The World Development Report 2026 said developing countries should adapt to existing AI tools before building their own models. The report noted that building frontier models is "not a realistic goal in the near future" for most. Many nations now use AI, but a wide usage gap still remains today.

Artificial intelligence (AI) presents a "historic opportunity" for low- and middle-income countries to overcome long-standing development challenges, but the countries with the most to gain are the least prepared, according to a World Bank report.

The World Development Report 2026, titled 'The Promise of Artificial Intelligence', said developing countries should first adopt existing AI tools and adapt to them for local needs before advancing to build their own frontier models.

Building frontier models is "not a realistic goal in the near future" for most developing countries, the report said.

"Only a small number of countries and companies have the resources to compete at that level, and progress might take years. A few countries are making inroads.

Examples include India's Sarvam AI, the United Arab Emirates' Falcon, and Sub-Saharan Africa's InkubaLM, which were built from scratch to work better in local languages," it said.

The report said AI was spreading faster than earlier technologies. Within six months of ChatGPT's launch, middle-income countries accounted for half of its global traffic.

The gap in usage, however, remains wide. nearly 25 per cent of internet users in high-income countries had adopted ChatGPT, compared with 4.7 per cent in lower-middle-income countries and 0.7 per cent in low-income countries.

About 4.5 per cent of jobs in low- and middle-income countries can be automated by generative AI, against 14.2 per cent in high-income countries, the report said.

"In developing countries, the immediate risk of disruption from AI is limited to a small share of jobs, involving people employed in knowledge-intensive professional services. On the flip side, AI has the potential to improve the capabilities of many small businesses, in which most people are currently employed and in which they undertake manual rather than cognitive work," it said.

Developing countries should be "blinded neither by the hype nor the hysteria" surrounding AI, it said.