Name: World Bank President: How “Small AI” Can Help Solve a Big Jobs Crisis
Uploaded: 2026-01-20T22:59:00Z
Duration: 8 min 28 s
Description: Ajay Banga, World Bank President, speaks with the WSJ Leadership Institute’s Alan Murray about the urgent jobs crisis facing hundreds of millions of young people in emerging markets, how “small AI” can boost economic activity, and the World Bank’s role in post-conflict reconstruction, including Ukraine and Gaza.

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Ajay Banga, World Bank President, speaks with the WSJ Leadership Institute’s Alan Murray about the urgent jobs crisis facing hundreds of millions of young people in emerging markets, how “small AI” can boost economic activity, and the World Bank’s role in post-conflict reconstruction, including Ukraine and Gaza. Photo: Michael Claudio/WSJ

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260120/3fadb2c7-7483-4370-ab09-4507807a3fe3/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Ajay Banga, World Bank President, speaks with the WSJ Leadership Institute’s Alan Murray about the urgent jobs crisis facing hundreds of millions of young people in emerging markets, how “small AI” can boost economic activity, and the World Bank’s role in post-conflict reconstruction, including Ukraine and Gaza.

World Bank President: How “Small AI” Can Help Solve a Big Jobs Crisis

I'm here with Ajay Banga, the president of the World Bank, a longtime friend. Great to have you here. What's your message for the Davos crowd this year?

First of all, it's always good to be with you, Alan, and thank you-

Thank you.

For having me.

Of course.

To me, there are two messages, and the first one is it shows that dialogue is still important, that people can come and they can have different points of view, that's fine. But you can also have a discussion, and in that discussion, you can try and find ways to move things in the right direction. That's, to me, the first one. And the second one, which I'm very sort of hung up on, is the idea of making people realize the importance of focusing on jobs for young people in the emerging markets. There is a demographic bulge coming through. I think if you give them the opportunity and the hope of a job, whether it's working for somebody or running their own business, then we create a productive, unbelievable generation for the next 25 years. I think that's a good and important perspective to have.

That demographic bulge is huge.

It is, so there's 1.2 billion young people in the emerging markets, what we call the emerging markets, that'll come through the pipe to become 18 years of age in the coming 12 to 15 years. And those will become work-eligible. Currently forecasts are that the number of jobs that the same countries are likely to create is about 400 million, give or take a few. Now, forecasts can be wrong, but they're not wrong by 800 million. That's a big gap.

And you add to that concern in the world about AI reducing job creation or leading to job shrinkage, that only adds to the problem, doesn't it?

Yeah, well, AI in that form is probably a bigger impact in the developed world than it is in the emerging markets. What I'm talking about is the emerging markets numbers, and I think there actually, AI done what I call small AI, AI delivered at the edge, on your handheld device, with local compute, that kind of capacity. You know, a farmer knowing with a photograph what the disease on the plant is, not the name, but which insecticide from their cooperative can fix it. Or a doctor at a remote, attached to a remote clinic, looking at a rash on your neck with a phone and saying to the nurse, "I think that's just eczema. Give him this ointment and go away." Or, "Hold on a minute, I want Ajay to come to the regional hospital in the next 14 days, and here's the appointment fixed digitally." Or education, you get the idea. The idea of small AI, applications that deliver useful, productive, enhancing capacity to such people at the edge of a network, with local compute, as compared to large language models that would I think then to impact more in the developed world. Because remember, I have said this to you casually once, but you know, to do large language models, you need computing power, lots of it.

Yeah.

You need electricity, lots of it.

Yep.

You need data, lots of it kept in its simplest form. And you need people who understand how to manipulate all that. There aren't too many emerging markets that have that combination of things.

Can AI help create those jobs in emerging markets that you're talking about?

Absolutely. So I think that you need, you know, there are two things we're looking at in jobs. One is what enables jobs to get created. And I think the first enabler, the foundation, is infrastructure, physical and human. So physical being roads, bridges, airports, ports, digitization, power. Human being skilling, education, healthcare, that kind of thing.

Yeah.

And then when you have those, you still need to have the right business policies and regulations that enable a productive business environment to be created: land law, labor law, bankruptcy law, mobile collateral guarantee law, transparency measures, anti-corruption measures, things of that nature.

Yeah.

And then, if you have those two, you still need catalytic capital for medium- and small-scale enterprises, 'cause those are the guys who create jobs. 80% of the jobs in the world are created in small businesses.

And how much of that can the World Bank do?

We can help with all three.

Mainly?

So our Knowledge Bank can help with the regulatory from the central pillar. Our IBRD and IDA, the public sector part of our banks, can help with power, roads, airport, digitization, healthcare, kinda the things we are announcing in our commitments, 300 million people in Africa connected to electricity, productive electricity, not a light and a fan, but something you can do something with. Or 1.5 billion people connected to primary healthcare by 2030. These things are all connected to infrastructure. And then the Knowledge Bank can help with the regulatory form. And then IFC and MIGA and our insurance, MIGA is our insurance arm, and then our settlement or investor dispute arm can help with the private sector. And then, there are five sectors we are focused on, five verticals: infrastructure, it's construction, but even more importantly, Alan, what it enables, as we just said, second: primary healthcare, nurses, medical diagnostic technicians, midwives, doctors, the whole range.

Yeah, yeah.

PPE manufacturing, all that stuff. Third: sort of agriculture for small farmers. Because small farmers are disadvantaged. They sell their land, end up as urban poor. Instead of that, you can connect them to cooperatives and technology and get them to get access to bigger markets, and you know, connect them through a technology platform to a fertilizer company, a insecticide company, a water company, crop insurance, that kind of thing.

Ajay, it's-

Tourism.

It's a grand ambition.

It is.

And I'm really happy you're there pursuing that ambition. But you're running an institution, the World Bank, that's part of this whole post-World War II infrastructure that's really under attack right now.

Uh huh.

I mean the UN, NATO. Macron spoke at the conference center today and said we're shifting towards a world without rules. Do you worry about the future of the World Bank in that kind of a world?

You have to. Only a fool would not think about what could go wrong. Your job is to think about what could go wrong, as well as try and find what works well. But you know, in the same period of time, we have raised for our IDA21, the part of the bank that deals with the poorest people, which is where we need regular capital campaigns, we just raised last year 24 billion, which is a record amount, including-

So that's-

3.2 billion from the United States.

So.

And so.

You're making progress?

I think if you have the right case to present, our leverage, our knowledge, our capacity, our on-ground capability, our willingness to be seen as a impartial player, you know, we're involved with discussing how to help with Ukraine's reconstruction. You've seen that in the news. We're involved with discussing how to help with Gaza's reconstruction when that opportunity comes up. So we've, you know-

And you, personally, by the way, have been asked to join the Gaza Peace Board.

I've been asked to join the founder executive Board of Peace, and that is a, what will be the six or seven of us currently on it, and you know the names already. But our job is to do the work that the actual Board of Peace, which would be the political leadership that agrees to get part of this, they will then be fed from us the kind of work that we think that they can make decisions on. Kind of, you know, I call us the worker bees and them the deciders.

Yep. Last question for you: What's the one commitment that you would like to see the Davos crowd make in 2026?

Yeah, I'd like to go back to where we started. One is a commitment to dialogue. Maintain your swim lanes. Understand where you are. But please, don't lose the patience for dialogue. That's one, and the second one is, think about how you in your company, in your business, in your development bank, as a journalist, as a thought leader, as civil society, what can you do to help young people in the emerging markets have the same opportunity that Alan Murray and Ajay Banga have been lucky enough to have? I really think that's transformative, and that's something that we all should commit to.

Ajay Banga, great message.

Thank you.

Thank you for what you do, and thanks for taking the time to talk.

Thank you, Alan. Thank you.

Have a great week.

Thanks.

Join Alan Murray, President of the WSJ Leadership Institute, at the World Economic Forum for insights executives need to lead through 2026. He speaks with the biggest names and decision-makers shaping the business world—and all of our lives.