Decoding AI — What the promise of artificial intelligence means for developing economies Somik LallGaurav Nayyar September 22, 2026 This page in: English

Decoding AI — What the promise of artificial intelligence means for developing economies Somik LallGaurav Nayyar September 22, 2026 This page in: English https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/developmenttalk/decoding-ai---what-the-promise-of-artificial-intelligence-means- Most of what we hear about artificial intelligence comes through the lens of advanced economies: the race to build the most powerful models, the fear that white-collar jobs will disappear. That framing misses AI's biggest opportunity. In much of the developing world, the problem is too few skilled workers, not too many — too few doctors to diagnose disease, too few agronomists to advise farmers, too few officials to deliver services. AI, which has reached lower-income countries 40 times faster than the internet did, can extend scarce expertise to far more people in far less time. This blog draws on the World Development Report 2026: The Promise of Artificial Intelligence, which examines what AI means for development through the lens of three interconnected questions: what AI can do, who controls it, and what it needs to work.