Devising a Strategic Approach to Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has significant potential to help drive economic development and poverty reduction in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). AI-including traditional and generative AI (GenAI)-is a tool that can help foster resilient, sustainable, and inclusive economic growth. While GenAI tools have quickly reached hundreds of millions of users globally, low-income countries (LICs) are lagging, even as "small AI" solutions gain ground. To mitigate the AI divide, policy makers need to prioritize the development of a strategic approach to AI and support AI ecosystems development. Some studies suggest that AI may over time shrink the space for countries to generate well-paid jobs in high-skill services (Liu, 2024) and that countries that fail to develop a comparative advantage in high-skill services and delay AI adoption may face mounting difficulties creating jobs. This handbook aims to assist policy makers in developing strategic national-level approaches to artificial intelligence (AI), supporting the responsible development and deployment of AI for public good. It offers a hands-on, structured, yet adaptable framework that can help policy makers tailor strategic AI approaches adapted to their unique contexts. Without being normative or prescriptive, the framework and tools outlined in the handbook offer guidance and provide a collection of emerging good practices to help each country find the most suitable approach