Devising a Strategic Approach to Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has significant potential to help drive economic development and poverty reduction in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). AI—including traditional and generative AI (GenAI)—is a tool that can help foster resilient, sustainable, and inclusive economic growth (Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence 2024). AI tools can help improve the quality and efficiency of public sector service delivery by facilitating timely access to information and improving government operations and data-driven policy making.
AI solutions can also support the development of human capital by increasing reach, personalization, quality, and targeting of healthcare, education, and social protection services. For a more in-depth discussion of different subfields of AI, see the World Bank Group publication Global Trends in AI Governance: Evolving Country Approaches ). While GenAI tools have quickly reached hundreds of millions of users globally, low-income countries (LICs) are lagging, even as “small AI” solutions gain ground.
A new World Bank handbook, Devising a strategic approach to artificial intelligence, aims to assist policy makers in developing strategic national-level approaches to artificial intelligence (AI), supporting the responsible development and deployment of AI for public good. It offers a hands-on, structured, yet adaptable framework that can help policy makers tailor strategic AI approaches adapted to their unique contexts. Without being normative or prescriptive, the framework and tools outlined in the handbook offer guidance and provide a collection of emerging good practices to help each country find the most suitable approach.
This handbook is produced and published by The World Bank.