Understanding AI ecosystems in the Global South: The cases of Senegal and Cambodia

The Global South (GS) refers to a block of countries in the process of rapidly catching up with the industrialization of their economies. GS countries are trying to leverage their growing demand for innovative products and services to negotiate the uptake of novel technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI). The latter can help such countries further stimulate their economic growth and become influential in dictating policies that could advance global development. However, a misaligned AI-adoption strategy entails the risk of alienating the social, economic, and even cultural requirements of such countries, ultimately leading to the incorporation of technologies not serving the needs of their users. Subsequently, we conduct a study whose goal is to provide guidelines on how to perform a comprehensive analysis of the AI ecosystems in GS countries, to determine their readiness to adopt and utilize beneficially these technologies. For this, we performed a qualitative case study of two GS countries, namely Senegal and Cambodia. The depiction of their AI ecosystems unveiled the need to stimulate their societies (i.e., by media exposure, education, etc.) in discerning the practical effects of AI. However, an impactful AI implementation requires a reciprocated satisfaction of the needs of multiple contributing actors. Finally, particular recommendations are offered at the level of these countries’ academic, industrial, and governmental constitutions, suggesting to focalize their resources in order to better energize (and optimally disperse) their research and entrepreneurial capabilities that could help identify the ways in which AI solutions can be of added-value within the premises of these two countries.