CEOs urged to ride AI wave
TechBeach boss pushes for Caribbean industry heads to get on board amid significant new investment cycle
Published:Saturday | August 2, 2025 | 12:09 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
A call has been issued for the Caribbean to embrace the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution or risk being left behind in what tech entrepreneur Kirk-Anthony Hamilton, describes as “the greatest investment cycle that we have ever seen”.
Speaking on the final day of the Caribbean Investment Forum at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James on Thursday, Hamilton, the co-founder and CEO of TechBeach Retreat, argued that AI is reshaping global wealth and opportunity at a scale that Jamaica and the region cannot afford to ignore.
TechBeach Retreat is an annual tech summit held in Jamaica, known for its focus on fostering technology and innovation in the Caribbean region.
“I think where we are, what’s now being proclaimed on a global standpoint, is AI will create more millionaires in the next five years than we’ve seen in some other significantly protracted time,” he said.
“And I think you are going to see newly minted millionaires in the Caribbean who are able to bypass a lot of the boundaries that our market unfortunately puts in place.”
Hamilton dismissed fear-based narratives around artificial intelligence, asserting instead that the technology presents an unprecedented opportunity, one that the Caribbean must urgently seize.
“I’m not an AI doomsday enthusiast by any means,” he said. “But at the same time, I say, unless you’re going to fight it, and that’s where you’re going to invest your resources, then you’re better off joining the course.
“Because it’s not billions that are being deployed. It’s trillions. The weight against our GDP is so significant [that] we are not really in a position to fight. We’re in a position to adapt to the best interests of our region and work to create wealth.”
TRADITIONAL INDUSTRIES UNDER THREAT
Hamilton, who was part of a high-profile pool of panellists who examined the theme ‘AI in the Boardroom: Will Technology Make or Break Caribbean CEOs?’, warned that traditional Caribbean industries are under threat, not simply from automation, but from a failure of mindset among decision-makers.
“I have significant concern for our traditional industries because of the mindset that I just pointed out,” he said. “One, you don’t need to be a technologist to leverage AI. But too many of our corporate heads see themselves as far distanced from what this thing is, and I think that is going to create long-term challenges that we are already seeing.”
He pointed to the rapid rise of fintech and Amazon global e-commerce, as evidence that traditional financial institutions in the region are out of touch with their real competition.
“If you talk to most CEOs on the ground in a Caribbean island, they’re not telling you… but at the end of the day, there’s a kid in Kingston who has an entire business that he’s running outside of the ecosystem of Jamaica that doesn’t need a Caribbean bank anymore. Right? And so, he falls outside the scope of what that Caribbean bank may see as income, revenue, etc. And nobody’s talking about it.”
Hamilton urged regional institutions to ask themselves the hard questions.
“The question really should be: how do I build up something that attracts that person/slash entity into my fold?” he asked. “But I feel like we keep creating in a way that excludes that part of the market.”
The Caribbean Investment Forum, which ran for three days – July 29-31, brought together public and private sector leaders to explore investment opportunities in a changing global economy, with AI emerging as a one of the dominant themes.