Why Guyana’s Businesses Must Embrace AI to Stay Competitive and Profitable

May 25, 2025 Features / Columnists, News, Waterfalls Magazine

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By Karen Abrams, MBA, AA, Doctoral Candidate

Kaieteur News- I’ve been wondering lately how many Guyanese businesses, from the small shops in Stabroek Market to our growing oil and gas giants, are truly ready for the AI revolution. Because make no mistake, it’s here, and those who embrace it quickly are going to outpace those that hesitate, not by a little, but by a significant margin.

AI isn’t some distant, futuristic thing reserved for Silicon Valley or billion-dollar corporations. It’s already here. It’s being used every day by organizations around the world to cut costs, speed up operations, improve decision-making, and create better customer experiences.

At its core, AI means using computer systems to do things that normally require human intelligence, like understanding language, recognizing patterns, or making decisions based on data. But what really matters isn’t what AI does by itself. It’s how it helps people do more, do better, and do faster with fewer resources.

Here in Guyana, businesses in every sector, from retail to our growing tourism industry, can take advantage of AI. Tools like ChatGPT and other large language models are already helping teams write reports, edit documents, draft emails, brainstorm campaigns, and summarize research. These are tools that save time and increase productivity, right now. They’re available to every business willing to explore how AI can work for them.

But to truly unlock value, companies need to go deeper than surface-level adoption. They need to connect AI directly to their company’s data and systems. With the help of APIs, digital links between software programmes, AI can be used to respond automatically to customer inquiries, sort and analyze financial transactions, detect trends, or even flag potential problems before they arise. When implemented strategically, AI becomes a multiplier of your workforce’s effectiveness.

This is especially critical in the Guyanese context. Many businesses, particularly in our booming sectors, often struggle to find enough skilled workers or face challenges with high recruitment costs. In addition to filling those labour gaps, AI can also empower existing companies to achieve far more with less, meaning less pressure to constantly import skilled labour at high cost and more focus on building sustainable, tech-enabled teams right here at home. It’s a way to grow without growing bloated.

Customer service is one area where this transformation is already making waves. We’ve all experienced the frustration of a slow response or a miscommunicated request. AI can classify requests, suggest personalized answers, and respond instantly, 24/7. That means faster resolution times, fewer errors, and customers who feel understood and supported, even if it’s 2 AM. In a competitive market, that kind of service builds loyalty and drives repeat business.

In our high-growth industries like oil, gas, and mining, AI is proving essential. These sectors produce massive amounts of data, on equipment health, safety, logistics, and production efficiency. Globally, companies are already using AI to predict breakdowns, optimize energy use, and improve safety. According to the World Economic Forum, AI-powered predictive maintenance has saved millions in downtime and extended the life of expensive equipment. If companies abroad are doing this, we should be doing it too, before we’re left behind in our own marketplace.

And we can’t ignore agriculture, a foundational pillar of our economy. From rice farmers in Essequibo to our sugar estates, AI helps predict yields, monitor soil health, and detect pests early. For a country like Guyana, with a strong agricultural backbone, this could dramatically improve food security and increase exports.

To be clear, adopting AI can’t just be a project handed off to the “tech guy.” This isn’t about installing a new app and calling it innovation. Every Guyanese business, no matter the size, needs a holistic AI strategy. That means understanding how AI fits into your goals, your business model, your industry, and your customers’ expectations. It means aligning AI with your finances, your workforce, and your understanding of what your business must do to stay relevant in today’s climate.

A good AI strategy should also consider ethics and data privacy. If you’re going to use AI to analyze customer behaviour or financial patterns, you need to have a plan for protecting that data. You need to ensure transparency, fairness, and accountability, because trust is a currency, and once it’s lost, it’s hard to regain.

I won’t pretend this is all easy. Change never is. Some might think AI is only for big budgets, but many entry-level AI tools are surprisingly affordable, even free, to start experimenting with. It will take time, leadership, and some trial and error. You’ll probably need to leverage the expertise of an experienced consultant who can help to upskill your team, rethink your workflows, and guide in the investment of new systems. But doing nothing is far riskier.

Global companies entering Guyana are already AI-enabled. If we don’t evolve, we’ll lose ground. We’ll lose customers. And we’ll lose opportunities, but with the right mindset, AI can help leaders build businesses that are faster, more resilient, more efficient, and yes, more profitable.

So this is more than a call to innovate. It’s a call to lead. The future is already here, and those who embrace AI with vision and responsibility will be the ones who thrive. Those who don’t? They’ll be playing catch-up in a race that moves faster every day.

 

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