The AI Readiness Paradox: Jamaica Scores 76 On Awareness, 6% On Training

Jamaica now has a number for something that used to be a guess. In May 2026, the UWI Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies published the country's first Public AI Readiness Score, a national benchmark of how prepared Jamaicans are to understand, trust, access, use and benefit from artificial intelligence. The headline figure is 60 out of 100. That single number is the least interesting part of the study.

What matters is the spread underneath it. Jamaica scored 76 out of 100 on public awareness, meaning most people can tell you AI shows up in customer service, communication and education. Formal training tells a different story: only 6% of Jamaicans have ever received it. Trust sits lower still, at 5.45 out of 10. A country can know a technology exists, doubt whether to rely on it, and never have sat through a single hour of instruction on how to use it, all at once. That is exactly the position SALISES found Jamaica in.

Three Numbers, One Country

Read the three figures side by side and the readiness score stops looking like a grade and starts looking like a map. Seventy-six on awareness says the marketing worked: AI is a known thing, discussed on the radio, demonstrated in classrooms, built into the phone in most people's pockets. Six per cent on training says almost nobody has been shown how to use it with any rigour. Five point four five on trust says the gap between exposure and confidence has not closed, and in places, has widened it.

The researchers flagged a further wrinkle worth taking seriously: the training that does exist skews toward higher earners. Sixty-two per cent of respondents said they wanted AI training, a number that should read as an opportunity to any employer weighing whether to build the skill in-house. If access to that 6% keeps concentrating among people who already have income and connections to pay for it, the readiness gap becomes an inequality gap, and it compounds instead of closing.

Jamaica Sits Inside A Wider Regional Gap

Zoom out and Jamaica's numbers make more sense, because they are not an outlier. A StarApple AI study covering the wider Caribbean, reported by the Jamaica Observer in May 2026, found that 13% of Caribbean adults aged 18 to 65 were actively using generative AI tools. Global research from McKinsey and Microsoft put worldwide adoption at roughly 16.3% over the same period, so the Caribbean trails, but not by the margin the awareness numbers might suggest.

The more striking figure sits with businesses rather than individuals. Adoption among Caribbean micro, small and medium enterprises was measured at 19%, ahead of the individual adult figure. Businesses appear to be reaching for these tools faster than the general public is, which tracks with what SALISES found about training: the people most likely to have had formal instruction are the ones whose jobs already put AI tools in front of them.

The Investment Gap Behind The Adoption Gap

Adoption is downstream of investment, and on that measure the region is thin. ECLAC's Latin American Artificial Intelligence Index found that Latin America and the Caribbean together hold 6.6% of global GDP but attract only 1.12% of global AI investment. Inside that already small slice, Caribbean AI companies are a smaller slice again: as of 2023 they made up under 2% of AI firms across the wider LAC region, with only five CARICOM-based startups whose core business runs on AI.

This is the structural reason training stays scarce. Capital funds the courses, the local tooling and the companies that would otherwise be hiring and training people directly. When capital is thin, training tends to happen inside a handful of larger employers and universities rather than spreading through a competitive labour market, which is roughly the pattern SALISES documented when it found training access concentrated among higher earners.

Photo via Unsplash.

Employers Are Already Pricing In The Skill

None of this is waiting for the region to catch up before it starts costing something. PwC's 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer, built from more than a billion job advertisements across 27 countries and territories, found that roles requiring AI-related skills are growing nearly eight times faster than the job market as a whole, and that workers with those skills command a wage premium of roughly 62% globally. The premium varies sharply by sector, running as high as 118% in consumer markets and as low as 16% in government and public sector work, according to the same report.

PwC Jamaica put a local face on the trend when the report landed. Hugh Thompson, director of digital transformation consulting at PwC Jamaica, said the shift is less about the software and more about what it demands of the person using it.

"AI is increasing the importance of uniquely human capabilities," Hugh Thompson, director, consulting (digital transformation) at PwC Jamaica, told the Jamaica Observer, noting that employees will increasingly need to combine AI literacy with critical thinking, communication, leadership and sound judgement.

That framing matters for a market with Jamaica's specific numbers. A 62% wage premium sitting on top of a 6% training rate is not a distant risk. It is a gap already open in job advertisements, in a labour market where most candidates have never had the training that would let them close it. The businesses moving first are not necessarily the ones with the biggest AI budgets. They are the ones willing to train the staff they already have.

What The Gap Means For Jamaican Employers

Read together, these figures point to a single, practical conclusion. Interest is not the constraint. Sixty-two per cent of Jamaicans told SALISES they wanted AI training, and 81% supported moderate or strict oversight of the technology, which is not the profile of a population resistant to it. The constraint is access: to structured courses, to time away from work to take them, and to employers willing to fund it before a competitor does.

SALISES researchers recommended a national AI literacy campaign and expanded subsidised training through institutions such as HEART/NSTA Trust, aimed at preventing the current skew toward higher earners from hardening into a permanent divide. Those are policy moves with a long runway. A business does not have to wait for them. Given a wage premium already running near 62% and a training rate stuck at 6%, the calculation for any employer is short: train the staff already on payroll, and compete for the rest against a market where almost nobody else has done it yet.

A fair caution belongs here too. A readiness score is a snapshot, not a forecast, and the gap between awareness and training can close faster than people expect once employers start funding it directly rather than waiting for public programmes to scale. The number worth watching next is not the 60, which will drift with sentiment. It is the 6%, because that is the one training budgets can move.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Jamaica's Public AI Readiness Score and what does it measure?

It is a national benchmark published by UWI SALISES in May 2026, measuring how prepared Jamaicans are to understand, trust, access, use and benefit from AI. Jamaica scored 60 out of 100 overall, built from sub-scores including 76 out of 100 on awareness and 5.45 out of 10 on trust.

Why is Jamaica's AI awareness score so much higher than its training rate?

Awareness spreads through news, workplace exposure and consumer tools, hence the 76. Formal training needs a course and usually a fee, and only 6% of Jamaicans have received it, with access skewed toward higher-income respondents.

How does Jamaica's GenAI adoption compare to the rest of the Caribbean and the world?

A StarApple AI study found 13% of Caribbean adults aged 18 to 65 using generative AI, against roughly 16.3% globally per McKinsey and Microsoft data. Caribbean small business adoption sits higher, at 19%.

Why does the Caribbean receive so little global AI investment?

ECLAC's Latin American AI Index found the wider LAC region holds 6.6% of global GDP but just 1.12% of global AI investment. Caribbean AI firms made up under 2% of LAC AI companies as of 2023, with only five CARICOM-based AI-core startups.

What is the AI skills wage premium and does it apply in Jamaica?

PwC's 2026 AI Jobs Barometer found a roughly 62% global wage premium for AI skills, with demand growing nearly eight times faster than the wider job market. PwC Jamaica has flagged the same shift locally, tied to AI literacy combined with human judgement.

What should Jamaican employers do about the AI skills gap?

Treat training as a hiring and retention lever. With formal training this scarce, building it in-house or through subsidised programmes puts a business ahead of a market where most competitors have not done the same.

How does StarApple Analytics help with AI readiness and skills strategy?

We run AI and data literacy training with certificates, benchmark a company's readiness against sector and regional data, and build the analytics layer that makes AI tools useful once staff can run them. Start with our training programme or contact insights@starapple.ai.

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