AI creating workforce and ‘businesses of one’

Private companies in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean are building artificial-intelligence (AI) tools into their operations even though the Government’s national AI policy is still being drafted, according to the head of the island’s AI task force.

Christopher Reckord, chairman of Jamaica’s National Artificial Intelligence Task Force, said public consultations on the policy will begin in the coming weeks, within a month.

More businesses are moving beyond simple chatbots, he said, instructing AI to build tools that do the work of employees. Others are assembling systems of AI “workers” to run entire company processes.

Reckord spoke on October 13 at the Pan-African/Caribbean AI and Smart Systems Conference at the University of Technology in Kingston. He said more companies in the Caribbean and Africa are using the falling cost of AI programmes to collaborate on tools for organisations.

“For too long, our regions have been described as markets. This technology gives us a rare chance to be makers and to earn the description …For centuries, the Atlantic stood between us. The tools of this new era can help us close that distance not only in conversations but in things that we can build together,” he said.

He cited ElecareAI, a platform for medical practices built by Jamaican company Gizzada Software. Its website says it “brings the tools a modern practice runs on into a single platform — so patient information, clinical work, imaging, and billing move together instead of living in separate systems”.

Reckord said a similar platform could be set up for small businesses. “If you’re a business of one and you want to have an accountant, an assistant, and anything you want to build to help you with your business, this tool can build out that system for you,” he said.

He also pointed to Future Caribbean, founded by Barbadian attorney and venture builder Lily Dash, which ran a global buildathon for AI systems aimed at real-world problems and Caribbean economic coordination. The event drew 50 teams, 13 of them from Africa and 10 from Nigeria alone.

The cost of entering AI enterprise has fallen to the point where “it no longer needs a giant enterprise budget. It needs people who know the work, tools that can carry it, and the judgement to review the result,” Reckord said.

The task force is starting its third iteration under Andrew Wheatley, minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister responsible for science, technology and special projects.

“The policy is not meant to dictate what a business chooses to do to increase its productivity and efficiency. Government’s role is to set a guardrail, protect people and their data, build skills and infrastructure, and make room for builders,” Reckord said.

Usage data show AI is already widespread. Google was Jamaica’s most-visited website in September, followed by Instagram and then ChatGPT, which draws more than 570,000 visits a month. ChatGPT topped the island’s rankings in December before slipping.

At least two locally built platforms are among the 20 most-used AI tools in Jamaica: OpenJM, an agentic AI platform from Crimson Tide AI Ltd. tailored to Jamaican users, and UTech AI Lab Tools, which uses research models focused on natural language processing for Jamaican Patois.

The Jamaica Artificial Intelligence Association, formed in 2023 by engineers, founders, students, and organisations, has a seat on the task force.

No official figure measures AI’s total economic output in Jamaica. The Government launched the Growing AI Innovation and National Skills Programme in June with $545 million to deliver AI training and certification across all 63 constituencies.

luke.douglas@gleanerjm.com