Emerging Technologies Shaping the Caribbean Market

The platforms, tools, and solutions Caribbean organisations are deploying — and what executives need to know

Technology vendor conversations in the Caribbean have a familiar quality: global platforms are presented, regional case studies are limited, and the gap between what is technically possible and what is organisationally deployable is left unaddressed. This spotlight cuts through that pattern to identify the technologies that are actually landing in the region right now — with verified deployments, real vendor commitments, and implications that Caribbean decision-makers need to understand.

1. AI-Powered Public Services: iGovTT’s Anansi Sets a Regional Benchmark

On August 5, 2025, the Ministry of Public Administration and Artificial Intelligence, through iGovTT, launched Anansi — T&T’s national AI digital assistant. Named after the Caribbean folklore spider known for wisdom, Anansi connects the knowledge of 32 government ministries, departments, and agencies into a single intelligent platform, trained on over 7,000 frequently asked questions and accessible 24/7 at anansi.tt.

What makes Anansi significant is not just the technology — it is that it was built almost entirely in-house by iGovTT’s own software development team. Minister Dominic Smith acknowledged this directly at the launch, noting the initiative speaks to “the wealth of talent and human capital that we have.” CEO Dr Inshan Meahjohn described the system as a “time tax” eliminator, freeing citizens from navigating multiple conflicting government websites. Of over 600 citizens who participated in the pre-launch survey, 88% gave positive feedback and indicated they wanted to use the system again.

Anansi builds on iGovTT’s earlier ttGovChat service, which had already facilitated over 25,000 interactions per month. It is built on large language models and natural language processing, and is designed to learn from each interaction. For vendors selling AI solutions to Caribbean governments, Anansi sets a new reference point: what locally built AI can look like when the talent and the mandate are both present.

2. Online Driver’s Permit Renewal: Digital Public Infrastructure in Action

On April 3, 2025, iGovTT launched T&T’s first fully Online Driver’s Permit Renewal System (ODPRS) in partnership with the Ministry of Works and Transport and TTPost. Citizens can now apply, upload documents, pay by card, and schedule home delivery — without a single paper form. The system is built on modular Digital Public Infrastructure: GovPayTT (handling 250,000+ transactions annually), the national appointment system (3 million views per year), and a home-grown licensing workflow.

This reusable, modular architecture is the vendor model that works in the Caribbean context. Rather than bespoke, monolithic systems that require expensive maintenance contracts, DPI-based platforms can be assembled and redeployed across services. For technology vendors entering the Caribbean public sector market, this is the procurement philosophy that is gaining traction.

3. Real-Time Payments: T&T Signs NPCI International Agreement

In September 2024, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago signed an agreement with NPCI International Payments Limited — the international arm of India’s National Payments Corporation — to implement a Real-Time Payment Platform. NPCI International has built and deployed similar infrastructure across multiple countries, and India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) now processes over 10 billion transactions monthly. For T&T, the agreement signals a fundamental shift in payment infrastructure ambition — from incremental improvement to transformational redesign.

For Caribbean fintech players, the real-time payments landscape is accelerating. The Caribbean fintech market was valued at approximately $1.2 billion in 2025, with projected growth to $2.8 billion by 2030 at an 18.5% CAGR. WiPay, the T&T-based regional payment processor, now handles over $500 million annually and has expanded across Caribbean markets. Total venture investment in Caribbean fintech reached $85 million in 2024, including a $20 million Series B for WiPay.

4. Mastercard’s Agent Pay: AI Comes to Caribbean Payments in 2026

Mastercard has announced that its new AI-powered payments programme, Agent Pay, will roll out across Latin America and the Caribbean in 2026. Agent Pay enables AI agents to transact autonomously on behalf of consumers — browsing, selecting, and completing payments based on verified user preferences. This is not a distant future scenario. It is a commercial rollout with a named regional timeline.

For Caribbean financial institutions and merchants, this represents both an opportunity and a requirement. Merchants and payment processors that integrate with agentic commerce frameworks early will capture transactions that traditional checkout flows will not. Those that wait will find themselves structurally disadvantaged in a market where AI agents are selecting and executing purchases on behalf of consumers at scale.

5. LEO Satellite Internet: The Connectivity Equaliser

Starlink and other Low Earth Orbit satellite internet providers are changing the connectivity mathematics for Caribbean territories that have been structurally underserved by terrestrial fibre infrastructure. Ookla’s 2024 data shows significant performance differentials in markets where LEO is active — the US Virgin Islands, for example, showing median speeds of 108 Mbps in satellite-served areas. For smaller Eastern Caribbean territories with dispersed populations or difficult terrain, LEO satellite connectivity is not a fallback. It is increasingly the primary connectivity strategy.

Caribbean regulators and technology decision-makers need frameworks for LEO that balance the access benefits against competitive implications for existing terrestrial infrastructure investment. Countries that develop those frameworks proactively will attract the investment and partnerships that come with being LEO-ready. Those that wait for the technology to arrive before developing policy will manage the transition reactively.