16 September 2026 | London, United Kingdom
PEP research fellow Verónica Amarante highlighted how gaps in skills, infrastructure, and access to technology could limit the benefits of generative AI in developing countries, even as it creates opportunities to raise productivity.
PEP research fellow Verónica Amarante (second from left) speaks at the Global Forum for AI and the Social Sciences in London. Also on the panel was Haroon Bhorat (right), who served on PEP’s Board of Directors from 2017 to 2022.
Verónica Amarante, a PEP research fellow, brought the experience of developing economies into an international discussion on how generative AI is changing work. At the Global Forum for AI and the Social Sciences, she explained why evidence drawn mainly from wealthier countries may not reflect labour markets where informal and multiple jobs are common.
Amarante said generative AI is spreading quickly and could change both work within countries and the services traded between them. Automation may reduce demand for some outsourced services, while demand for data labelling and content moderation is creating work in the Global South. She cautioned that the pay and working conditions associated with this work need attention.
The effects within countries may also differ. AI can help some less-skilled workers with analytical tasks, but workers with more advanced skills may gain more from other uses. Amarante noted that developing economies currently have lower exposure to AI than wealthier economies, as well as fewer opportunities to benefit from it because of informal employment, gaps in digital skills, and limited or costly connectivity.
Amarante reported that participants recognised how difficult it is to predict what comes next. They also saw a potential opportunity for developing countries to increase productivity. She noted that speakers from Global South institutions contributed to the wider forum, alongside strong participation from multilateral organisations and experts based in the Global North.
PEP supported a 2024 working paper on generative AI and developing-country labour markets by Amarante, fellow PEP research fellow Guillermo Cruces, and Estefanía Lotitto. Their recently published article, Avoiding a Generative-AI Divide: Global Interdependencies and Governance Challenges for Labor Markets in Developing Countries, examines the need for international cooperation on skills, infrastructure, conditions for data and platform workers, and developing-country participation in AI governance.
The forum was organised by the London School of Economics and Political Science. Amarante spoke in its session on national perspectives on AI’s labour market impacts on 16 September.
