The study explores the potential benefits of implementing artificial intelligence (AI) in seven development sectors that receive significant funding from the World Bank. The study provides an overview of the challenges faced by these sectors, including agriculture, healthcare, education, finance, energy, infrastructure, and data. The findings reveal that AI can expedite the achievement of development goals in most of these sectors. The study shows that many organizations already utilize AI to address development challenges in diverse fields. AI is seen as a crop whisperer in agriculture that can help small farmers in low-income and lower-middle-income countries increase their crop productivity. AI can act as a doctor's sidekick in healthcare by assisting healthcare professionals in providing effective and efficient health services. In education, AI can revolutionize learning by providing personalized grading and feedback, helping with personalized tutoring, and customizing therapy and learning for children with autism spectrum disorder. In finance, AI can act as a humane banker by providing access to formal credit for those currently excluded. AI can act as an energy and infrastructure wizard by improving energy efficiency, traffic management, road infrastructure monitoring, power grid monitoring, and water infrastructure monitoring. Finally, AI can act as a data weaver by assisting with improving poverty statistics. The study suggests that the World Bank should promote and finance projects and organizations that use AI to tackle some of the most challenging development problems.

Citation Key: dixit2024