In Singapore, World Bank President Ajay Banga has called for the deployment of “small AI” – locally deployed AI that runs on cheap hardware, speaks local languages and solves the daily problems of farmers and rural communities.
Speaking at the ATX Singapore 2026 Technology Summit on Thursday, Banga cited the example of a farmer in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh who shared a photo of a diseased crop leaf through an old mobile phone and received diagnosis and treatment advice from agricultural experts in the region.
He also highlighted how nurses in Indonesia are sharing photos of rashes over basic internet connections or older mobile connections with a network of clinics running local diagnostic models.
Banga told some 4,000 delegates from 50 countries attending the summit in Singapore from May 20 to 22 that these were everyday use cases for artificial intelligence that were not getting enough attention.
He stressed that cheap and affordable local technology, if deployed in rural areas, can be a force for good and provide significant opportunities in emerging markets.
Singaporean tech entrepreneur Saurav Mukherjee said the adoption of artificial intelligence will increasingly shift from manufacturing and services to agriculture and food growing, as the technology does not always have to be expensive.
Farmers can use artificial intelligence tools to assess seed quality before sowing and gain advanced information on weather, soil conditions, rainfall and water availability, he said.
Mukherjee also said patients in remote villages can use basic mobile technology to share symptoms with a nurse or nearby clinic, helping to establish the first connection for treatment. “Why not create such connectivity for the less fortunate?” he said, adding that internet connectivity was expanding rapidly across India and 5G services were already reaching remote areas.
Mukherjee said advanced technologies were attracting significant investment from around the world, but warned that a shortage of skilled labor could become a bottleneck in AI adoption. Mukherjee, founder of ORCA Media in Singapore, said: “There is no alternative as AI brings efficiency and productivity to the workplace and businesses everywhere are adopting it in their daily workflow.”
He said governments should take a more proactive approach to funding technology adoption and creating incentives for private sector investment.
This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.
