Good news about AI for developing economies

The World Bank’s World Development Report 2026 has de-demonised Artificial Intelligence (AI). The report says that AI is not about trillion-dollar investments about mega-data centres and about larger than large language models. It says that AI can be a useful tool for developing economies to improve the functioning of their economic systems which in turn would boost their economies. It also says that developing economies should not sink into despair because they do not have the large financial outlays to invest in AI-powered data centres. It is arguing that developing economies like India and Brazil have shown how AI can be put to improve the payments systems across the board, through UPI in India and Pix in Brazil.

In his foreword to the report, World Bank’s senior vice president and chief economist Indermit Gill says, “If handled well, AI could help lift global growth to its strongest pace since the golden years of the 2000s, delivering tangible benefits to people in developing economies as well. This 2026 edition of the World Development Report shows that even if AI fails to live up to all its hype, developing economies would still be better off than they are today.” That is a sobering and positive assessment of AI. It is advised that economists and policymakers in developing economies should heed. It is indeed the case that in advanced economies, especially the United States, there is market delirium surrounding AI, and it is surprising that investment in AI innovations are nothing less than hundreds of billions, and always estimations are in terms of trillions.

The major myth about AI is it’s going to kill off jobs, and that people will be left in the lurch. The report shows that AI will aid workers in the system to handle transactions in efficient ways like inventories, weather forecasts, and transportation logistics. This is helping people manage their work tasks in a constructive way. The strong advice to the leaders of the developing economies is that they should not set their sights only on the latest AI innovation that outshines all that has gone before.

Imitation of the rich countries in dealing with AI is the wrong way to go about it. The report suggests that developing economies should choose bits of AI innovations from many sources, and that they should not, and need not, have to import the whole AI system. This is to counter the unintended consequence of total dependence on one country or one corporation. The developing economies should pick and choose their AI packages which are of relevance to the particular economy.

In the foreword, Gill points out the many ways through which developing economies can benefit from AI. He says, “AI, for example, might enable the judiciary to radically reduce caseloads, help teachers prepare better lessons, assist nurses in interpreting medical scans, or guide a farmer on when to plant and which pesticides to avoid.” It might be said that a rosy picture is being built around AI. It can be said that if AI lends a helping hand in dealing with work tasks, then it is radically something to be welcomed. AI need not usher in a utopian world.

The bank’s report comes at a time when most intelligent people are fretting over the impact of AI on people, their lives and the economies. The report shows that there is no need for alarm, and that catastrophe is not round the corner. There was need for sane talk about AI. The report cites enough evidence to show how AI can be and should be handled in many tasks of the everyday world. The reality of AI is nowhere as frightening as the AI of the futurologists. AI will not banish workers and even work. It turns out to be a big help in the work.