The Caribbean AI landscape in 2026
A map of Caribbean AI in 2026: regional policy, Trinidad's AI ministry and data centre plans, Jamaica's AI lab, Future Caribbean and the startups to know.
In July 2026, CARICOM ministers endorsed a shared roadmap for artificial intelligence, and Trinidad and Tobago signed agreements for two large AI data centres. Over the same summer, Jamaica opened a national AI lab and a Barbados-founded AI contest drew teams from 39 countries.
There is a lot going on, and much of it is still at the plan stage. This hub pulls together what we have covered so far, grouped by who is doing it, with links to the full stories.
Regional policy
CARICOM's council for trade and ICT endorsed UNESCO's Caribbean AI Policy Roadmap in July. UNESCO says the roadmap was shaped by consultations with more than 1,000 people across the English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean. It is a framework for governments writing their own AI policies, not a law.
Later that month, the Caribbean Telecommunications Union and UWI St. Augustine hosted the first Caribbean AI Forum in Trinidad. The Caribbean AI Task Force, chaired by UWI's Dr. Craig Ramlal, launched its report there. Its message was that small markets need to work together on rules, data and skills to have any say in how AI develops.
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago now has a ministry with AI in its name. The Ministry of Public Administration and Artificial Intelligence, led by Senator Dominic Smith, is running a national AI readiness assessment with UNESCO and UNDP. It also runs AI Centres with WiFi, computers and training at more than 22 locations.
The bigger headline is data centres. In July the government signed non-binding agreements with two US firms. EY would develop a 300-megawatt data centre, and Hummingbird AI a 150-megawatt site that could grow to 500 megawatts (Caribbean National Weekly). Hummingbird's first operations are targeted for early 2028, subject to due diligence. Critics have asked whether the country's power and water supply can support them.
Two of our posts explain the background:
- Why Trinidad still powers Caribbean industry covers the gas and electricity that make the data centre pitch possible.
- Subsea cables explains why Caribbean internet traffic often detours through the US, which affects any data centre serving the region.
For small businesses, the Inter-American Development Bank approved a US$300,000 grant in May 2026 for an AI Innovators' Laboratory to help them adopt AI.
Jamaica
Amber Group opened a National AI Lab with 150 trainees and plans a "Cultural LLM," an AI model trained on Jamaican language and culture. The model does not exist yet, and trainees reach their project phase in early 2027. Our Amber post covers what is confirmed and compares it with Maestro AI Labs, a smaller team adapting existing models.
Two Jamaican startups apply AI to car ownership. CyarGPT helps buyers choose a vehicle, and AutoTrustJa tracks fitness and insurance deadlines afterwards (CyarGPT and AutoTrustJa).
Future Caribbean
Future Caribbean, founded in Barbados, ran a global AI Buildathon for Caribbean problems. It drew 236 teams from 39 countries, offers US$70,000 in prizes and promises winners a pitch at the New York Stock Exchange. As of 11 October, we had not found a public winners announcement.
We have covered it from three angles:
- The Buildathon, explained: how it works, what winners get and the timeline.
- Who judges it: the Founding 1000 volunteer network and how scores are checked.
- Who backs it: the 49 listed partners and what each brings.
Startups to know
- Intellico, a Port of Spain company, launched IntellicoERP business software in August and says it wants to sell abroad and hire over 1,000 people.
- GigLink, a booking and admin app for musicians, won Techstars Startup Weekend in Port of Spain in August.
- Our August companies roundup lists seven Caribbean companies and projects that made news that month.
The research behind local AI
Caribbean AI faces a language problem. Most AI tools learn from standard English, and they struggle with Creoles and local accents. These digests explain the research in plain terms:
| Topic | Post |
|---|---|
| Speech-to-text and Caribbean voices | Speech AI digest |
| Jamaican Patois and other Creoles | Creole language digest |
| Making AI answer from local documents | RAG digest |
| How modern AI models work | Attention Is All You Need |
For business owners
If you want to use AI in your own business, start with our practical guides:
- AI marketing in Trinidad and Tobago: what AI does well, where it gets local facts wrong and what it costs.
- AI video ads, step by step: making a short ad from real product photos.
- Paying for AI tools from Trinidad: card limits and other ways to pay in US dollars.
What to watch
Over the next six months, watch for national AI policies drawing on the UNESCO roadmap, starting with Trinidad and Tobago's assessment. Watch whether either data centre agreement reaches a final investment decision. And watch for the Future Caribbean winners and Amber's first working software.
The real test for all of it is the same. It is whether Caribbean businesses and governments start paying for AI built here, and whether it works better for local customers than tools built elsewhere.