A leading Caribbean academic is calling for urgent investment in artificial intelligence (AI) content and digital infrastructure, warning that the region risks falling further behind in the global digital economy without a coordinated and strategic push.
Dr Keith Nurse, president of the College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago (COSTAATT), made the appeal on Wednesday during the 11th Leo Leacock Memorial Lecture at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre. Speaking on the topic Preparing Business For The Age Of Artificial Intelligence, he argued that the Caribbean must shift from being mere consumers of digital content to becoming producers of AI-driven innovation and intellectual property.
“AI is a very powerful tool,” Nurse said. “How can we use AI to export our capacity to win new markets in whatever? That’s the question we need to ask.”
The lecture formed part of the Small Business Association of Barbados’ week of activities, under the theme Navigating Business In The Age Of AI And Digital Technology.
Nurse said that digital transformation budgets across the region remained woefully inadequate, citing figures from his home country and the host nation.
“Trinidad and Tobago has a digital transformation budget of about US$44 million, and Barbados about $30 million. But, we are not close to anywhere we need to be. We are under-investing in ourselves. If you are not in the business of generating content, you are not in the game.”
He emphasised the need to equip young people with the skills to create AI content and intellectual property for international markets, calling it a necessary step to ensure future competitiveness.
“Our young people need us to do this,” he said.
“We are not generating a lot of our content. If we are using other people’s content, then what are we learning?”
Describing the Caribbean as a region that “lags in AI development”, Nurse warned that the implications were economic as well as technological. “Who
controls the data controls the economy going forward,” he said, underscoring the strategic importance of developing local capabilities in data management and AI technologies.
He also took aim at the financial sector, particularly commercial banks and regulatory bodies, for failing to adequately support innovation and start-ups.
“Our banks are very risk-averse,” he said. “The banking sector is doing very well financially, but our central banks have been extremely conservative on FinTech.”
Nurse advocated for the creation of dedicated funding mechanisms to support tech start-ups and digital entrepreneurs. These, he said, should be tied to capacity-building efforts in the digital creative sector, including areas like AI, blockchain, and other emerging technologies.
“The Caribbean must invest in developing an integrative approach to AI and all the other digital technologies,” he said. “We need strategy. Policy by itself will not transform economies.”
Pointing to global examples, Nurse noted that countries like Thailand have already approved national AI strategies and even appointed ministers with specific responsibility for AI.
“Other countries are acting. We need to move with urgency if we want to be part of the global digital value chain,” he warned.
He also spoke of the potential for AI-driven transformation in traditional sectors such as tourism and health care.
“There is a bright future for health interventions using AI. I think that human health is going to be one of the biggest beneficiaries,” he said. (HH)
