A new 2025 global assessment of government preparedness to leverage artificial intelligence for public good has revealed significant gaps in capacity across Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states, published by leading international research firm Oxford Insights. Covering 195 nations worldwide, this year’s Government AI Readiness Index introduces a newly updated analytical framework built around six core pillars: Policy Capacity, AI Infrastructure, Governance, Public Sector Adoption, Development and Diffusion, and Resilience, replacing the index’s previous structure to better reflect evolving AI ecosystem needs.
When ranked against the rest of the world, CARICOM nations see a wide spread in positions, stretching from 93rd all the way down to 189th. Only one CARICOM member, Jamaica, claims a spot in the global top 100, a outcome researchers attribute directly to the island nation’s recent launch of a formal national AI strategy. A second tier of mid-ranking regional states includes Trinidad and Tobago at 122nd and The Bahamas at 126th, while the 11 remaining member states fall far behind, with rankings between 144th and 189th.
In addition to global rankings, the index assigns individual scores from 0 to 100 for each of the six measurement pillars across every assessed country. Aggregated regional data shows CARICOM’s strongest performing area is AI Infrastructure, which posts an average regional score of 33. Governance and Resilience tie for second place with average scores of 29 each. The region’s weakest pillars, by contrast, are Policy Capacity, and Development and Diffusion, which both carry an average regional score of just 13.
Taken as a whole, the 2025 index data paints a clear picture of the CARICOM region’s current AI landscape: while member states have built comparatively stronger foundational digital infrastructure than many peer economies, they still lag far behind in developing formal national AI strategies, scaling up AI development, and rolling out applied AI solutions across public and private sectors.