Washington, October 5 (Daily Kiran) : The World Bank President, Ajay Banga, has emphasized the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) for farmers and laborers in India and other developing countries. He stated that unlike developed economies, the immediate threat of job loss due to AI is less pressing in these regions. Banga cited an AI initiative in Uttar Pradesh that aids women farmers in detecting crop diseases using simple mobile phones.
During an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria at Columbia University, Banga noted that discussions in developed countries often focus on large language models and generative AI, which require substantial computing power, energy, data, skilled personnel, and capital. Many emerging economies still lack these resources.
He highlighted the opportunity for “small AI”—predictive tools that can enhance agricultural productivity, education, skills training, and healthcare. For instance, in Uttar Pradesh, the World Bank has partnered with Google to launch applications that help illiterate women farmers connect with cooperatives.
Banga explained how these farmers can use technology without expensive equipment or technical knowledge. They can utilize a tool that allows them to speak into a 3G phone, directing the camera at a diseased plant’s leaf to receive information about the illness and local pesticide options for just 25 rupees.
“This technology has made access to crucial information easier for even illiterate women farmers,” Banga remarked, underscoring the true power of AI. He also pointed out similar opportunities in healthcare and other sectors.
Banga’s comments offer a fresh perspective in the ongoing global debate about whether advanced AI systems will eliminate jobs. He argued that the immediate impact on rich and developing nations will differ significantly. In developed countries, up to one-third of jobs could be affected by large language models, while in middle-income nations, that number drops to single digits, and in low-income countries, it approaches zero.
He contended that before facing the pressures of job displacement from AI, developing nations have significant room to enhance productivity and employment. For effective implementation of large language models, five critical elements are needed—resources that are not readily available in many emerging markets.
Banga asserted that this is why emerging economies have a more immediate opportunity to use small AI applications. “In these markets, small AI represents a substantial opportunity,” he said, referring to predictive tools that can improve farmers’ productivity, education, and healthcare capabilities.
The discussion also touched on the differences with developed economies, where AI could disrupt established career paths and white-collar jobs. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who joined Banga, mentioned professions like law, where AI can expedite research and documentation tasks typically assigned to younger employees.
Mitsotakis warned that middle-class workers in developed nations may face pressures from both AI and robotics. “While this is a boon for Indian farmers, the middle class in the developed world, already strained by globalization, now faces AI impacting white-collar jobs and robotics taking away manufacturing positions. The outlook for the future is not very hopeful,” he concluded.
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