

In electrical and electronic engineering, which is part of artificial intelligence, Iran ranks 15th in the world and first in West Asia. The University of Tehran is ranked 59th among the top 100 research institutions in the field of AI.

The CSRankings is a metrics-based ranking of top computer science institutions around the world, with data derived from profiles of computer scientists in Google Scholar. Based on its 2011-2021 ranking, Sharif University of Technology, the IPM Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences s and Iran University of Science and Technology were among the top 100 institutions in Asia working on artificial intelligence.

Iran continues to emerge as a regional leader in cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and nanotechnology, which are having burgeoning applications in various industries.

Last month, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) deployed missiles featuring artificial intelligence technology during military drills in the Persian Gulf.

Iran has set a goal to become an artificial intelligence market leader by 2032. A report by the country's Information and Communications Technology Research Institute indicates that Iran will be among the top 10 countries in AI within 10 years.

The AI ecosystem in Iran is buoyed by an entrepreneurial spirit with a resourcefulness to adapt and find innovative solutions to challenges posed by unfair sanctions on the country.  

In short, the AI field is a golden opportunity for Iran which calls for extensive cooperation between the government, the private sector and universities to use all the capacities for its development. 

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