POLICY BRIEF: Beyond AI Adoption: Data Sovereignty, Economic Participation and the Governance Execution Gap in Guyana and CARICOM
INNISS INSTITUTE FOR DIGITAL POLICY AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Beyond AI Adoption: Data Sovereignty, Economic Participation and the Governance Execution Gap in Guyana and CARICOM POLICY BRIEF | NOVEMBER 2026 DOI : 10.5281/zenodo.24047419 Dr. Abiola Inniss, Ph.D., LL.M. Scholarship for Social Change • Caribbean and Global South Executive summary Artificial intelligence is increasingly presented as a route to productivity, public-sector modernization and economic diversification. For Guyana and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), these opportunities are genuine, but they are not self-executing. The decisive question is not whether governments and firms acquire AI systems; it is whether Caribbean institutions can govern the data, intellectual property, contractual relationships and economic value generated through their use. A region can expand AI adoption while remaining dependent on external infrastructures and suppliers, with limited ...