Could AI be Trinidad and Tobago’s new 'oil and gas' frontier?

Trinidad and Tobago has been steadily walking into the AI age.

The Dominic Smith-led Ministry of Public Administration has taken steps to build TT’s AI infrastructure. That could be seen in its deployment of Anansi, TT’s AI-powered national digital assistant or TT becoming a member of 50 in 5 – a global initiative aimed at sharing “learnings, best practices, and technologies that can ultimately reduce costs, build local capacity, maximise impact, and help radically shorten the implementation journeys for digital public infrastructure,” its website said.

The ministry took another step on November 26 launching the National AI Assessment done collaboratively with the UNDP and UNESCO. The launch was held at the Government Campus Plaza’s auditorium, Richmond Street, Port of Spain.

It was a room filled with public and private stakeholders, civil society as well as the UNDP’s resident representative for TT, Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten, Ugo Blanco, as well as regional director and representative at the UNESCO Caribbean regional office, Eric Falt.

The assessment will employ two tools created by those bodies: UNDP’s Artificial Intelligence Landscape Assessment (AILA) methodology and UNESCO’s Readiness Assessment Methodology (RAM).

The UN’s website said, “RAM is a key tool to support member states in their implementation of the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI.

“By providing detailed and comprehensive insights into different dimensions of AI readiness, it helps highlight any institutional and regulatory gaps and enables UNESCO to tailor support for governments to fill those gaps, in order to ensure an ethical AI ecosystem in line with the recommendation.”

“In this way, it complements the Ethical Impact Assessment tool, which provides a micro-level perspective on the ethical impacts of particular AI systems.”

Stakeholder consultations are expected to held in January while the launch of the public findings is expected to be held in March/April 2026.

Smith, the Minister of Public Administration and AI, quoted information cited in many publications like Forbes and Business Standard that, by 2030, AI was projected to add US$15 trillion to the world’s economy.

In his feature address, Smith said, similar to TT’s oil and gas sector, the country needed to be able to extract the possibilities AI presented.

Questioned further after his address, Smith added that oil and gas had been TT’s traditional earner and the country hoped to diversify with information and communication (ICT) as key new earners.

During his address, he said, the launch was a milestone that signalled not just an evaluation but a commitment to shaping the future of the public sector.

AI had become a buzzword but it was not just an abstract concept, he added.

“It really is a catalyst for impactful transformation.

“The real question for TT is not whether AI would reshape the way we work or the way we live but are we ready to be part of that reshaping?

“How much of that value would TT be able to extract?”

Various governments were racing to understand and deploy AI to improve governance, strengthen security, enhance productivity, drive economic growth and for small-island developing states (SIDS) the stakes were even higher, Smith said.

In that light, TT’s population and economy needed to become agile, more efficient and innovative in an increasingly digital world, he said.

He applauded UNDP and UNESCO as global leaders in "responsible, citizen-centric, AI frameworks.”

For Smith and the Kamla Persad-Bissessar-led government, these assessments underscored a fundamental truth: AI must always serve the people.

The launch was a step in ensuring that AI became a source for good and not one for inequality, Smith added.

He added that everyone should benefit from technology across communities, regardless of where they came from.

With that as the overarching philosophy, AI for government meant a capacity to leverage AI to modernise public services, strengthen decision-making and build institutional capacity, Smith said.

“But we must also act responsibly and so AI regulation and ethics is also a cornerstone of what this government represents.

“The maturity of our laws are important, the safeguards of the legislation, our ethical frameworks, transparency and public trust mechanisms, in my view, contribute to these pillars.”

Smith said by undertaking the national assessment it would guide the solutions that would make government services more accessible, efficient and citizen-centered.

He said many of the conversations he had with people in the public sector was how the government would upskill, train and retool people for future work.

The government has said it planned to roll out initiatives that would train, grow and nurture its human resource.

But doing so was not without its challenges.

Smith admitted there were challenges in terms of skills gap, the digital divide, cyber security and resilience, institutional agility and responsible deployment and public trust.

Even though there was risk, there was great national opportunity, Smith said.

“If we are strategic, collaborative and bold, AI can do several things: reduce wait times from months to minutes, increase public sector productivity, support innovation and export growth, strengthen national security and TT’s borders, create new, high-value jobs which are exportable, enable advance technology in health, education, agriculture and justice.

But a key part of the plan was to position TT as a leading island-state in AI.

For him, the real opportunity with AI was not machines but in amplified human potential through the use of technology and AI.

TT intended to build a modern, inclusive, future-ready country where technology expanded opportunity for every citizen, Smith said.

A study published in January – Artificial Intelligence Readiness in the Caribbean: An exploratory review cited the 2023 Government AI Readiness Index (GAIRA) – prepared by Oxford Insights, which assessed the AI readiness of the governments of the UN’s 193 member states, showed TT ranked 104.

The countries that ranked highest for overall AI readiness were the US and Singapore with the Dominican Republic and The Bahamas, ranking highest of Caribbean member states.

Smith said TT was among the best countries to adopt AI. He added that the country has the infrastructure and human capacity to expand AI possibilities. Jamaica was third among Caribbean member states.

TT was working with multilateral organisations to obtain grant funding that would be deployed in infrastructural development. Recently, the ministry, through cabinet approval, joined 50 in 5 and this initiative would eventually become a catalyst for growth and use AI as a catalyst for revenue generation in ICT areas, Smith said.

When asked if the government had identified specific sectors in which to deploy and monetise AI, Smith said it would be little premature for him to speak on specific sectors but said the technology was being used in many sectors such as healthcare, transportation logistics and digital identity.

These would modernise the way TT works, increase productivity and lead to reduced costs for the government which was an important factor, he said.

Blanco said this was a historic moment for the country.

He thanked Smith for his leadership and vision and said AI adoption had to be a collaborative effort including civil, private and public sectors.

He said the launch of the RAM was a roadmap to navigate the biggest technological shift that people will see in their lives.

AI would often require countries to ask hard questions such as are laws ready to protect data, and are youths being trained for the jobs of 2030?

“If the answer is, no, then what’s next? These are the kinds of questions countries like TT have to tackle.”

Falt said the initiative was meant to strengthen TT’s AI’s readiness, governance and responsible digital transformation.

UNESCO expressed its deep appreciation for strong partnership with the government, he added.

The world was standing at the threshold of transformation, he said in his digitally-delivered remarks.

“Artificial intelligence is reshaping the way governments offer services, how societies access opportunities and how future generations will learn, work and participate in public life.”

TT stood among countries choosing, not merely to adopt AI but to shape its direction, foresight, strategy and values, he said.

He added that governments across the world were trying to develop AI policies and institutions but only a fraction had established ethical frameworks with governance systems robust enough to ensure that AI served the public good.

He said UNESCO’s readiness assessment technology and its AI landscape systems offered two complimentary evidence-based lenses through which TT’s preparedness could be evaluated.

Together, they’d examine network capacity across infrastructure, human capital, data governance and ethics and human rights.