Archive · 5 Aug 2026
World Bank warns developing nations: Embrace AI or fall behind
The World Bank is a big organization that helps countries.
It made a special report about a smart computer technology called AI.
AI can help computers do things that usually need smart people, like helping doctors or farmers.
The World Bank says countries that are still developing should use AI to get better faster.
AI could help these countries do things in ten years that normally take a hundred years.
Developing countries have been growing very slowly, so this could help a lot.
The World Bank says countries don't need giant computers to use AI — small, cheap tools can work.
But they also say countries need electricity, internet, and trained people to make AI work.
The report warns that AI could also make rich and poor countries more unequal.
So countries should hurry and use AI carefully.
The World Bank launched its World Development Report 2026, urging developing countries to adopt lower-cost, localized AI tools for health, education, justice and agriculture.
Chief Economist Indermit Gill called AI a 'lifeline' for developing economies, saying they do not need large models or big data centers to benefit.
The report says AI could help developing countries achieve in a decade what might otherwise take a century, boosting growth during their weakest performance in three decades.
Only 4.5% of jobs in low- and middle-income countries are at risk of automation by generative AI, compared with 14.2% in high-income countries.
The report warns AI could widen gaps between countries and increase inequality, and was itself written with the aid of AI tools from OpenAI, DeepSeek, Google and Anthropic.
- Who
- The World Bank Group, including Chief Economist Indermit Gill and report director Gaurav Nayyar
- What
- Launched the World Development Report 2026, urging developing countries to embrace low-cost, localized AI tools to improve services and boost economic growth
- When
- On Tuesday, at the launch of the annual World Development Report 2026
- Where
- Washington, D.C., with the report addressing developing countries worldwide
- Why
- Because developing economies are in their weakest average growth period in three decades, and AI could significantly boost performance before the end of the 2020s
AI Optimists
Cautionary Voices
AI's effect on developing economies
AI Optimists
AI is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that can help developing countries extend medical, legal, educational and agricultural services, achieving 'in a decade what might otherwise take a century'.
Cautionary Voices
Without deliberate action, AI could widen gaps between countries, increase inequality within them, concentrate market power, weaken trust in public institutions, and create new risks for safety, rights and social cohesion.
Impact on jobs
AI Optimists
Automation risk in developing countries is low today (4.5% of jobs), and AI mostly amplifies what workers can do, boosting productivity in 16.2% of jobs.
Cautionary Voices
In the long run, AI tools could cut off economic mobility by eliminating many of the middle-class jobs that enable it.
- Report
- World Development Report 2026
- Publisher
- World Bank Group
- Jobs at automation risk — developing countries
- 4.5%
- Jobs at automation risk — high-income countries
- 14.2%
- Jobs with AI productivity boost — developing countries
- 16.2%
- Jobs with AI productivity boost — high-income countries
- 18.7%
- Population in low-income and developing countries
- 6.8 billion (83% of humanity)
- AI tools used to write the report
- OpenAI, DeepSeek, Google, Anthropic
