Amar Fayaz Buriro

Amar Fayaz Buriro is a trailblazer in the fields of computational linguistics, lexicography, and digital humanities. He is internationally acknowledged for his revolutionary work merging artificial intelligence with human language, specifically focusing on Sindhi and other major languages of Pakistan. Currently, he holds the position of Project Director at the Government of Sindh’s Department of Culture, Tourism, Antiquities & Archives, where he spearheads strategic efforts to blend AI technology with the preservation of cultural heritage.

With a career spanning over 30 years, Amar has played a pivotal role in evolving Sindhi from a traditionally preserved language into a sophisticated, AI-ready linguistic ecosystem. His expertise covers a broad spectrum of technologies, including:
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
Text-to-Speech (TTS) & Speech-to-Text (STT)
Massive lexical databases and AI training datasets
Knowledge-graph-based linguistic modeling

Leadership in AI & Language Engineering

Amar is the founding Director of the Abdul Majid Bhurgri Institute of Language Engineering (AMBILE) in Hyderabad. This statutory body is dedicated to advancing AI-based innovation for Sindhi and regional languages. Under his guidance, AMBILE has become Pakistan’s premier research hub for language AI, actively developing:

Pioneering Sindhi OCR Systems: The first of their kind, designed for digitizing historical manuscripts and archives.
Semantic Models: Large-scale Sindhi lexical databases and WordNet-style frameworks.
Speech Engines: AI-powered TTS and STT solutions specifically for Sindhi.
AI Assistants: Chat-based conversational agents and specialized domain models.
Heritage Preservation: Digitization pipelines for endangered oral, audio, and textual history.
Advanced Tools: Systems for AI-assisted translation, summarization, and semantic search.

Additionally, he is the architect behind Sindh.AI, a holistic ecosystem featuring specialized AI assistants for law, culture, research, and education, ensuring Sindhi is positioned as a globally viable AI language.

Computational Linguistics & Lexicography

In 1997, Amar set a national standard in bilingual lexicography by compiling Pakistan’s most extensive English-to-Sindhi dictionary. This work has since evolved into the digital realm, expanding into:

Digital dictionaries
Morphological analyzers
Grammar-aware tokenization systems
Semantic tagging frameworks

These resources now serve as the foundational datasets required to train modern AI models. Furthermore, Amar designed the language codices and encoding standards that allowed Sindhi to be seamlessly integrated into contemporary computing platforms.

Pioneer in Digital Typography & Localization

Amar is the inventor of “Amar Nastaleeq,” the world’s first web-based Nastaleeq font, and is a key figure in font engineering for Right-to-Left (RTL) languages. His contributions to localization include:

CMS Localization: He successfully adapted global platforms like WordPress and Joomla for Sindhi and Urdu, facilitating multilingual publishing well before it became an industry standard.
Web Architecture: He has architected and managed over 85 multilingual, AI-optimized web portals, incorporating semantic SEO, structured data, and accessibility at scale.

AI, Culture & Digital Heritage

Operating as a Google Local Guide and Cultural Localizer, Amar leads initiatives that bridge technology and history, including:

Geo-tagging historical sites
Documenting heritage through 360-degree VR
Crafting digital tourism narratives
Building AI-powered cultural discovery platforms

His vision is to integrate machine intelligence with human memory, ensuring cultural heritage is not just preserved, but computationally comprehended, searchable, and accessible to a global audience.

Academic Contributions & Thought Leadership

Beyond his engineering achievements, Amar is a distinguished author and intellectual. He has published over 150 essays and analytical articles on platforms such as BBC Urdu and Alami Akhbar. His writing explores the intersection of technology, society, and philosophy, discussing the ethical implications of AI, linguistic identity, and cultural continuity.

Awards & Honors

Latif Award (2017): The highest cultural honor bestowed by the Government of Sindh.
Gold Medal: Awarded by the Sindh Graduates Association for exceptional service to language and technology.

Philosophy

Amar Fayaz Buriro defines himself as a technologist with a humanist soul. He is deeply committed to the belief that AI should not replace human expression, but rather serve as a multiplier for linguistic diversity, cultural dignity, and intellectual sovereignty. His body of work represents a unique fusion of engineering rigour, linguistic expertise, and ethical foresight.