Artificial intelligence is frequently described as a threat to developing countries.
The World Bank has offered a more hopeful—and urgent—interpretation.
It says AI could allow emerging economies to achieve a century’s worth of development within a decade, provided they move quickly to improve electricity, internet access, devices and digital skills.
World Bank chief economist Indermit Gill described artificial intelligence as a “lifeline” for developing economies and argued that they cannot afford to miss this technological shift in the way many missed the first Industrial Revolution. �
Reuters
Developing Countries Do Not Need Their Own Giant ChatGPT
One of the most important points in the World Bank’s analysis is that poorer countries do not need to build enormous frontier models or billion-pound data centres before they can benefit.
They can adapt smaller, lower-cost systems to local conditions.
Potential applications include:
Helping health workers diagnose illness
Supporting teachers with lesson planning
Giving farmers advice about planting and weather
Improving access to legal and judicial services
Translating government information
Providing local-language education
Supporting small businesses
Expanding access to specialist knowledge
The value may come from focused tools solving specific problems—not from recreating every capability of the largest American or Chinese model. �
Reuters
Fewer Jobs Are Directly Exposed
The report found that generative AI is currently more likely to threaten employment in richer countries than in lower-income economies.
Approximately 14.2% of jobs in high-income countries are exposed to displacement risk, compared with around 4.5% in low- and middle-income countries.
Meanwhile, the proportion of jobs that could experience meaningful productivity gains is relatively similar: 18.7% in high-income countries and 16.2% in developing economies. �
Reuters
This creates an unusual possibility.
Developing countries may have nearly as much to gain from productivity improvements while facing less immediate exposure to automated job replacement.
Why the Difference Exists
Wealthier economies have more workers performing digitised office tasks such as:
Administrative processing
Financial analysis
Software development
Legal drafting
Customer support
Professional writing
Those tasks are easier for current generative AI systems to assist with or partly automate.
Many jobs in developing economies remain physical, informal, agricultural or service-based.
AI cannot easily replace every activity, but it can still improve access to information and decision-making.
A farmer may not be replaced by a chatbot.
The farmer may use AI to understand pests, prices, rainfall and planting schedules.
The Infrastructure Gap
The opportunity will disappear without basic infrastructure.
The World Bank says governments need to improve:
Electricity access
Internet connectivity
Smartphone and computer availability
Digital skills
Local-language technology
Institutional capacity
An AI health assistant is useless where a clinic has no reliable power.
An educational chatbot cannot help a student who lacks a device or affordable data.
AI inclusion begins with physical infrastructure.
The Risks Remain Serious
The World Bank also warned that AI could worsen:
Income inequality
Misinformation
Political repression
Unequal access
Dependence on foreign companies
Governments may use AI to improve public services.
They may also use it for surveillance, manipulation or censorship.
International companies may extract data and profits while providing limited local value.
Development therefore requires governance, not merely access. �
Reuters
The Commonwealth Opportunity
Many Commonwealth countries share legal systems, educational structures, languages, institutional links and development priorities.
That creates an opportunity for collaborative AI infrastructure.
India has major technology capacity.
Canada and the United Kingdom possess research and policy expertise.
African, Caribbean, Asian and Pacific members possess enormous linguistic, cultural and market diversity.
Rather than every country attempting to build alone, Commonwealth partners could collaborate on:
Local-language models
Agricultural tools
Medical decision support
Educational content
Public-service systems
AI safety standards
Shared computing access
Skills programmes
The goal should not be importing artificial intelligence unchanged from Silicon Valley.
It should be adapting intelligence to local needs.
Mary Chuks’ Perspective
This is the argument I have been making for Commonwealth AI and the Global South.
The next phase of AI should not ask poorer countries to become passive consumers of tools designed elsewhere.
They should become builders, contributors and owners.
A Nigerian farmer does not need a model trained primarily around American corporate language.
A rural clinic needs intelligence adapted to local diseases, resources and languages.
An African school needs tools designed around its curriculum and cultural reality.
The opportunity is not merely catching up.
It is building differently.
Practical Policy Priorities
Invest in affordable electricity and broadband.
Support local-language datasets.
Train teachers, healthcare workers and public servants.
Use small models where they are sufficient.
Protect citizens’ data.
Build regional compute partnerships.
Fund local startups.
Evaluate tools within the communities using them.
Prevent foreign-model dependence.
Ensure women, rural communities and disabled people are included.
Conclusion
AI could widen the gap between rich and poor countries.
It could also help compress decades of development into a much shorter period.
The difference will depend on who builds the infrastructure, who controls the systems and whether the technology is adapted to people’s real lives.
Original Source and Further Reading
Primary reporting: Reuters, Libby George, “AI Offers ‘Lifeline’ for Emerging Economies, World Bank Says,” published 4 August 2026. The report covers the World Bank’s employment estimates, infrastructure recommendations and development claims. �
Reuters