Global trade confab to examine implications of AI

Last Updated on Sunday, 13 September 2026, 17:45 by Writer

The World Trade Centre Georgetown (WTCG) on Saturday said a major global conference to be held in Guyana next month would focus on the ramifications of artificial intelligence (AI) for small economies.

Executive Director Wesley Kirton said the WTCG International Trade and Investment Conference to be held October 19–23 in Guyana would devote a session to “AI, Trade and the Future Competitiveness of Small Economies”.

“This session will move this discussion beyond the usual AI hype and directly address what it means for Guyanese and Caribbean exporters, manufacturers, farmers, financial institutions and logistics companies,” the WTCG said in a statement.

Ahead of next month’s conference, Mr Kirton said the WTCG convened an informal roundtable to discuss the reality of AI’s potential threat which concluded that the danger of AI is real but it is important that developing countries like Guyana and other CARICOM member states accelerate responsible adoption of AI while simultaneously building safeguards, cybersecurity and institutional capacity.

Mr Kirton, currently preparing to represent the WTCG at the Food and Beverage Show of the Americas which opens Monday at the Miami Beach Convention Centre, says the roundtable discussion identified three different areas of danger: immediate misuse, economic disruption and loss of human control over highly advanced AI.

He said a a small team has agreed to work on a policy paper entitled “AI and the Future of Guyana and CARICOM: Threat, Opportunity or Both?”.

The WTCG chief said there was consensus that the announced threats should not lead to a slowing or resistance to AI especially in the case of Guyana whose rapid economic transformation provides for the use of AI to overcome traditional disadvantages of a developing economy.

The roundtable discussion, held at the Wyndham Garden Hotel, referred to the 2026 AI Safety Report which points to autonomous AI agents capable of acting without any human intervention.

But the significant discussion on trade, he said, saw most of the roundtable participants agreeing that AI would remain an important cost saving mechanism for international trade through, inter alia, market research; identification of competitors; determination of tariffs; preparation of export documentation, and analysis of consumer demand.