Nepali AI Innovation Wins ASOCIO AI in Healthcare Award 2026

A homegrown AI solution aims to make cervical cancer screening more efficient and accessible, while keeping expert clinicians at the centre of diagnosis.

KATHMANDU, NEPAL | 10 OCTOBER 2026 — Nepali technology company WiseYak Solutions Pvt. Ltd. has won the ASOCIO AI in Healthcare Award 2026 for its AI-Assisted Cytology Solution for Cervical Cancer Screening (AISCS). The award recognises a locally developed innovation tackling an important public health challenge: helping healthcare teams screen for cervical cancer more efficiently, including in settings where specialist diagnostic resources are limited.

The award was presented at the ASOCIO Digital & AI Summit 2026, held from 5 to 7 October in Jakarta, Indonesia. The summit and awards are organised by the Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization (ASOCIO), which recognises digital and AI initiatives across the Asia-Oceania region.

Bringing AI into the cervical screening workflow

Cervical cancer remains a significant health concern for women in Nepal. Screening and timely follow-up can help detect concerning changes earlier, but access to screening services and specialised diagnostic expertise is not always readily available.
AISCS combines digital microscopy, automated image analysis and AI-assisted classification aligned with the Bethesda System used in cervical cytology. It is designed to help laboratory teams and pathologists organise findings, prioritise cases for review and support a more efficient screening workflow.
The system is designed to support—not replace—clinical expertise. Final diagnosis remains under expert supervision.
The solution uses microscope-based image capture and is designed with resource-constrained healthcare environments in mind. Rather than depending exclusively on expensive whole-slide imaging infrastructure, AISCS aims to offer a more economical path to introducing AI-assisted analysis into existing screening workflows.

Clinical validation and pilot results
According to Wise Yak’s project documentation, AISCS has undergone clinical validation using more than 8,000 digitised cervical cytology image patches from approximately 500 patients in Nepal. The company reports that pilot implementation demonstrated the following operational results:
• Faster reporting: reported diagnostic turnaround time reduced from 7–14 days to less than two hours.
• Higher throughput: screening throughput increased by up to four times.
• Reduced review workload: pathologist review workload reduced by up to 87%.
These are company-reported results from the documented evaluation and pilot implementation; performance and workflow outcomes can vary across clinical settings. Further validation is ongoing, and the solution has not yet entered commercial rollout. The next stage is to assess how the platform can be deployed responsibly and sustainably in healthcare settings.

A wider opportunity for homegrown AI
For Wise Yak, the award is both recognition of the team’s work and an example of how local technology talent can apply advances in AI research to challenges that matter to communities. Solutions designed around local clinical workflows, cost constraints and the role of health professionals may help countries build relevant technology capabilities rather than relying solely on imported systems.

“Technologies like AISCS show how countries in the Global South can build on the latest AI research to develop affordable solutions using local talent. This demonstrates what is possible when innovation is directed at local needs. Governments should also prioritise quality education and the development of a strong AI ecosystem.”
— Co-founder & CEO Suresh Manandhar, Wise Yak Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

With commercial rollout still pending, the company’s immediate opportunity is to continue validating the solution and explore suitable pathways for responsible adoption. The longer-term ambition is to help expand access to efficient screening workflows in Nepal and, potentially, in other settings facing similar resource constraints.

About Wise Yak Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Kathmandu, Nepal, Wise Yak Solutions Pvt. Ltd. develops technology in artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer vision, health informatics and software engineering. The company applies AI and digital technologies to practical challenges in healthcare and enterprise systems.

Media Contact
Nabin Sapkota
Wise Yak Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Email: nabin.sapkota@wiseyak.com
Website: www.wiseyak.com

About ASOCIO: The Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization (ASOCIO) brings together ICT industry associations across the Asia-Oceania region. Its Digital & AI Awards recognise organisations using digital technologies and AI to drive innovation and impact.

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November 26, 2025 | Kathmandu, Nepal

Wiseyak Receives GSMA Innovation Fund Grant to Bridge Nepal’s Digital Divide Through Multilingual Conversational AI

AI-powered solution will enable businesses to serve English, Nepali, and Maithili-speaking customers through voice-based technology, expanding access to essential services for underserved communities.

Kathmandu, Nepal — November 26, 2025 — Wiseyak, a homegrown artificial intelligence (AI) company from Nepal, today announced that it has received a grant from the GSMA Innovation Fund to develop a multilingual conversational AI solution designed to reduce Nepal’s digital divide by addressing language and digital literacy barriers.

The project will develop conversational AI capabilities supporting English, Nepali, and Maithili, including speech-to-text (STT), text-to-speech (TTS), and voice-to-voice communication. The solution aims to help businesses make their products and services more accessible to customers who face difficulties navigating conventional digital platforms because of language, literacy, or technology constraints.

Addressing Language Barriers to Essential Services

Despite the growing availability of digital services in Nepal, access to essential services—including health insurance, financial products, agricultural support, and government services—remains limited for many households. Low literacy, limited digital awareness, and difficulties understanding product information, pricing, and service options continue to create significant barriers.

These challenges are particularly pronounced among Maithili-speaking communities, representing one of Nepal’s largest native-language populations. Much of the information and many digital service platforms available today primarily use Nepali or English, making it difficult for people who are more comfortable communicating in Maithili to access and understand available services.

Furthermore, many rural users continue to rely on basic mobile phones that support voice calls and SMS but lack the capabilities of smartphones. As essential services increasingly move to digital channels, these users risk being left behind.

Wiseyak’s multilingual conversational AI initiative seeks to address these challenges by enabling more natural, accessible, and language-inclusive interactions between businesses and their customers.

Enabling Enterprises to Reach Underserved Customers

The solution will be designed for medium and large enterprises, including banks, insurance providers, agritech companies, and mobile network operators (MNOs). By integrating conversational AI into their customer service channels, these organisations will be able to offer more accessible ways for customers to obtain information, understand products, and navigate services in their preferred languages.

The project will focus on three core capabilities:

• Speech-to-Text (STT): Converts spoken language into text, enabling systems to understand and process customer voice inputs.
• Text-to-Speech (TTS): Converts written information into spoken responses, making service information more accessible to users with limited literacy or reading proficiency.
• Voice-to-Voice Conversational AI: Enables users to communicate naturally through voice and receive spoken responses, supporting more intuitive interactions with digital services.

Through these capabilities, banks could help customers understand financial products, insurers could explain coverage and policy information, agritech providers could share relevant agricultural guidance, and mobile operators could make customer support more accessible to people who prefer voice-based communication.

Exploring AI-Powered Call Centre Digitalisation

In collaboration with mobile network operators and other enterprise clients, the project will also explore opportunities to digitalise call centre operations. Conversational AI could help address routine customer enquiries and frequently asked questions before escalating more complex issues to human customer service representatives.

This approach has the potential to streamline customer service workflows, reduce the burden on human operators, improve response times, and allow customer service teams to focus on enquiries that require human judgement and intervention.

Enterprise-Grade Deployment and Data Security

Wiseyak’s solutions are designed to support on-premise deployment, allowing enterprise clients to host AI capabilities within their own infrastructure. This deployment model is particularly relevant for organisations such as banks, insurers, and telecommunications providers that require greater control over their data, infrastructure, and security arrangements.

By combining multilingual conversational AI with enterprise-oriented deployment options, Wiseyak aims to help organisations adopt AI-powered customer engagement while addressing their operational and data security requirements.

Advancing Inclusive AI in Nepal

The GSMA Innovation Fund grant represents an important opportunity for Wiseyak to apply artificial intelligence to a pressing development challenge in Nepal: ensuring that language and digital literacy do not prevent people from accessing essential services.

As a Nepal-founded AI company, Wiseyak is focused on developing practical AI solutions that address real-world needs across healthcare, financial services, telecommunications, agriculture, and other sectors. The company’s work combines AI-driven automation, conversational technologies, and data analytics to help organisations improve service delivery and expand access.

Through this initiative, Wiseyak aims to demonstrate how multilingual and voice-enabled AI can help connect underserved communities with the services they need, bringing more people into Nepal’s growing digital economy.

About Wiseyak

Wiseyak is an AI company founded in Nepal that develops AI-driven solutions to help organisations improve operational efficiency, automate processes, and deliver better services. Its areas of work include conversational AI, natural language processing, intelligent automation, healthcare technology, and data analytics. Wiseyak serves organisations across multiple industries, with a focus on building practical, secure, and locally relevant AI solutions.

About the GSMA Innovation Fund

The GSMA Innovation Fund supports innovative initiatives that use mobile and digital technologies to address development challenges and improve access to services for underserved communities. Through initiatives such as this grant, the GSMA seeks to encourage solutions that can contribute to inclusive digital and economic development.

Media Contact

Wiseyak
Kathmandu, Nepal
Website: www.wiseyak.com