The World Bank has urged developing countries to move quickly to adopt artificial intelligence in public services, with a warning that delaying investment in the technology could expand existing development gaps and leave billions of people further behind in the global economy.
The warning came on Tuesday as the bank unveiled its 2026 World Development Report, which explains that lower and middle-income countries can harness AI without first building the expensive computing infrastructure that has fuelled the technology’s rapid expansion in wealthier economies.
Rather than attempting to compete with the United States and China in developing frontier AI models, the report recommends that poorer countries focus on adapting existing technologies to local realities in sectors where public service failures have remained persistent for decades.
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World Bank Group Chief Economist, Indermit Gill, said developing economies should view artificial intelligence as an opportunity to improve governance despite current economic pressures.
Gill clarified that countries do not require massive data centres or advanced foundation models before benefiting from AI, and that affordable and locally adapted applications could transform healthcare delivery, agriculture, education, and justice systems.
“AI has thrown developing economies a lifeline, and they should seize it,” Gill said, according to the World Bank.
The warning comes at a difficult period for many developing economies. The World Bank noted that average economic growth across these countries has fallen to its weakest level in about three decades after a succession of global shocks, including conflicts, inflationary pressures, and slowing international trade.
Earlier this year, the institution described the current decade as a “lost decade” for many low-income economies after repeatedly lowering its global growth forecasts.
Against that backdrop, the report pinpoints that AI offers developing countries a rare opportunity to improve productivity and public service delivery without waiting decades to build conventional institutional capacity.
The report proposes using AI to expand access to medical diagnosis, legal assistance, educational support, and agricultural advisory services, particularly in underserved communities where shortages of skilled professionals remain acute.
It also recommends substantial investment in electricity generation, digital infrastructure, computing capacity, and locally relevant datasets, and that these foundations will determine whether countries benefit from the technology or become passive consumers of systems developed elsewhere.
Gaurav Nayyar, the report’s director, said governments have only a limited period to position themselves before technological disparities widen further.
Nayyar said, “The window to get this right is narrow.”
He added that AI presents “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to solve longstanding development challenges that have resisted conventional policy interventions.
The report estimates that about 6.8 billion people, representing roughly 83 per cent of the world’s population, live in low-incomeand developing economies. For AI to produce meaningful results, it says, solutions must reflect local conditions rather than relying on imported technologies designed for advanced economies.
Among the examples cited are AI-assisted diabetes screening programmes in Bangladesh and weather forecasting systems helping Indian farmers reduce production costs through improved agricultural planning.
The report also stresses that technological design must reflect social realities. In communities with low literacy levels or limited smartphone ownership, it recommends delivering AI-enabled services through voice calls and basic mobile phones rather than sophisticated digital platforms.
However, the World Bank cautioned that rapid AI adoption without appropriate safeguards could create new risks. It warned that poorly governed deployment may reinforce bias in public decision-making, weaken data privacy protections, concentrate economic power in a few companies, and widen inequality both within and between countries.
The report further notes that while immediate threats to employment are limited in many developing economies, widespread automation could eventually erode middle-income occupations that traditionally drive upward economic mobility.
The institution therefore urged governments to strengthen regulatory frameworks alongside technological investment, arguing that public confidence will depend on whether AI improves services without compromising citizens’ rights.
The report itself disclosed that several advanced AI systems, including models developed by OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and DeepSeek, assisted in its preparation, illustrating the growing role of artificial intelligence even in shaping global development policy.
