Anthropic released the Claude Economic Index and the Caribbean barely registered. That is the headline. Not because the index is wrong, but because the data it captures tells a story about AI economic impact that the Caribbean is mostly absent from. And that absence is the story.
I have spent 15 years building AI in this region. I founded the Caribbean's First AI Company. I run four AI labs in Jamaica. And I am telling you: the Claude Economic Index should scare Caribbean policymakers into action. Not because of what it says about us. Because of what it does not say about us.
What the Claude Economic Index Measures
The Claude Economic Index tracks how AI is being used across industries and economies by analysing patterns in how people interact with Claude. It looks at which sectors are adopting AI, what tasks are being automated or augmented, and how AI usage patterns correlate with economic activity. Think of it as a real-time barometer of AI's economic penetration, measured through actual usage rather than survey data.
This is significant because most AI economic studies rely on projections and self-reported data. The Claude Economic Index uses observed behaviour. What are people actually doing with AI? Which industries are actually using it? Which countries are actually deploying it? The answers come from real usage, not from aspirational press releases.
Where the Caribbean Stands
The Caribbean's AI adoption, measured by actual usage patterns, is low. Significantly lower than Latin American peers like Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. Lower than small economies like Estonia and Singapore that have comparable populations to some Caribbean nations but dramatically higher AI penetration.
The sectors where Caribbean AI usage does appear are predictable: software development (developers using Claude for coding), content creation (marketing teams using Claude for copy), and customer service (businesses using Claude for support automation). These are valid uses. They are also the most basic level of AI adoption. They represent augmentation of existing tasks, not transformation of industries.
What is mostly absent from the Caribbean data is the kind of AI usage that transforms economic structures: AI in financial services for credit modelling. AI in agriculture for yield optimisation. AI in government for service delivery. AI in healthcare for diagnostic support. The transformative applications are happening elsewhere. The Caribbean is stuck at the "using AI to write emails faster" stage while other regions are using AI to rebuild their economic infrastructure.
Why This Matters More Than People Think
I have been making this argument for years, but the Claude Economic Index puts numbers behind it. The AI productivity gap is not coming. It is here. Countries and regions that adopt AI at the transformative level are already pulling ahead economically. Countries that adopt it only at the surface level will fall further behind with each passing quarter.
The Caribbean's economic model is already fragile. We depend on tourism, remittances, and commodity exports. All three of these sectors are being reshaped by AI in other countries. Hotels in Southeast Asia are using AI for dynamic pricing and personalised guest experiences. Remittance providers globally are using AI to reduce transfer costs. Agricultural exporters in Africa and South America are using AI to improve quality control and supply chain efficiency.
If Caribbean businesses are only using AI to write better marketing copy while their global competitors are using AI to fundamentally restructure their operations, the competitive gap widens. The Claude Economic Index makes that gap visible and measurable.
What the Index Gets Wrong About the Caribbean
I have to be fair to the region. The Claude Economic Index has blind spots when it comes to the Caribbean, and they are important.
First, it only measures Claude usage. The Caribbean has significant ChatGPT adoption that the index does not capture. Many Jamaican businesses and professionals I work with use ChatGPT daily. That usage represents real AI adoption that does not appear in Anthropic's data.
Second, the index does not capture AI work happening outside of commercial AI assistant platforms. The AI research at our labs, the models we build at StarApple AI, the custom systems deployed at Caribbean banks and credit unions, none of that shows up in the Claude Economic Index. It shows up in results. In improved fraud detection rates. In expanded credit access. In better hurricane prediction models. But it does not show up in Anthropic's usage data because we are building our own AI systems, not using off the shelf assistants.
Third, the index has an infrastructure bias. Caribbean internet connectivity is expensive and inconsistent. AI adoption rates in a country where a reliable internet connection costs 15% of the average monthly income are going to look different from adoption rates in a country where connectivity is cheap and universal. The index does not adjust for that. It should.
The LATAMC AI Playbook as the Response
This is exactly why I built the LATAMC AI Playbook. Over 15,000 evidence-based AI use cases mapped across every sector and every Caribbean and Latin American economy. The Playbook exists because the Caribbean cannot afford to figure out AI adoption by trial and error. We need a roadmap. The Claude Economic Index tells us where we are. The LATAMC AI Playbook tells us where to go.
When I look at the index data and compare it against the Playbook, the gap is clear but so is the path. The Caribbean's highest return AI opportunities are in financial inclusion, tourism personalisation, agricultural traceability, and government service automation. These are not speculative. They are proven in other markets and directly applicable to Caribbean economies. The question is not whether they work. The question is how fast we deploy them.
What Caribbean Governments Need to Do Right Now
The Claude Economic Index should be a wake-up call for every minister of finance, every permanent secretary, and every technology advisor in CARICOM. Here is what I recommend based on 15 years of building AI in this region:
Measure AI adoption properly. Commission a Caribbean-specific AI adoption study that goes beyond assistant usage. Measure AI deployment in financial services, agriculture, healthcare, and government. The Caribbean needs its own economic index, not one designed for the Global North.
Fund AI infrastructure, not AI talk. Every Caribbean government has participated in AI conferences and signed AI declarations. Very few have invested in the data infrastructure, the compute resources, and the training programmes that actual AI deployment requires. Declarations do not build AI systems. Investment does.
Set targets with deadlines. Singapore set specific AI adoption targets for specific sectors with specific deadlines. Estonia did the same. The Caribbean can do this too. "We want AI in government" is a wish. "We will deploy AI diagnostic support in 50% of public health centres by 2028" is a plan. Plans get implemented. Wishes do not.
Partner with the private sector, not against it. The AI expertise in the Caribbean is overwhelmingly in the private sector. At StarApple AI, at the labs, at the small but growing community of Caribbean AI professionals. Governments that partner with this community will move faster than governments that try to build parallel AI capacity from scratch.
Being the Boss of This Moment
The name AI Boss came from a sprint session in 2014 when I taught a nontechnical staff member at my first startup how to build a neural network from nothing but a whiteboard and patience. Be the Boss of AI. Do not let it use you. Direct it. Shape it. Make it serve your goals.
The same principle applies at the national and regional level. The Claude Economic Index shows that AI is reshaping the global economy in real time. The Caribbean can be the Boss of that reshaping or it can be shaped by it. There is no third option. There is no "wait and see." The countries that wait will find that the economic structures they depended on have been restructured by AI without their input.
I do not want that for this region. I have spent 15 years building because I believe the Caribbean can lead. The data says we are behind. The data is right. But being behind is not the same as being defeated. It is a starting position. What we do next is what matters.
"The Claude Economic Index does not just measure AI adoption. It measures which economies are building the future and which are watching it happen. The Caribbean needs to decide which side of that line it wants to be on." - Adrian Dunkley, AI Boss