BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — Future Caribbean is launching what it believes is the world’s first global agentic AI buildathon designed to strengthen the Caribbean region’s economy and its connections to global markets.

In a recent statement, Future Caribbean said the initiative will bring together builders, deployment partners, investors, advisors and institutions to develop Agentic AI systems for real economies.

Founded by Barbadian lawyer, entrepreneur and technologist Lily Dash, and built from a conviction that the Caribbean has far more talent, capacity and global relevance than its current systems allow the world to see, organisers say Future Caribbean is a federated coalition bringing together talent, capital, compute, advisors, deployment partners and domain expertise to build category-defining companies.

Organisers say the initiative comes amid explosive growth in the Agentic AI ecosystem.

The company says while much of the AI conversation has focused on productivity tools and chatbots, Future Caribbean is focused on a larger question of whether Agentic AI become the operating layer that helps fragmented regions operate as frictionlessly as one.

Noting that most of the world’s economies are distributed markets and economic activity is fragmented, the company cited the Caribbean as one of the clearest examples with multiple islands, multiple currencies, multiple legal systems and multiple languages which it said are barriers to coordination despite shared industries, common challenges and significant economic opportunity.

“Coordination across fragmented markets has been costly, complex and difficult to scale, cutting regions of the world off from themselves and off from global markets,” said Dash.

“Agentic AI creates the possibility of coordinating across that complexity in ways that simply weren’t possible before. The Caribbean provides a powerful proving ground for solutions that could ultimately be deployed across distributed markets worldwide.”

The 21-day buildathon will bring together 40 teams from around the world and provide access to:

• H200-class compute infrastructure
• Open-source Agentic AI frameworks
• Global mentors and advisors
• Real-world deployment opportunities
•     Corporate, government, academic and institutional partners
• Investor exposure and ecosystem support

Participants will focus on solutions that can drive economic development, modernise government services, improve cross-border commerce, increase workforce productivity, streamline institutional operations and unlock new opportunities for regional collaboration.

Select teams will receive cash awards, a live pitch opportunity at the New York Stock Exchange in Q4 2026, GPU credits from Highrise & Impala AI, Minimax AI and Shogo AI, deployment machines from Other World Computing, scholarships to DMZ Ventures’ technology incubator through Enterprise Cayman, and access to a global network of founders, investors, operators and ecosystem partners including ACTAI Advisors.

Bill Tai, a legendary venture capitalist known for writing the first check into Zoom, seeding Canva and backing more than 20 startups that grew to become public companies over a 35-year career, believes Agentic AI has the potential to reshape how economies operate.

“No other buildathon can give you this kind of traction if you can build something that finds real product-market fit,” said Tai.

“What we’re seeing with Agentic AI is unlike anything I can remember. The pace of innovation, adoption and developer participation is extraordinary,” said Tai. “For the first time, we have technology that can help coordinate across complexity at a scale that was previously impossible. The potential impact on economic development, productivity and human opportunity is enormous.”