When I now write about cognitive migration, General AI’s rapid advance was brought about, I do this from someone’s point of view that has spent four decades in the technology industry. From business applications in my own journey Fortran and Cobol run from business applications for system analysis and design, IT project management, enterprise system consulting, computing hardware sales and technology industry communication. All this focuses in the US, although I have collaborated with colleagues and customers all over Europe and Asia.
My writing bears an American, technology-industry convenience point, although I try to see a broader perspective. Perhaps this is fitting, because most of the AI’s growth is a handful in the Silicon Valley, Seattle, Boston and other western hubs. But how does this migration look beyond America’s borders? For millions in Global southCognitive migration is less about the loss of white -collar reputation and more about the opportunity to jump in new opportunities.
This division appears in data. 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer found Less than one of the three Americans feel comfortable with businesses using AI, while India, Indonesia and Nigeria express about two-thirds rest. In the West, AI can be considered a threat to job loss and displacement, and this scene can be warrant. A Study The International Monetary Fund (IMF) found that 60% of jobs in advanced economies are made aware of the impact of AI due to the spread of cognitive-functioning-oriented jobs. The Wall Street Journal Quoted Ford CEO Jim Farley: “AI will leave many white -collar people behind.”
In the global South, however, AI is often considered as an opportunity for improvement in education, strengthening healthcare, modernizing agriculture and development of development. an analysis logic For the Global South, “AI has made a fierce promise to historically excluded nations from the benefits of previous industrial revolutions.” Perhaps it explains the conclusion Informed By academia.edu that Global North Newspapers publish more negative AI headlines, while Global South Outlets have emphasized the occasion.
Still the story is not so simple. Even where the ability to advance is emphasized, there is often concern about work, morality, algorithm bias, access and loss of technical capacity. Along with the earlier waves of globalization, benefits and risk will be unequal.
As an opportunity
Global South has a strong positive story around AI, with many expected stories and promising results. In Nigeria, a World Bank-Finance Nurtured Later school tuition program Individual students were used tailor lessons from AI, which produced striking results with the benefits of learning of about two years in just six weeks. For some qualified teachers communities, such benefits are not incremental improvements. They can change futures.
Healthcare applications provide comparable stories. In India, Boston Consultation Group Reports AI diagnostic tools are being deployed with some doctors to a rural clinic, offering screening for conditions such as breast cancer or tuberculosis that may be otherwise infinite. These devices expand the access to limited health resources and help to detect conditions before too long.
The use of AI in agriculture also shows the promise. In Kenya, Plantwilaz Nuru App Gloted with Pen State University uses AI trace Quickly to spot crop diseases through farmers’ smartphones, to spot them and treat dangers for their crops. For families dependent on subsistence farming, such devices may mean the difference between safety and lack.
Nevertheless, many of these successes rely on northern institutions, produce benefits, but also highlight a delicate dependence. When the outside financing or participation ends, local efforts may be stalls. In this sense, reducing the risks on the borrowed foundation.
Together, these examples suggest why many people in the global south see AI a chance to change the trajectory rather than repeating the old pattern. Nevertheless, optimism tells only part of the story. Along with these benefits, there are deep structural challenges that complicate the journey, reminding us that this migration, like all others, bears the benefits that include hidden costs.
Obstacles for progress
Research It also shows that AI adoption in the global south is interrupted by the infrastructure, data, skills and governance. The availability of reliable electricity and broadband remains uneven, local datasets are often rare or biased and many countries face lack of trained professionals to develop and maintain AI systems.
Without a strong regulatory structure, society is also in contact with privacy risks, exploitative labor practices and algorithm bias. These realities mean that while AI promises as a growth route, it can also deepen inequality if its benefits focus between urban centers and nobles, while leaving rural communities behind.
So why do the trusts of the trust show high comfort with AI in the global south than the West? An explanation lies in expectations. In the US and Europe, AI is often considered a threat to stable jobs and established businesses. In Nigeria, India or Indonesia, on the contrary, it is more likely to be prepared as a tool to close continuous gaps.
Media stories often strengthen deviations in expectations. In the West, headlines emphasize the anxiety of automation, while in the global south, AI is often described as a growth route. Add the fact that many people in the global south report high levels of faith in institutions, and inequality begins to understand.
The same technique intersect with different baseline, diverse requirements, different cultures and different stories, which shapes whether AI is suspected or with hope. Nevertheless, beyond these conceptual differences, the physical realities lies that complicate optimistic tale, especially how global AI development distributes both its benefits and its burden.
Hidden cost
Each migration costs with benefits, and the story of AI in the global south is no different. While the overall AI story in global South Leans is positive, many famous successes essentially depend on the large workforce that has done hidden tasks. Data annotations and content reviews are indispensable to the global AI economy, but the work is poorly impaired relative to repetitive, emotionally tax and poorly paid value.
Other areas face pressure from a different direction. In India and the Philippines, the business process outsourcing and call centers appoint millions of workers who support global customers. These roles depend on language, regular cognitive functions and customer service, very fields where AI chatbott and automatic platforms are moving fastest.
Shift is not immediate, but workers in these industries are already questioning whether migration is now going on or will carry them forward or will leave them behind. Is cognitive migration a single global event, or we are seeing many migrations that only appear connected?
Many routes, shared destination
Is this the same cognitive migration that comes out everywhere, or separate trips? On the surface, the story looks divided. In the US and Europe, professionals worry about displacement from stable career and risk to their lifestyle. In India, Nigeria and Indonesia, AI is often given a chance to accelerate development and fill the gap for a long time. These appear to be different migration.
Nevertheless, reality is more complicated. The story of AI in the global south is not only one of catching, such as the story in the West is not only one of the decline. Migration is never only progression or only loss. It is both, something has been achieved and something is given. For teachers in Nigeria, benefits may be students moving at an unprecedented speed. For the workers of the call center in India, there may be a loss job after being safe. For farmers in Kenya, benefits can be a healthy crop and stable crop. For professionals in Europe or United States, loss can be careers or reduced by automation.
It does not have this variability in experience because AI technology is different in one region or another, but because living experiences are diverse. The same systems can be empowered at one place and threatened in another.
An uneven route
The one who lies next is still uncertain. But if the migration teaches anything, it is that adaptation requires not only flexibility but imagination. This task is not to deny whether it is lost or only to celebrate the same celebrations, but to recognize both and to convince both of them Design wisely what comes next.
This migration is not coming out along the same path. This is fragmented and revealed. The initial points are different, the routes are uneven, and the burden are not equally shared. In the global south, AI is often seen as a lever for progress, not the threat to the situation. But below the promise there are the same risks we face everywhere, including extraction without investment, automation without inclusion, innovation without safety measures and deployment without trust. These are not side effects. They are signs. If we ignore them, cognitive future will be another story written by some people.
As Indonesian Policy Advisor is Tuhu Nugara Argued In modern diplomacy: “As anxious development of AI increases globally, potentially to destabilize economies or social harmony, models of global South that emphasize inclusion, trust and reflection, can help reduce those risks before exploding in global backlash.” Their warning confirms the point that inclusion and belief should be part of the design of AI advancement and should not be assumed.
If we pay attention, the global South can offer not only caution but clarity. The choice is not only intelligent to design, but we consider to be the experience when we do when we do. Because in the end, cognitive migration is not regional. This is a worldwide path, and how we navigate it together, it will not only shape the future of AI, but the future of being human.
Garry Grosman is the EVP of technology practice at Edelman.
