FROM the Blue Mountains to the white sand beaches of Negril, Jamaicans share a spirit of resilience and innovation. Whether it’s a vendor in St Thomas checking market forecasts, a student in Toronto seeking consular support, or a judge in Spanish Town streamlining case backlogs, the need for timely, tailored information is universal.

Across our parishes, digital tools have laid the groundwork — e-forms in Montego Bay, e-court filings in Kingston, online permit systems in May Pen — but the next leap is transformation. By adopting an AI-first mindset, Jamaica can move beyond storing data to harnessing it: predicting visitor arrival patterns for our hoteliers, anticipating equipment failures for our manufacturers, and forecasting crop yields for our farmers.

This islandwide ambition — rooted in the rhythms of reggae, the warmth of our people, and the drive to punch above our weight — sets the stage for the following use cases.

Expanded use Jamaican cases and application

As I see it Jamaica will need to pivot from mere digitisation to full-scale AI adoption. The island’s public sector must embrace an AI-first mindset — transforming static digital repositories into actionable intelligence that drives proactive, personalised citizen services. Let’s explore some of those opportunities for development through use cases.

Diaspora watch (The Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Foreign Trade)

Implementation: Powered by a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipeline, web scrapers and RSS feeds could ingest over 1,000 global sources daily — mainstream media, diaspora blogs, and social channels — into a vector database. Nightly batch embeddings feed a fine-tuned large language model, which generates concise summaries and triggers automated alerts via SMS or e-mail to consular officers. Pilots in New York, London, and Toronto will test coverage and sentiment thresholds before full roll-out. This would enable the ministry to quickly identify Jamaican overseas with their special gifts that could be used for nation building.

Judicial intelligence (The Supreme Court of Jamaica & Court Administration)

Implementation: OCR and meta data tagging to digitise historic court records from the Supreme Court’s Court Administration Division. An ETL (extract, transform, load) pipeline then loads data into a relational store linked to an analytics engine. Explainable-AI modules run hourly analyses, producing variance dashboards and automated alerts on sentencing disparities or case backlogs. Judges and clerks refine model thresholds through iterative feedback. The court system must move forward from the limited benefits of digitalisation to AI intelligence. There is no need for the current system of operations when data tracking processes could be easily automated and assessed.

Crime analytics (The Ministry of National Security)

Implementation: Secure APIs (application programming interface), integrate cleaned incident reports from the Jamaican Crime Observatory and the National System for Peaceful Indicator Project into a PyTorch-based deep-learning framework. Spatial and temporal clustering populates a real-time Grafana dashboard highlighting predicted hotspots and resource recommendations. Generative models fine-tuned on local case language draft incident summaries for community outreach, while network analysis maps offender-victim relationships and narrative extraction creates “case chronicles”.

Tourism intelligence (Jamaica Tourist Board)

Leveraging data on arrivals, bookings, and social media sentiment, a RAG-driven insights engine forecasts demand spikes — helping hotels, attractions, and transport services optimise staffing and promotions. With tourism contributing over US$4.3 billion in 2024, personalised itineraries powered by AI chatbots can elevate visitor experiences and disperse spending beyond traditional hubs. Combined with deeper analysis resources could target specific groups to grow the industry

Manufacturing optimisation (Jamaica Manufacturers’ Association)

AI-driven predictive maintenance analyses sensor data to forecast equipment failures, while machine-learning models optimise supply chains by learning seasonal demand patterns. Computer-vision quality control reduces defects on the production line, boosting efficiency for the association’s member firms across chemicals, food processing, and electronics.

Agricultural forecasting (Ministry of Industry, Investment & Commerce)

A deep-learning system that combines weather forecasts, satellite imagery, and historical yield data can predict harvest volumes, detect pest outbreaks, and recommend precision irrigation — bolstering food security and conserving resources in the face of climate volatility.

Training & capacity building

Realising these AI initiatives requires a skilled workforce. Jamaica plans a comprehensive training strategy in partnership with The University of the West Indies, HEART/NSTA Workforce Development, and leading tech firms:

• AI boot camps & workshops: Hands-on sessions in RAG architectures, MLOps, and explainable-AI for data scientists, engineers, and analysts.

• Civil service e-learning portal: Modular courses on AI ethics, data governance, and model validation tailored for policy officers, legal advisors, and administrative staff.

• Hackathons & innovation challenges: Cross-ministry events to prototype solutions for tourism, justice, and public safety — fostering collaboration and real-world problem solving.

• Certification pathways: Official credentials in AI project management and technical specialisations, embedded in the Corporate Management Establishment Division’s career framework.

Technological centre for development

Shout out to Tishauna Mulling’s brainchild “the refurbishing of the old Goodyear Factory in St Thomas”, being re-imaged to shape the destiny of the parish. This should be replicated in every parish. You see, talent isn’t stationary in only certain communities, it springs forth from everywhere and we want to give our people the opportunity to water and blossom that seed; take it from me a boy from Rose Town, who has no business writing about AI except for the opportunity offered through St Aloysius Primary and St George’s College. The gun shots of the early 1990’s gang wars could have drowned out my voice but instead it inspired my growth and vision. Give the people the tools to achieve their dreams and maybe you just might find another Einstein in their midst.

Looking ahead

These prototypes mark the beginning of Jamaica’s AI-first journey. I look forward to my fellow Jamaicans following up with future articles that will explore other strategies, success metrics, and lessons learned—showing how a small island can pioneer big data and intelligent systems.

Horatio Morgan is an accomplished AI solutions architect in the business transformation area. Connect with him at horatiomorgan37@gmail.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/horatiomorgan/