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TTIGF 2026 Panels

The Digital Divide

As Trinidad & Tobago accelerates its journey toward a digital economy, one challenge continues to shape our national progress—the digital divide. Across the country and the wider Caribbean, unequal access to technology, digital skills, and affordable connectivity is preventing many businesses and communities from fully participating in the digital age.

This gap not only limits access to essential digital services—it threatens the competitiveness of our SMEs, slows innovation, and risks leaving entire sectors behind as global industries adopt cloud services, automation, AI, and data-driven decision making.

Our upcoming panel, “Bridging the Digital Divide in Trinidad & Tobago,” brings together key voices in government, industry, education, and community development to examine how we can create a more inclusive digital future. The session will explore the realities facing underserved communities and resource-constrained businesses, and how disparities in access, affordability, and digital literacy impact economic growth and national development.

Key Topics Will Include:

  • Expanding access to broadband and essential digital infrastructure
  • Empowering citizens and SMEs with critical digital skills
  • Supporting locally relevant digital tools, content, and services
  • Strengthening collaboration across public- and private-sector stakeholders
  • Leveraging regional and international programs from organizations such as the Ministry of Public Administration and Artificial Intelligence, TATT, CTU, CARICOM, ITU, World Bank, and UNESCO

Why This Panel Matters

A digitally included Trinidad & Tobago is one where every citizen, entrepreneur, and community can access opportunities, contribute to innovation, and thrive in a rapidly changing global landscape. Ensuring that no business—especially SMEs—is left behind is critical to protecting the strength of our industry and the resilience of our economy.

Join us as we explore actionable strategies, highlight successful initiatives, and chart a path toward a more connected, competitive, and digitally empowered nation.

Integrating AI into Digital Transformation

AI is not just a component of digital transformation—it’s increasingly becoming the engine driving it forward. We must see this as both an opportunity and a responsibility. It’s the most transformative technology of our era but requires careful governance, to ensure trust and inclusiveness.

To integrate AI into Digital Transformation discussion we will focus on three framing pillars 

  • Relevance
  • Feasibility
  • Comprehensiveness

 Relevance

  • AI as a catalyst for growth: AI enables predictive analytics, automation, and personalization, which directly boost productivity and competitiveness.
  • Public and Private Sector service delivery: AI-powered chatbots, decision-support systems, and predictive models improve efficiency, transparency, and citizen engagement.
  • Societal advancement: AI supports breakthroughs in healthcare (diagnostics, drug discovery), education (personalized learning), and sustainability (energy optimization, climate modeling).

Feasibility (TT and the Caribbean)

  • Already underway: Many countries and organizations are embedding AI into their digital strategies—examples include smart city initiatives, AI-driven public health monitoring, and intelligent manufacturing.
  • Multi-stakeholder collaboration: AI adoption requires alignment across government, private sector, academia, and civil society to ensure responsible use.
  • Enablers: Cloud infrastructure, open-source frameworks, and growing AI talent pools make AI integration highly feasible.
  • Risks & governance: Feasibility also depends on ethical frameworks to manage bias, privacy, and accountability.

 Comprehensiveness

  • E-Governance: AI enhances decision-making, fraud detection, and citizen services.
  • Smart Cities: AI-driven IoT systems optimize traffic, energy, and safety.
  • Industry 4.0: AI powers robotics, predictive maintenance, and supply chain optimization.
  • Digital Economy: AI underpins fintech, e-commerce personalization, and new entrepreneurial models.

Inclusivity: AI must be designed to reduce, not widen the digital divide, ensuring equitable access and benefits.

Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Resilience and Regional Integration

The rapid proliferation of Artificial Intelligence is reshaping the global cybersecurity landscape, presenting both unprecedented opportunities for defense and significant new avenues for attack. For Trinidad and Tobago and its CARICOM partners, whose digital transformation efforts are accelerating (as noted in the CARICOM Cyber Security and Cybercrime Action Plan – CCSCAP 2025), understanding and managing AI’s dual impact is critical to achieving cyber resilience.

This panel will be a frank discussion on:

  1. AI as a Force Multiplier for Defense: Discussing the practical application of AI in regional security operations, such as predictive vulnerability management, zero-day threat detection through log analysis, AI-assisted DNS traffic prediction, risk pattern detection and optimisation, and automated incident response to reduce downtime in critical infrastructure.
  2. The New Offensive Frontier: Examining how malicious actors are leveraging Generative AI to scale and personalize attacks, including hyper-realistic deepfake voice and video fraud targeting senior executives (especially in the financial sector), AI-generated polymorphic code and adaptive malware, as well as AI-driven automated tools that rapidly scan for and exploit vulnerabilities.
  3. Industry Sector Impact: Analyzing the direct, referenced impacts on:
  4. Financial Services: Increased online fraud losses (e.g., the reported TT $3 million+ in online fraud cited by the TTPS in recent years) and the need for AI-driven identity and behavioral access management.
  5. Energy/Petrochemicals: Threats to operational technology (OT) systems and supply chains from AI-orchestrated attacks, risking major physical and economic disruption.
  6. Tourism: The potential for reputational damage and data breaches from large-scale, AI-generated phishing campaigns targeting customer data.
  7. Implications for Local and Regional Innovation: Focusing on the critical challenges of the AI skills gap (a major barrier to AI adoption in the region) and the slow pace of policy and governance frameworks needed to foster secure, ethical, and competitive AI-driven innovation in the Caribbean.

Key Audience Takeaway: Participants will gain a strategic understanding of the necessary technology investments, policy interventions, and capacity-building initiatives required to leverage AI securely and competitively in the regional context.

The Human cost of Innovation: Mental Well-being in the Digital Era

As digital innovation accelerates, so does its impact on our mental health. In Trinidad & Tobago, where mental issues are often stigmatised, the pressure of 24/7 connectivity, social media comparison, and AI anxiety is growing, especially among our young people.

Join this focused TTIGF 2026 session to move beyond the buzzwords. We will explore exactly how technology reinforces stress and burnout, what organisations must do to help, and—most importantly—share specific, practical tools you can use immediately to increase your mental resilience.