KINGSTON, Jamaica —Prime Minister Andrew Holness says Jamaica needs to prepare for the ‘dispensation’ of the fourth industrial revolution by using technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the skills of Jamaicans to secure higher-paying jobs.

“Jamaica needs to prepare itself for this dispensation of the fourth industrial revolution, where the cyber world will be paired with the physical world. So you are living in the cyber-physical. Technology and machines are working together not just to deliver services in a independent way that was largely delivered in a non-physical way now, but also, as was demonstrated, you have machines that can be deployed with artificial intelligence that can function physically, so it’s not just call centre jobs that we need to be looking at very closely; it is other kinds of jobs that will also be impacted,” Holness said.

The prime minister, who was speaking at Amber Group’s 10th anniversary Gala and AI innovation showcase held recently, said this change is not to be feared but highlighted the need to use the technology to increase the level of training and skills in society. This, he said, will help Jamaicans to take on higher-order tasks, bringing improved wages.

“For decades, we have hidden from this issue of productivity. Much of it is as a result of our history of slavery and colonialism, but if we are to survive as a country that cannot rely on natural resources, we are not likely to discover oil to give us an economic boom. Seventy per cent of our economy is on services; it means that if our economy is to grow, the services that we give must either expand or the quality and sophistication of the service have to improve.

So it means that the challenge for this country and for the administration that I lead is to upskill every Jamaican. Yes, we are very proud to say we have 3.3 per cent unemployment, but that is just the base that solves step one of the problem. Step two of the problem is to increase the productivity and the level of task undertaking that 96 per cent of the employed are doing,” he argued.

The prime minister noted that Jamaica’s first AI lab to be established at the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) in St Andrew will be important in this move to upskill Jamaicans.

“The national AI lab is actually an important part of the strategy, and we need more than the one that we are going to develop at UTech; we need them right across the country, including in our primary schools, so that our children can become native to AI,” he said.