Page 50 - The Annual AI Governance Report 2025 Steering the Future of AI

The Annual AI Governance Report 2025: Steering the Future of AI

Chapter 1: Global Context

1.1 Opportunities Context

A huge experiment is underway. Well over a billion people regularly use chatbots in their Chapter 1: Global
daily lives. Thousands of use cases are being tried. AI helps users draft documents, answer
questions, brainstorm ideas, and translate languages instantly, reducing time spent on routine
tasks. Customer service operations across industries rely on AI chatbots to handle high volumes
of queries, cutting wait times and freeing human staff to focus on complex cases. In workplaces,
AI tools are used to generate code, summarize meetings, and support research, speeding up
knowledge work at scale.

AI is also reshaping how individuals access information and services. Students use AI tutors
to get real-time explanations of concepts. Small businesses rely on AI platforms for marketing
content, design, and analytics that previously required specialized staff. In regions with limited
resources, AI chatbots extend access to education, healthcare advice, and government services,
enabling broader participation in the digital economy.

Many people use AI without realizing it, whether through recommendation systems on
streaming platforms, fraud detection in online payments, or navigation apps that optimize
routes in real time.

In the sciences, AI accelerates discovery by analyzing vast datasets that are beyond human
capacity to process. In biology, it is used to predict protein structures and design new drugs.
In physics and astronomy, AI supports the detection of rare phenomena in massive streams
of experimental data, such as sifting through telescope data to identify new celestial objects
and understand complex phenomena. In climatology, AI models help predict climate change
patterns and their potential impacts, providing a powerful tool for environmental scientists.

Opportunities are also numerous in developing countries. As the Zimbabwe’s Minister of
Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services, Ms Tatenda Annastacia
Mavetera, highlighted at AI Governance Dialogue, Zimbabwe's biggest AI opportunities in
agriculture, the backbone of Zimbabwe’s economy (precision farming, drone use for crop
monitoring, soil analysis, pest control, and real-time farmer advice via low-orbit satellites), and
e-government services. Zimbabwe is creating local drone prototypes and expanding digital
centers in every district, offering free public Wi-Fi and aiming for 100% internet and mobile
penetration, from its current 80% Internet penetration rate.

In response to the question what one lesson from Lithuania would be that could help smaller
countries get ahead in AI without overregulating, Lithuania’s Jūratė Šovienė, Chair of the
Council, The Communications Regulatory Authority of the Republic of Lithuania, suggested
that smaller countries like Lithuania can leverage their size by being flexible, open to
experimentation, fast, and low on bureaucracy. She proposed using regulatory sandboxes,
similar to their successful fintech model: Lithuania did not become a fintech hub because it had
big financial institutions, but because Lithuania made it easy for start-ups to test their ideas and
products in a safe and supervised environment in those regulatory sandboxes. Let those with
low-risk solutions self-regulate and observe those with high-risk solutions within the regulatory
sandbox.

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