On 11 July 2025, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, a dynamic session brought together leaders from Zindi Africa and the Government of Barbados to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) can accelerate inclusive digital transformation in small island nations. The session featured distinguished speakers including H.E. Mr. Jonathan Reid, Minister of Innovation, Industry, Science and Technology of Barbados; Celina Lee, Co-Founder and CEO of Zindi Africa; and Mark Boyce, CEO of GovTech Barbados Limited. The collaboration between Zindi, GovTech Barbados, and the Ministry of Innovation, Industry, Science, and Technology (MIIST) exemplifies a forward-thinking model for using AI to solve real-world public sector challenges, cultivate local talent, and empower citizens through innovative, data-driven governance.


The key takeaways were:

1. AI as a Tool for National Empowerment: Zindi, Africa’s largest platform for data scientists, hosts over 90,000 users from 180 countries. Its partnership with Barbados aims to build a local AI ecosystem through capacity-building competitions, monthly hackathons, and real-world challenges. These initiatives align with Barbados’s broader strategy of using AI to modernize governance and foster inclusive innovation.
2. GovTech Barbados: From Vision to Implementation: GovTech Barbados, a state-owned entity responsible for digital transformation, is actively integrating AI into public services. The agency has launched three major AI challenges:
   • Land and Survey Automation: Using optical character recognition to digitize cadastral plans, simplifying workflows for geographic information system (GIS) technicians.
   • Historic Document Transcription: A $25,000 AI challenge aims to transcribe 400 years of handwritten historical records—including documents from the transatlantic slave trade—into digital format, enabling global access to untapped data.
   • Traffic Congestion Analysis: AI models will analyse roundabout traffic footage to identify behavioural patterns contributing to congestion and explore cost-effective urban solutions.
3. AI as an Equalizer for Small States: Barbados positions itself not merely as a technology consumer, but as a global testbed for impact innovation. By embracing its size as an advantage, the nation demonstrates how nimble, policy-aligned, and collaborative approaches can fast-track innovation. The AI initiatives in Barbados reflect a strategy driven by public benefit, not global competition, and are grounded in values of access, equity, and shared learning—especially among small states and the Global South.
4. A Vision Rooted in Collaboration and Purpose: The Minister emphasized that advanced technologies like AI should enhance human well-being, not widen inequalities. Barbados sees collaboration—not duplication—as the cornerstone of global innovation. The government’s partnerships with startups, African innovators, and private AI leaders illustrate a pragmatic model: solve local problems with global relevance and share scalable solutions with the world.

Barbados’ journey, supported by Zindi, is a bold reminder that innovation, when rooted in inclusivity and purpose, can redefine development pathways for the Global South.
 

(Reporting by Peter Maundu, CUTS International, Geneva)

The Day 5 session of the AI for Good Global Summit, held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on 11 July 2025, focused on the urgent need to prepare for the transformative impacts of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI). Delivered by Marcus Shingles, the CEO and Co-Founder of Exponential Destiny, the presentation introduced “scenario planning” as a structured, cause-and-effect-based tool to help societies anticipate and adapt to rapid technological disruption.


The key takeaways were as follows:

1. Rethinking the Future: From Anxiety to Agency: The presentation challenged conventional responses to AI anxiety, calling into question vague prescriptions like “being better role models” for AI or relying on unlikely global cooperation. Instead, the speaker proposed a disciplined roadmap methodology based on expert assumptions—however conflicting—to simulate multiple future scenarios. The goal is not prediction, but preparation: to create actionable frameworks for a society redefined by intelligent machines.
2. Learning from Business: Why Society Must Catch Up: Drawing from decades of consulting experience with Fortune 500 firms and innovation institutions like Deloitte, Singularity University, and XPRIZE, the speaker argued that society must adopt the same strategic foresight that companies use for disruptive change. Just as businesses use scenario planning to remain competitive, nations and communities must build similar capabilities to remain socially cohesive and human-centric in a future increasingly shaped by superintelligent systems.
3. Catalysts for Societal Shifts: Unemployment, Identity, and Innovation: Key assumptions include mass displacement of cognitive and physical labour, rapid technological unemployment, and psychological loss of purpose as work becomes obsolete. These disruptions may erode social fabric or, alternatively, catalyse a renaissance of community, creativity, and shared identity. The speaker suggested that in a world of material abundance, human connection, empathy, and creativity may become society’s new scarce—and most valued—resources.
4. Redefining Governance, Education, and Economic Models: The roadmap envisions a post-labour society where governance decentralizes to communities, education becomes experiential and AI-driven, and traditional income models give way to collaborative ownership and resource-sharing. Governments may struggle to adapt, but communities can pilot new societal architectures grounded in equity, well-being, and dignity.
5. Scenario Planning as a Collective Imperative: The speaker proposed assembling diverse “architects of the future”—sociologists, educators, artists, technologists, policymakers—to co-create adaptable, scalable scenarios that are rooted in human values. These exercises are not academic; they are vital blueprints for avoiding societal breakdown and achieving equitable human flourishing.

(Reporting by Peter Maundu, CUTS International, Geneva)