AI must be on every government's agenda: Costa Rica's Minister Paula Bogantes Zamora at India AI Impact Summit
Artificial intelligence is no longer a side project. Costa Rica's Minister of Science, Innovation, Technology & Telecommunications, Paula Bogantes Zamora, made the case plainly: AI needs to be an element every government considers when planning economic development.
Speaking at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, she highlighted the significance of the event being hosted in the Global South for the first time and called India a point of reference for national-scale AI action.
Key takeaways for public leaders
- AI is an economic lever: productivity, export competitiveness, and new high-value industries depend on data and model-driven capabilities.
- Service delivery can improve fast: smarter citizen services, fraud reduction, and targeted benefits rely on responsible AI and quality data.
- Trust and safety are non-negotiable: standards for privacy, bias mitigation, model evaluation, and security must be built in from day one.
- Skills and procurement decide outcomes: talent pipelines and agile, standards-based public procurement will determine real impact.
- Cooperation matters: cross-border work on safety, testing, and interoperable rules reduces risk and speeds responsible adoption.
What Zamora said
"AI needs to be an element that every government needs to consider when talking about developing the country's economy." She added that India is a point of reference for learning at national scale and welcomed the summit being hosted in the Global South.
Practical next steps for ministries
- Publish or refresh a national AI strategy with clear outcomes, budgets, and delivery owners across ministries.
- Stand up a central AI and data office to provide shared platforms, MLOps guardrails, reference architectures, and model registries.
- Adopt data governance policies for quality, privacy, retention, and cross-agency sharing; mandate data catalogs and lineage.
- Issue safety and ethics guidance: pre-deployment risk assessments, bias tests, red-teaming, incident reporting, and model cards.
- Modernize procurement: require open standards, auditability, security certifications, and exit plans to avoid lock-in.
- Invest in people: scholarships, upskilling for analysts and inspectors, and executive education for policy and budget leaders.
- Pilot high-impact use cases within 90 days (benefits targeting, citizen support, inspections, payments verification) with clear KPIs.
- Join international forums on testing and policy to share evidence and reduce duplicated effort.
About the India AI Impact Summit 2026
The India AI Impact Summit-the first global AI summit hosted in the Global South-was held at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, from February 16 to 20, 2026. It convened government policymakers, industry experts, researchers, innovators, and civil society to advance cooperation on AI governance, safety, and societal impact.
The summit echoes the national vision of "Sarvajana Hitaya, Sarvajana Sukhaya" (welfare for all, happiness for all) and supports the principle of AI for Humanity.
Why India is a reference point
- Scale and public platforms: India's digital public infrastructure shows how identity, payments, and data exchanges can support AI services at population scale. See IndiaAI for programs and policy resources: indiaai.gov.in.
- Policy momentum: Global work on safety, testing, and principles is converging. Review the OECD AI Principles for common ground on trustworthy AI: OECD AI Principles.
Resources for public-sector teams
- AI for Government - practical guidance on adoption, governance, and service delivery.
- AI Learning Path for Policy Makers - programs for officials leading national AI strategy, safety, and regulatory work.
Bottom line: AI belongs in every economic plan, every service roadmap, and every budget conversation. Start small, move fast on the clear wins, and build the safeguards as you scale.
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