ARTIFICIAL intelligence could help Jamaica cut bureaucratic delays, speed disaster recovery, and expand tourism services, Fujitsu executives said during a regional technology conference in St Ann last week.

The comments came during the Fujitsu Americas Business Kickoff event at the Moon Palace resort, where government officials and technology executives discussed artificial intelligence, digital government systems, and disaster resilience across the Caribbean.

Mervyn Eyre, CEO of Fujitsu Caribbean, said AI could help level the playing field for smaller economies by making sophisticated analytical and research tools more accessible to governments and businesses that previously lacked the resources to afford them.

“What AI really gives us in the Caribbean is capabilities that are available everywhere else in the world,” Eyre said. “It gives us the best opportunity to accelerate our economic growth.”

Eyre said AI has already reduced the need for smaller organisations and governments to rely heavily on expensive consultants for research and analysis.

Executives argued that the issue is no longer whether Jamaica should adopt AI, but how quickly it can deploy the technology across government and business systems.

Asif Poonja, CEO of Fujitsu Americas, said AI’s greatest potential impact in Jamaica could come through citizen services and public sector modernisation.

“The impact on government and citizen services are probably highest,” Poonja said, arguing that AI would need to be embedded into the systems underpinning Jamaica’s digital Government agenda.

Nicholas Lee, executive director and head of Fujitsu Intelligence, said AI systems capable of autonomously handling multi-step administrative tasks could help reduce bottlenecks in areas such as permitting and reconstruction approvals.

“I think there’s a significant opportunity for us to look at bottlenecks, like permitting, and how can we leverage AI to do that more effectively,” Lee said, pointing to post-Melissa reconstruction as an area where AI-assisted permitting systems could accelerate recovery efforts.

Lee said AI is already producing measurable results in supply-chain management. He said Fujitsu has deployed AI systems that reduced the time needed – from two weeks to two hours – to assess how earthquakes and severe weather events affect suppliers and distribution networks.

“We know – from a fully connected supply chain all the way to our customer – which products and components are impacted,” Lee said.

Similar systems, Lee argued, could help Jamaica respond faster to climate disruptions and supply-chain shocks.

But Lee argued that Jamaica risks undervaluing AI if it is viewed mainly as a cost-cutting tool. He said the bigger opportunity for Jamaica is economic growth, particularly in tourism.

He pointed to an AI platform Fujitsu developed in Canada that links parks and recreation services across British Columbia, making them easier for visitors to access.

“I think if I look at Jamaica and I think of the tourism industry, like how can we connect more of these services so we can provide that in a more seamless way and help grow the economy?” Lee said.

“I think cost, obviously, is an equation, labour is an equation, but I think we should look at growth,” he added.

Durga Kota, chief technology officer of Fujitsu Americas, said AI could help governments modernise ageing public-sector systems faster and at lower cost — an issue affecting many Caribbean administrations still operating older-technology platforms.

He pointed to Japan, where AI is being used to accelerate the implementation of policy changes across government systems.

“In a way, it is addressing the need for a significant amount of labour to get those policy decisions out into the field,” Kota said.

Fujitsu also said it has a video behaviour analytics system that analyses movement patterns to identify potentially threatening behaviour without using facial recognition technology.

Kota said the system could be deployed in Jamaica for applications including public safety at beaches, crowded public spaces, and schools.

Jamaica announced an AI policy framework under a UNESCO programme earlier this month, a move executives said is important for establishing governance standards and safeguards around the technology as adoption expands.

The rapid global expansion of AI has also triggered concerns around misinformation, privacy, governance and job displacement.

Eyre argued that leadership and governance — rather than public fear — will ultimately determine whether Jamaica successfully adopts the technology.

“The only fear of AI is when you have bad actors using AI for bad,” Eyre said.

He said senior officials and boards need a stronger understanding of AI to govern and deploy it effectively at scale.

“We have to create the awareness,” Eyre said. “It’s well within our reach. But we have to do the right leadership things to get it working.”

Fujitsu Caribbean headquarters in Kingston, Jamaicaa

Mervyn Eyre (right), chief executive officer of Fujitsu Caribbean, speaks during the Fujitsu Americas Business Kickoff event at Moon Palace in St Ann last week, while Asif Poonja, chief executive officer of Fujitsu Americas, listens. “What AI really gives us in the Caribbean is capabilities that are available everywhere else in the world,” Eyre said. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)