JAMAICA-based tech firm Amber Group is betting its next phase of growth on a deeper play in artificial intelligence (AI), including in robotics, the company’s chief executive officer said.

Dushyant Savadia, founder and CEO of the Amber Group, outlined the strategic push in a ceremony on Tuesday celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the company’s launch at the AC Hotel Kingston.

“The world is moving at a very fast pace thanks to the innovations around AI,” Savadia told the gathering.

He described generative AI like ChatGPT as the “first leg of AI evolution”, which then progressed to conversational AI for voice and customer service. He stated that the imminent next phase is physical AI.

“As I can see it in the next three [to] four years, the world will also go through another phase of evolution, which is physical AI, where you have robotics, which will do all the work autonomously without the need of human intervention,” he told the
Jamaica Observer after the event, outlining his vision to introduce this to Jamaica in 2026.

Savadia revealed that after scouting for nearly a year, Amber Group has signed distribution agreements with several advanced robotics companies to acquire robots manufactured for various tasks in industrial, commercial and household use under its newly created Amber Robotics subsidiary.

“All these robots come untrained,” he said, “and what we are doing is training staff in Jamaica now to give robot skills and do implementation for various use cases, like cleaning robots, sweeping robots, and food delivery robots.”

To illustrate the scale of the opportunity, Savadia pointed to global advancements, from robotic arms performing precision open-heart surgery in India to the fully automated warehouses of Amazon.

“So if the world is moving towards physical AI, what we want to do in Jamaica [is] become a part of that evolution,” he stated, outlining an ambition to position the island as a global centre for this niche.

The goal is to “develop enough coders on physical AI robotics where we will train robots for companies around the world for their own uses and teach robot skills,” he continued.

Leveraging the Amber Group’s established international distribution network, Savadia said this service will be rolled out from initial hubs in Jamaica then to South Africa, India, and Dubai.

“We need to move fast,” Savadia urged, “and we need to deliver from Jamaica this new rise of talent requirement.”

Parallel to its robotics venture, the Amber Group also announced that it is spearheading the development of a Jamaica-specific generative AI model, a project that will be housed in the newly formed National Artificial Intelligence Lab of Jamaica to be launched in a matter of days. Dr Kevin Brown, president of the University of Technology (UTech), described the lab as a “groundbreaking partnership” between UTech, the Amber Group, the HEART/NSTA Trust, and the Ministry of Education, to be housed at the university’s Papine campus.

The lab is Jamaica’s first dedicated AI research and training hub, aimed at cultivating homegrown expertise in large language models, machine learning, and robotics engineering.

Savadia articulated the ambition clearly: “By 2026, training robots will be a vital Jamaican export skill. Robotics is the next generation of AI, and Jamaica can build a workforce and technology that will not just serve local needs but compete globally.”

“It is a national AI lab for all,” Brown stated. “All of you are invited to participate in this initiative because what we’re trying to achieve is to be ahead of the technology.”

Savadia revealed concrete plans for the facility, noting, “We are making some significant investment, to acquire GPUs and have tutors who will teach our Jamaican students.” A GPU — graphics processing unit — is a specialised electronic circuit designed to rapidly process and render images, animations, and video for display. In AI development — such as training large language models and neural networks — GPUs can perform thousands of simultaneous calculations, making them much faster than traditional CPUs (central processing units) for these workloads. This allows researchers and engineers to process huge amounts of data more efficiently and develop advanced AI systems in less time.

Savadia confirmed that 50 students are already enrolled in full AI engineering training with a clear objective.

“With this new AI lab within the first year we will deliver Jamaica’s own LLM (large language model), our own ChatGPT. That’s where we are going,” he told BusinessWeek.

He outlined a dual commercial and national strategy behind the project: To retain Jamaica’s data sovereignty and to create a new, exportable service.

“Why should we be left behind?” Savadia asked. “Now what we want to do in Jamaica [is] build our own large language model to keep every [piece of] information of Jamaica right here.”

He envisions licensing this specialised Jamaican data model to global AI firms.

“I don’t think we’re going to compete with them; we will complement them,” Savadia added when asked if his Jamaican generative AI model would be able to compete with others such as ChatGPT and Deepseek.

“We can make this a licensed subscription to the ChatGPTs of this world. They will gladly take it,” he asserted.

This ambition was directly endorsed by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who hailed the lab as crucial to the nation’s economic strategy.

“The national AI lab is an important part of our growth strategy,” Holness said. “It’s not just about technology for the sake of it — but using AI to upskill our people, push productivity, and ensure Jamaicans can take on more sophisticated jobs.”

He directly addressed the global playing field, stating, “We must dispel the myth that AI is only for big rich countries. Jamaica’s strength lies in our agility and talent. By integrating AI into our economy and education system, we are ensuring our young people don’t get left behind, but leap forward.”

Regarding robotics, the prime minister projected widespread adoption over the next decade.

“By 2030, robotics will be an everyday part of our lives. Jamaica will not only adopt but train the world’s AI and robotics engineers right here. This is the fourth industrial revolution — and we intend to lead, not follow,” Holness added.

Holness also addressed Jamaica’s economic model and the need to diversify beyond reliance on natural resources.

“We’re not likely to discover oil in any quantity that will give us an economic boom. Seventy per cent of our economy is based on services,” Holness observed, stressing that for Jamaica’s economy to advance, the country must not only broaden its services sector but also improve the quality and sophistication of what it offers.

“The level of underemployment in the society is now a challenge and for us to treat that rapidly and at scale, it means that we have to have an embrace of technology. So the AI, it is actually an advantage for us if we embrace it and use it in the right way, not as a displacement of labour but to ensure that our labour force gets the training, the experience to take on higher skill, more sophisticated tasks that will grow our economy and that is indeed the strategy.”

Savadia endorsed this view, stating, “I believe he’s absolutely right.” He pointed to the direct impact of AI and robotics on existing job sectors, including business process outsourcing (BPO), noting they “will be affected, not fully, but somewhat it will be. It will displace a few”.

He argued that the solution lies in a national upskilling mission to capture higher-value global opportunities.

“The other challenge is low-earning jobs, whereas anything with IT, anything with coding, anything with AI puts people into a higher bracket of earning,” Savadia said. “We need to… upskill the lower middle-class, middle-class labour to proper skill sets of advanced trained technologists who can actually serve Jamaica from here to the whole world.”

His vision of creating a new, knowledge-based economy was the overarching theme of his address. He concluded by stating, “We are not just building technology; we are building a new economy — one where every Jamaican can thrive through knowledge, innovation, and global digital participation. Amber Group’s investments in AI, robotics, and education are designed to empower Jamaicans and create sustainable jobs for generations to come.”

Since its inception, the Amber Group has developed a range of digital solutions, including Amber Pay, a Caribbean and South African payment platform; Amber Connect, a vehicle tracking and fleet management system; and Amber Cyber Eye, a cybersecurity suite compliant with international standards.

The company has also committed significant resources to social investment, reinvesting about 80 per cent of its profits into community projects, talent development, and technology infrastructure within Jamaica.

The Amber Group’s broader strategic focus aligns with the Government’s agenda to boost productivity, foster export-led growth, and integrate advanced technologies across sectors to improve competitiveness.

HOLNESS…Jamaica will not only adopt but train the world’s AI engineers (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

Amber Robotics said it will introduce robots like this one which can help in supermarkets in its portfolio.

The Amber Group through its Amber Robotics subsidiary is aiming to train Jamaicans to programme robots for tasks like moving goods around in warehouses.