Artificial Intelligence and international trade : Some preliminary implications

Artificial intelligence (AI) has strong potential to spur innovation, help firms create new value from data, and reduce trade costs. Growing interest in the economic and societal impacts of AI has also prompted interest in the trade implications of this new technology. While AI technologies have the potential to fundamentally change trade and international business models, trade itself can also be an important mechanism through which countries and firms access the inputs needed to build AI systems, whether goods, services, people or data, and through which they can deploy AI solutions globally. This paper explores the interlinkages between AI technologies and international trade and outlines key trade policy considerations for policy makers seeking to harness the full potential of AI technologies.