Edgar Degas, Portraits at the Stock Exchange, ca. 1878–79. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain.
In two weeks, delegates from across CARICOM meet at the University Inn Conference Centre in St. Augustine under the theme "AI for Caribbean Transformation: Governance, Innovation and Resilience for a Shared Digital Future." The main event is the CTU AI Task Force's final report, the region's first serious attempt at a shared position on artificial intelligence.
I have seen the usual sequence in this region on other subjects. A task force convenes, experts do good work, the document launches to applause, and budgets, procurement rules and hiring stay untouched for another two years. This piece sets out what would make July 23 different.
What the Task Force report covers
The CTU Caribbean AI Task Force was launched in mid-2025, and its mandate was formally approved at the CTU's 31st General Conference of Ministers that October. Dr. Craig Ramlal, who chairs UWI St. Augustine's Artificial Intelligence Innovation Centre, has led more than 35 experts from governments, regional institutions, academia, civil society and business. Their interim report of December 2025, "Toward Harmonised AI Policies and Recommendations for the Caribbean," set five priorities:
- Regional AI governance and model laws.
- Data sovereignty and shared computing infrastructure.
- Sector projects in agriculture, tourism, health and financial services.
- Human capacity and AI literacy.
- Continued consultation through the forum and national advisory bodies.
I would not change that list. As President of the Caribbean AI Association, I know how hard it is to get fifteen governments to agree on shared terms, and the task force has done that. The final report, launching on July 23 and 24, is expected to add model legislation, procurement and audit standards governments can adopt, and a proposed Caribbean Data Commons for computing infrastructure no small state could build alone.
The region's AI investment share is a sixth of its GDP share
Latin America and the Caribbean produce 6.6% of global GDP and receive 1.12% of global AI investment. The region has the ideas and the people. The gap comes from investors who still price Caribbean AI ventures as too small and too uncertain, and from boards here that do not push back. PwC's research this year found that only 6% of Caribbean board directors believe their boards spend enough time on AI oversight.
A policy document moves neither number. Money moves when a specific institution decides to fund a specific project, and that happens in boardrooms and finance ministries.
The Caribbean AI Forum, By the Numbers
- 1.12%Share of global AI investment reaching Latin America and the Caribbean
- 6.6%The same region's share of global GDP
- 6%Caribbean board directors who say their boards spend enough time on AI oversight
- 35+Experts on the CTU Caribbean AI Task Force
- 0CARICOM states with a published national AI strategy, as of July 2026
- 62%Global wage premium for AI skills, per PwC's 2026 Jobs Barometer
Readiness also differs across the region. In my assessment, Jamaica, Barbados and The Bahamas are furthest ahead, with working data protection regulators and live policy processes. Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia and Guyana have partial frameworks under way. Haiti, Dominica and Saint Kitts and Nevis are still building basic institutions. One regional report cannot give each of those groups what it needs, so national plans have to carry the rest.
Building has to run alongside the rules
Maestro AI Labs, where I am a co-founder, built the Project Maestro sovereign model with a three-person team and Nvidia backing the infrastructure, without waiting for a regional model law. When I founded StarApple AI as the Caribbean's first AI company, there was no task force, no interim report and no forum. A region that waits for finished rules before it invests loses years. A region that invests with no rules eventually gets hurt by the risks the task force is trying to manage. Both have to happen at once.
The procurement and audit standards will help: a government that can cite a shared standard when it buys an AI system negotiates from a stronger position. The danger is investors using the standards as a reason to keep waiting. Frameworks improve by being tested on real deployments, and that needs money that currently goes to Singapore or Estonia.
AI is already splitting the job market
PwC's 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer, built from more than a billion job postings, found two tracks. In "professionalised" roles, AI takes over routine tasks and the human's judgement becomes more valuable; those roles are growing twice as fast as "democratised" roles and show 42% faster salary growth. The wage premium for AI skills reached 62% this year, up from 57%. AI specialist postings grew 68.9% between 2024 and 2025, against 8.6% for all postings.
That split will reach workers in Kingston, Bridgetown and Port of Spain whether or not a regional report exists. The task force lists human capacity as a priority, and that has to include slowing the brain drain that takes trained people abroad for higher pay. At the forum it needs a training budget and a delivery date attached.
Four outcomes that would make the forum worth it
- Named owners and dates for each of the five priorities before delegates leave St. Augustine, in place of a communique nobody is individually accountable for.
- A public date for a national AI strategy from every CARICOM state that lacks one, as Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago have already given.
- Capital commitments from regional development banks and private investors discussed at the report launch, not deferred to a later meeting.
- Independent auditing of the procurement and audit standards. I have offered the Caribbean AI Risk Management Council for that work.
The test I will apply is simple: whether the region's 1.12% share of global AI investment has moved by July 2027.
What to do next
- Finance ministers: put a line item for AI skills training in the next budget, with a number of people trained and a delivery date, and publish it alongside the national AI strategy timetable.
- Board chairs of Caribbean listed companies and banks: add AI oversight as a standing item at the next board meeting and ask management for an inventory of every AI system in use, with its owner, within 60 days.
- Government procurement officers: download the task force's final report from the CTU when it is published and compare its procurement and audit standards with your current tender templates. List the clauses you would need to add.
- Founders: do not wait for model laws to raise. Prepare a one-page note on how your product meets the task force's governance priorities and use it in investor meetings from August.
- Workers and students: pick one AI skill tied to your current job (analysis, drafting, customer service tooling) and complete a structured course on it in the next three months, since the PwC data shows the premium goes to people who combine AI with existing expertise.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where will the Task Force's final report be published?
The Caribbean Telecommunications Union publishes its reports and forum material on its website, ctu.int, and the interim report was released there. Expect the final report to appear after the July 23 launch. If you work in a CTU member government, your ministry responsible for ICT is the formal channel for comments and follow-up consultations.
What is a model law, and does it apply automatically?
A model law is template legislation that countries can adapt; it has no legal force until each national parliament passes its own act. The Caribbean has used this route before, for example with the model ICT bills developed under the HIPCAR project around 2012, which several states adapted for cybercrime and data protection laws. Expect each country's version of any AI model law to differ, and to take years in some states.
What is the UNESCO AI Readiness Assessment that Jamaica completed?
It is UNESCO's Readiness Assessment Methodology, a structured review of a country's legal, social and cultural, scientific and educational, economic, and technical and infrastructure conditions for AI, based on UNESCO's 2021 Recommendation on the Ethics of AI. Jamaica completed it in April 2026, among the first Caribbean countries to do so, and the findings feed into its draft national AI policy. Other governments can request the assessment through UNESCO's regional office.
How can a Caribbean board improve its AI oversight quickly?
Make AI a named risk in the risk register and a standing agenda item at least quarterly. Ask management for an inventory of AI systems in use, including vendor tools with AI features, with an owner and a risk rating for each. Give one director responsibility for the topic and budget for that director's training. These steps cost little and give the board something concrete to supervise.
Where can Caribbean AI startups look for funding?
Early money in the region still comes mostly from founders, angel networks and customers, so a paying pilot is often worth more than a pitch deck. IDB Lab, the innovation arm of the Inter-American Development Bank, invests in startups across Latin America and the Caribbean, and regional development banks and national export or investment agencies run grant and technical assistance windows from time to time. Check eligibility for your country before applying, because many programmes cover only borrowing member states.