On the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly, Primus Partners is proud to present Built Lean, Built to Scale: An Artificial Intelligence Compendium from the Global South, exploring how countries across the Global South are building AI solutions around their own contexts, constraints and priorities.
As AI development remains concentrated around the compute, chips, data and supply chains controlled largely by the Global North, countries in the Global South are taking a different approach. Rather than waiting for these dependencies to disappear, they are using them as starting points for innovation, developing solutions that are locally relevant, adaptable and designed around real-world needs.
The compendium examines this shift through three critical areas: compute, data and skilling. It brings together global examples and case studies based on conversations with founders, engineers, policymakers, public digital infrastructure leaders and technology companies to understand not only what is being built, but how these solutions are being developed and deployed against practical constraints.
At its core, Built Lean, Built to Scale asks a simple question: what does AI innovation look like when it is built on the Global South’s own terms?
