Government advances national AI readiness assessment
The Government has opened the next phase of the national artificial intelligence readiness assessment with a multi-stakeholder survey under UNESCO's Readiness Assessment Methodology (RAM). The Ministry of Public Administration and Artificial Intelligence (MPAAI) is coordinating the exercise with support from UNESCO and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The survey invites input from the public sector, private sector, academia, civil society and youth groups. It will gauge Trinidad and Tobago's preparedness across five areas:
- Legal and regulatory
- Technological and infrastructural
- Societal and cultural
- Scientific and educational
- Economic
How this connects to ongoing work
This phase follows UNDP's Artificial Intelligence Landscape Assessment (AILA) launched on November 26, 2025. The AILA will map capabilities, gaps and challenges and is expected to produce a national report with recommendations and a roadmap for priority sectors including health, education and the public service.
Information from the RAM survey will feed directly into national policy development for AI. Expect evidence-based actions and sequencing across institutions, infrastructure, talent and regulation.
UNESCO: Recommendation on the Ethics of AI
UNDP: AI for development
What to prepare before you respond
- Current AI use: pilots, proofs-of-concept, production systems, and outcomes.
- Data and infrastructure: inventories of datasets, data-sharing agreements, compute, connectivity, and MLOps practices.
- Policy and legal: data protection, procurement, IP, standards, and risk management procedures.
- Workforce and skills: roles, competencies, training plans, and hiring gaps.
- Security and safety: cybersecurity controls, model risk controls, testing, monitoring, and incident response.
- Equity and public interest: accessibility, bias testing, inclusion of vulnerable groups, and environmental considerations.
- Budget and partnerships: funding sources, donor support, vendor contracts, and academic or civil society collaborations.
- KPIs: service delivery metrics, cost savings, time-to-decision, and citizen satisfaction indicators.
Key dates
- Sector consultations: January 19-23, 2026 - stakeholder sessions to review survey findings and propose sector-specific actions.
- National validation workshop: February 27, 2026 - The University of the West Indies, St Augustine.
Practical next steps for teams
- Appoint a focal point to coordinate your organization's submission and consultation attendance.
- Compile a concise brief: current initiatives, risks, dependencies, and top three recommendations for your sector.
- Map quick wins (e.g., process automation in high-volume services) and high-risk areas (e.g., sensitive data use).
- Engage external stakeholders early - civil society, youth groups, academia, and vendors - to validate assumptions.
- Align with procurement, data governance and cybersecurity leads to ensure consistency across responses.
- Prepare to demonstrate measurable outcomes and propose pilots that can scale in 6-12 months.
If you're planning capacity building to support these actions, see role-based AI upskilling options here: AI courses by job function.
Bottom line: contribute to the survey, show evidence, and come to the consultations with clear asks and a short list of deliverables. This is the moment to align policy, infrastructure and skills so AI improves services, protects rights, and delivers real outcomes for citizens.
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