Nigeria and other developing economies risk being left behind in the global artificial intelligence revolution unless they move swiftly to adopt and adapt the technology to local needs, the World Bank Group’s Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President for Development Economics, Indermit Gill, has warned.

Gill issued the warning on Wednesday while delivering the keynote address at the 7th Africa Emerging Markets Forum in Abuja.

The event was organised by the Central Bank of Nigeria in partnership with the Emerging Markets Forum and the Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa.

He cautioned governments against letting concerns over AI-driven job losses in advanced economies influence policymaking in developing countries such as Nigeria.

Gill said, “There is a danger that countries like Nigeria, countries like India and others will miss this industrial revolution.”

He added, “You have to remember… what happened when we missed the Industrial Revolution? You ended up being behind for 200 years. You can’t miss this.”

Gill said artificial intelligence presents greater opportunities than risks for developing economies because it is more likely to complement workers than replace them.

He noted that AI is advancing far more rapidly than previous transformative technologies and is highly context-specific, making it more important for countries to adapt the technology to local needs than to simply import foreign solutions or attempt to build frontier AI models.

“The highest returns are actually in back-end predictive AI,” he said, noting that predictive AI could significantly improve agriculture, healthcare, education and judicial services in developing economies. These are not hypotheticals. These are actual numbers,” he added, citing examples from Kenya, Bangladesh and India’s Telangana state.

Gill said only about 10 per cent of jobs in low-income and developing economies are likely to be adversely affected by AI, compared with 30 to 40 per cent in advanced economies, arguing that fears of widespread job losses are largely overstated.

Gill also dismissed concerns that small businesses would be left behind, citing World Bank research showing that firms in developing economies, regardless of size, are increasingly able to adopt AI technologies.

He urged governments to prioritise predictive AI, invest in digital infrastructure and digital skills, promote interoperability across AI systems, and encourage industry-led standards alongside appropriate regulation.

“No country has enough money to compete with the US and China,” he said.

He added that promoting interoperability among AI systems represented a more practical strategy for countries such as Nigeria, enabling them to integrate and adapt existing technologies rather than build frontier AI models from scratch.