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A leap for Jamaica’s digital future and AI sovereignty

Amber Group, the Jamaica-headquartered global technology company serving markets across 100+ countries, has officially launched the Amber National AI Lab, onboarding nearly 150 students in its first cohort, marking a landmark milestone in Jamaica’s technological evolution and positioning the island as a regional powerhouse for Artificial Intelligence, innovation, and digital transformation.

More than a technology launch, the Lab cements Amber Group’s role as an architect of national development — an institution conceived in Jamaica, built with Jamaicans, and designed to export Jamaican innovation to the world.

Conceived and spearheaded by Amber Group and brought to life through a visionary national partnership with the HEART/NSTA Trust, UTech, and Digicel, the landmark initiative represents the Caribbean’s single largest AI investment to date—designed to transition Jamaica from an AI consumer into an AI powerhouse.

As part of this initiative, Amber Group developed the full educational program and is providing world-class international tutors to train Jamaican students, ensuring that local developers gain direct access to global expertise and industry-leading AI instruction right here in Kingston. For Amber, this is nation building in its most practical form: transferring world-class capability directly into Jamaican hands, so the value of the AI era is created, owned, and retained in Jamaica.

The kickoff event brought together academic leaders, industry experts, and tech visionaries at Amber HEART Academy Campus in Stony Hill to celebrate the inauguration of a hub that will train, build, and deploy next-generation, home-grown AI technologies for national and global export.

Speaking at the launch event, Ambassador Dushyant Savadia, Founder and CEO of Amber Group and Special Investment Envoy for Technology, highlighted the strategic vision driving the lab: “The launch of the Amber National AI Lab is not just about bringing advanced technology to Jamaica—it is about empowering Jamaicans to be creators and leaders of artificial intelligence, rather than passive consumers. Jamaica has the talent, the ambition, and the capability to build world-class AI models and platforms right here on our soil. Today marks the start of a movement that will elevate our nation’s economic competitiveness and create high-value digital opportunities for our youth.”

Inspiring the first cohort of students, Stephen Murad, CEO of Digicel Jamaica, urged the young technologists to seize the moment: “I see all of these amazing, energetic people and I think: you are the future of Jamaica. We have an amazing opportunity as a country.

Don’t waste this opportunity… I want to see you flourish, and I look forward to employing some of you someday.”

“The Amber National AI Lab bridges industry needs with academic excellence, digital infrastructure, and nationwide skills training:

● Amber Group’s Educational Program, Tutors and Global Reach: Amber Group engineered the lab’s specialised AI curriculum and secured top-tier international AI tutors to mentor, teach, and guide students through advanced machine learning and real-world deployment. They are also providing cutting-edge infrastructure, global expertise, and direct pathways for local innovations to reach international markets.

● Workforce Future-Proofing via HEART/NSTA Trust: Accelerating a robust talent pipeline to equip Jamaicans from all backgrounds with high-demand skills.

● Academic Excellence with UTech: Positioning UTech as a premier regional hub for AI engineering, allowing students pathways to an associate degree in Artificial Intelligence.

● Connectivity with Digicel: Providing connectivity to ensure students can learn and stay connected wherever they are across Jamaica.

Core Focus Areas of the Lab:

● Nation-Building AI Solutions: Developing customised AI applications engineered to solve pressing socio-economic challenges in education, healthcare, public governance, and financial services. These home-grown solutions make the Lab a standing engine of nation-building — technology built in Jamaica, for Jamaica, and exported from Jamaica.

● Jamaican Tech Talent Pipelines: Welcoming cohorts of Jamaican engineers and students to gain hands-on experience developing advanced AI algorithms and natural language processing models.

● Global Trust & Security: Building secure, ethical AI architectures that meet international compliance standards (including ISO/IEC 27001 and SOC 2 frameworks).