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UN PhotoWORLD BANK / WORLD DEVELOPMENT REPORT
STORY: WORLD BANK / WORLD DEVELOPMENT REPORT
TRT: 01:56
SOURCE: WORLD BANK GROUP
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATE AND LOCATION: 28 JULY 2026, WASHINGTON DC
1. Wide shot, exterior of World Bank Group headquarters in Washington, DC
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Gaurav Nayyar, Director of the World Development Report 2026:
“AI generates unprecedented excitement. AI also generates unprecedented concern. But most of what we read, see, and hear about AI today is in the context of high-income countries. This report provides the first comprehensive assessment of what AI means for the 6.8 billion people living in developing countries.”
3. Various shots, World Bank Group headquarters in Washington, DC
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Gaurav Nayyar, Director of the World Development Report 2026:
“The threat of job disruption is much less imminent in developing countries, where many more people do manual rather than cognitive work. Instead, AI can complement people's capabilities. But the expected productivity impacts of AI are much higher in advanced economies that are adopting the technology both more widely and more quickly. This adoption holds the key.”
5. Various shots, World Bank Group headquarters in Washington, DC
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Gaurav Nayyar, Director of the World Development Report 2026:
“The biggest benefits from AI in developing countries is what it can do for the capabilities of people. There are too few doctors to diagnose disease, too few experts to support farmers, and too few skilled public sector officials to better deliver services. Building this expertise through education and training can take generations. AI can radically speed up the pace of transformation.”
7. Various shots, World Bank Group headquarters in Washington, DC
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Gaurav Nayyar, Director of the World Development Report 2026:
“The report offers a clear framework for what developing countries should do - adopt and adapt, then advance. Only a few countries and companies have the resources to advance the AI frontier. Adopting the AI that is available is a logical starting point, but not enough. Not enough because AI learns from data, and data needs to reflect local conditions and local languages. Therefore, adapting AI to local contexts can help countries strike the right balance”
9. Wide shot, exterior of World Bank Group headquarters in Washington, DC
Artificial intelligence (AI) could allow developing countries to do in a decade what might otherwise take a century—provided that governments act swiftly to close the gaps in power, connectivity, skills, and institutional quality that threaten to leave them behind, according to the World Bank Group’s World Development Report 2026: The Promise of Artificial Intelligence.
The report, released today, finds that jobs in high-income countries are more than three times as likely to be at risk of automation by generative AI than those in low- and middle-income countries, where 4.5 per cent of existing jobs are at risk, compared with 14.2 per cent in high-income countries. At the same time, 16.2 per cent of jobs in developing economies could see productivity meaningfully boosted by AI — close to the 18.7 per cent expected in high-income countries. The greatest promise for developing countries lies not in replacing workers, but in amplifying what they can do.
