New World Development Report says artificial intelligence could compress a century of development into a decade – but only if poorer nations build the right foundations.
The World Bank has called on developing countries to move urgently to embrace artificial intelligence, arguing that the technology offers an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate economic development, improve public services and reverse years of slowing growth.
In its World Development Report 2026: The Promise of Artificial Intelligence, released on Tuesday, the multilateral lender said developing economies must rapidly strengthen electricity supply, internet connectivity, computing capacity, digital skills and institutional quality if they are to unlock AI’s transformative potential.
The report comes against the backdrop of the weakest average economic growth recorded by developing economies in three decades. According to the World Bank, artificial intelligence offers a rare opportunity for these countries to change their economic trajectory before the end of the decade.
Contrary to widespread fears that AI will trigger massive job losses, particularly through automation, the report found that workers in developing countries face significantly lower risks than their counterparts in advanced economies. It estimated that only 4.5 per cent of existing jobs in low- and middle-income countries are vulnerable to automation by generative AI, compared with 14.2 per cent in high-income economies.
Instead, the World Bank expects AI to function primarily as a productivity-enhancing technology across developing economies. Approximately 16.2 per cent of jobs are projected to experience substantial productivity gains through AI adoption, compared with 18.7 per cent in richer countries.
World Bank Group Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Indermit Gill described AI as a unique opportunity that developing countries cannot afford to ignore. “AI has thrown developing economies a lifeline, and they should seize it. They do not need large models or big data centres to reap its benefits. By adapting small, low-cost AI tools to local conditions, they can bring better medical care, education, judicial services and agricultural extension within reach of millions. But they must hurry: AI is spreading faster and is more context-specific than earlier general-purpose technologies like electricity and the internet,” Gill said.
The report, the World Bank’s first comprehensive assessment of artificial intelligence from the perspective of developing economies, noted that governments and businesses are already deploying AI to solve complex problems, improve decision-making, analyse large datasets, strengthen forecasting and expand access to essential public services.
According to the report, AI has the potential to improve medical diagnosis, support farmers with better crop management decisions, enhance business productivity and strengthen public administration. Governments could also deploy AI to improve tax administration, expand social protection programmes, strengthen disaster response capabilities and improve healthcare and education delivery.
However, the World Bank warned that many developing countries remain constrained by fundamental infrastructure deficits. Limited access to reliable electricity, affordable internet connectivity, computing resources, high-quality local datasets and skilled professionals continues to restrict AI adoption across many low-income economies.
The report cautioned that without deliberate policy intervention, AI could widen existing development gaps between countries, deepen inequality within societies, concentrate market power, weaken confidence in public institutions and create new risks relating to privacy, safety and social cohesion.
World Development Report 2026 Director Gaurav Nayyar emphasised that the opportunity requires immediate action. “The window to get this right is narrow. AI presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to solve problems that have resisted solutions for generations. Developing countries that build the foundations now – power, connectivity, skills and institutions – will be positioned to adopt and adapt AI for their people,” he said.
To maximise AI’s developmental impact, the World Bank recommends a three-stage strategy for developing economies: adopt existing AI technologies, adapt them to local contexts and gradually develop more advanced domestic AI capabilities over time. The institution argues that this phased approach will enable countries to avoid expensive attempts to replicate frontier AI technologies before building the essential supporting infrastructure.
The report also stresses the importance of continued investment in foundational infrastructure. In Sub-Saharan Africa, nearly one-third of rural schools still lack reliable electricity, while more than two-thirds do not have dependable internet access, limiting opportunities for digital learning and AI adoption.
The World Bank noted that its Mission 300 initiative, which seeks to provide electricity access to 300 million people across Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030, will help establish the infrastructure needed for broader digital transformation.
Beyond physical infrastructure, the report recommends expanding access to computing capacity, increasing the availability of local datasets—including those in indigenous languages – and creating a more enabling environment for innovation by making it easier for firms to attract investment, test AI applications and scale successful solutions.
The institution also urged governments to strengthen evidence-based policymaking, improve procurement and evaluation systems and invest more heavily in digital skills development to ensure AI projects generate measurable economic and social returns.
To strengthen public confidence in AI, the World Bank recommends that governments initially rely on voluntary industry standards supported by international cooperation while applying existing legal frameworks where appropriate to address emerging risks. It warned that public trust could be undermined if AI systems reinforce bias in government decision-making or compromise data privacy.
BrandiQ Analysis
The World Bank’s latest report is not merely about artificial intelligence; it is fundamentally about economic development strategy.
For decades, development debates centred on roads, ports, electricity, manufacturing and foreign investment. AI now joins that list – not as a replacement for traditional development priorities but as a force multiplier capable of accelerating them.
The report challenges one of the dominant narratives surrounding AI: that automation will inevitably destroy jobs in developing countries. Instead, the World Bank argues that the greater opportunity lies in augmenting human productivity rather than replacing human labour. This distinction is particularly important for labour-intensive economies such as Nigeria, Kenya and India, where the comparative advantage remains abundant human capital rather than advanced automation.
Equally significant is the report’s emphasis on sequencing. Rather than encouraging poorer countries to compete directly with the United States or China in building frontier AI models, the World Bank advocates a pragmatic pathway – adopting existing technologies, adapting them to local realities and only then investing in indigenous AI development. This represents a more economically sustainable model for countries with limited financial and technological resources.
Perhaps the report’s most compelling message is that AI policy cannot be separated from infrastructure policy. Reliable electricity, affordable broadband, digital skills and institutional capacity are no longer peripheral development concerns; they have become the enabling conditions for participating in the global AI economy.
The BrandiQ Perspective
For Nigeria and much of Africa, the report carries profound strategic implications.
The continent should resist the temptation to measure AI success solely by the number of chatbots, AI startups or foundation models it develops. The more important question is whether AI measurably improves agricultural productivity, healthcare delivery, education quality, tax administration, financial inclusion and industrial competitiveness.
Nigeria, in particular, possesses significant advantages – a youthful population, one of Africa’s largest digital economies, an expanding fintech ecosystem and increasing government attention to artificial intelligence. Yet these strengths risk being undermined by persistent electricity shortages, limited computing infrastructure, fragmented digital governance and shortages of advanced AI talent.
The World Bank’s recommendations therefore align closely with what should become Nigeria’s next national competitiveness agenda: investing simultaneously in digital infrastructure, AI governance, local language datasets, computing capacity and human capital. AI cannot flourish in isolation; it depends on an ecosystem that supports innovation, trust and scale.
BrandiQ Verdict
The World Bank’s message is both optimistic and cautionary. Artificial intelligence may indeed enable developing countries to compress decades of development into a much shorter period, but technology alone will not produce that outcome. Countries that invest now in electricity, connectivity, digital skills, institutions and innovation ecosystems will be positioned to harness AI as a catalyst for inclusive growth. Those that delay risk watching the next technological revolution widen, rather than narrow, the global development divide.
