The Caribbean AI Model Usage Index 2026
The Caribbean AI Association has counted which AI assistants the region uses, who uses them and for what. Two models dominate. One is winning the workplace. And some of the "Caribbean-built" models are Chinese models told to say otherwise.
The kings of AI in the Caribbean are ChatGPT and Gemini, which take 88 of 100 points in the Caribbean AI Association's first AI Model Usage Index, compiled from dozens of sources including Anthropic, Microsoft, Similarweb, Apple and Google across 21 territories, January to August 2026. Claude scores 4 points overall and is the fastest-growing choice inside Caribbean workplaces.
This article answers a question that had no measured answer until now: which AI models do Caribbean people use, how is that changing, and what should a business owner, teacher or minister do about it. The short version is that the region inherited two free assistants, is starting to choose a third on purpose, and is being sold models whose origin is sometimes hidden on purpose.
Two defaults that arrived on the phone
ChatGPT is the number one free app in the Apple App Store in Jamaica, the Bahamas, Guyana, the Dominican Republic, Antigua and Dominica, and it ranks in the top five in 13 of the 16 Caribbean storefronts with data. Its search interest exceeds every other assistant combined in 20 of 21 territories. Jamaica scores it 75 points, Trinidad and Tobago 70, Barbados 92.
Gemini takes 30 points regionally, above its 24% share of worldwide search interest over the same months, because it comes free inside Android phones, Google Search and the Google Workspace accounts that the University of the West Indies and most secondary schools run on. In Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Gemini's search interest runs at about 45% of ChatGPT's; in Jamaica it runs at 18%.
Figure 1. Two assistants take 88 of 100 points. DeepSeek's 3 points come almost entirely from Cuba.
Cuba runs on a different set of kings
Cuba is the only territory where Gemini beats ChatGPT, 45 points to 36, and the only one where DeepSeek is a serious presence at 12. OpenAI does not serve Cuba, so 7.5 million working-age Cubans use whatever will answer them, and their choices are large enough to move the regional totals. Remove Cuba and DeepSeek drops below one point in every other Caribbean territory.
Cuba is also where the adoption gap is widest. Microsoft's telemetry counts 24.0% of working-age Jamaicans and 24.8% of Dominicans on a generative AI product in the first quarter of 2026, above the world average of 17.8%, against 6.7% in Cuba and 8.5% in Haiti. The distance between Jamaica and Haiti is larger than the distance between Jamaica and the United States.
Figure 2. Where ChatGPT is unavailable, Gemini takes the crown and DeepSeek becomes a second-tier player.
Claude becomes the workbench
On consumer surfaces Claude registers 4 points, roughly half its global share. In the workplace the picture reverses. Anthropic's country data shows 43% of Claude conversations in Jamaica, 45% in Trinidad and 47% in the Dominican Republic are work tasks, led by coding, content and business operations. Between April and May 2026, Jamaica's work share rose from 40% to 43% while coursework fell from 29% to 19%: students thinned out, professionals stayed.
A Kingston mother of two who runs an operations role started using Claude for work four months ago and now opens it every day. "For anything I have to write or think through at work, it is Claude," she told the Association. "At home it is still ChatGPT, because I can talk to it while I am driving." A managing director in Port of Spain described himself as a Claude user, then admitted that most of his own work still runs through ChatGPT, and that for presentations he reaches for Gemini because it is already inside the Google Workspace his team lives in.
The App Store agrees with them. In Bermuda, Claude is the fourth most downloaded free app of any kind; in the Cayman Islands it is seventh, and in both it outranks Gemini. Anthropic's per-capita index puts Trinidad and Tobago at 1.05 times the world average and Puerto Rico at 1.68, the two economies with the deepest professional-services workforces, against Jamaica at 0.66 and Haiti at 0.14.
Figure 3. In one month, work and personal use rose and coursework fell ten points: the professionals stayed.
"The region's appetite for AI is changing as quickly as the models themselves. Claude is becoming the workbench for Caribbean businesses. ChatGPT and Gemini are still the stable defaults, but they are losing ground. What matters now is sovereignty, and what the region intends to do with it."
Adrian Dunkley, President, Caribbean AI Association| Territory | ChatGPT | Gemini | Claude | What stands out |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jamaica | 75 | 18 | 6 | ChatGPT is the number one app; Claude use is 43% work |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 70 | 21 | 7 | Only CARICOM member above the world average for Claude per capita |
| Dominican Republic | 56 | 28 | 9 | Largest market; highest Claude share and work share in the region |
| Barbados | 92 | 6 | 2 | Most ChatGPT-dependent territory with high-confidence data |
| Haiti | 65 | 32 | 2 | Gemini's strongest CARICOM market; 30% of Claude requests are education |
| Puerto Rico | 74 | 16 | 6 | Claude per capita at 1.68 times the world average |
| Cuba | 36 | 45 | 1 | Gemini leads; DeepSeek 12, Copilot 6; ChatGPT unavailable |
| Bermuda | 54 | 10 | 14 | Claude is the fourth most downloaded free app of any kind |
Table 1. Index points of 100 per territory, January to August 2026. Full 21-territory table at caribbeanaiassociation.com.
Figure 4. Gemini rides Android and Workspace; Claude's workplace growth does not show on consumer surfaces yet.
One person, three tools
The single-model user is already a minority among the people the Association interviewed. A sixth-form student in Barbados does most schoolwork in ChatGPT but keeps Gemini for NotebookLM, which condenses her notes and builds revision material topic by topic before exams. A small-business owner in Jamaica whose clients are other businesses runs three assistants side by side: Claude for proposals and contracts, Gemini for anything touching Gmail and Sheets, ChatGPT for first drafts and quick answers.
Operations lead, mother of two, Kingston
Claude every working day for four months; ChatGPT at home for voice.
Claude · workChatGPT · homeManaging director, Port of Spain
Calls himself a Claude user; runs most work through ChatGPT; builds decks in Gemini because the team is on Workspace.
ChatGPT · workGemini · decksSixth-form student, Barbados
ChatGPT for most schoolwork; Gemini's NotebookLM to condense notes and drill topics before exams.
ChatGPT · schoolGemini · revisionB2B small-business owner, Jamaica
Three tools side by side: Claude for proposals and contracts, Gemini for Gmail and Sheets, ChatGPT for first drafts.
ClaudeGeminiChatGPTTheir habits match the aggregate. Content creation and copywriting is the top request in Jamaica (25%), Trinidad (24%) and Haiti (27%). Education and learning is second almost everywhere, software development runs at 11 to 14% in every territory with data, and emotional and relational support accounts for one conversation in twenty in Jamaica and Trinidad.
| User group | Share of the evidence | Assistant of choice |
|---|---|---|
| Developers and data teams | 21 to 25% of Claude conversations are computer and mathematical occupations | Claude, ChatGPT |
| Students | Coursework is 16 to 29% of use; 30% of Haitian requests are education | ChatGPT, Gemini |
| Creators and media | Arts, media and design is the second largest occupation group in Jamaica and Trinidad | ChatGPT, Gemini |
| Small businesses | 19% of MSMEs use generative AI, saving 1.5 hours per work period (Caribbean AI Association study, May 2026) | ChatGPT, Gemini |
| Finance and professional services | Claude ranks 4th and 7th in the Bermuda and Cayman app charts; Copilot search peaks in Puerto Rico and Trinidad | Claude, Copilot |
| Government | Barbados launched Chatbb and Pearly in June 2026; no model disclosed | Unknown |
Table 2. Sources: Anthropic Economic Index (April and May 2026), Apple App Store (September 2026), Caribbean AI Association regional study and interviews.
The Chinese models underneath the local brands
The third finding is the one the Association wants leaders to read twice. Chinese-developed models are rising in the region from a low base. DeepSeek's search interest in the Dominican Republic tripled between January and August 2026, Haiti registered its first measurable DeepSeek interest in March, and in Cuba the model peaked in May at almost half the level of ChatGPT.
Figure 5. Chinese models are growing from a small base outside Cuba and are already mainstream inside it.
The larger issue is invisible in any chart. In the course of building the index, the Association found companies in several Caribbean countries selling AI products as "Caribbean-built" that are Chinese open-weight models with a local brand and interface on top. In the worst cases the wrapped model has been instructed, through its hidden system settings, to tell users it was developed locally and to deny its Chinese origin when asked directly. Customers who believe they are supporting a regional product are, in those cases, being lied to by the product itself.
That matters for reasons beyond honesty. The user's prompts and documents are being processed by a model whose training data, content controls and update path are set in China, under rules the reseller does not control and the customer cannot see. Where the reseller runs the model on foreign infrastructure, the data leaves the region as well. A bank, a law firm or a ministry that adopts such a product on the strength of the flag on the box has taken on a risk it was never told about.
None of this makes a Chinese model unusable. DeepSeek and Qwen are capable and cheap, which is why they are being wrapped, and an honest reseller can say so. It does mean that "built in the Caribbean" is not, by itself, information about where a model came from, who can see the data or what it was trained on. Buyers need the model name, the country of origin and the hosting location before the sales pitch, and a product that refuses to give them, or gives a false answer, has told you what you need to know. That is the sovereignty question the Association's president is pointing at.
What leaders do next
Usage is not benefit. The Association's regional study, reported in May, found 13% of adults using generative AI and 8.2% using it actively, and found that users save about 1.5 hours per work period against 5.7 hours worldwide. The difference is not the model; Caribbean use is layered on unchanged workflows, while the gains reported elsewhere come from processes rebuilt around the tool. Adoption is moving regardless: up 1.9 points in Jamaica and 2.1 in the Dominican Republic in the first quarter alone.
Barbados's Chatbb government assistant and Jamaica's Chief Justice, who endorsed AI for court operations on 24 August, have both committed to AI. Neither has said which model, where it runs, or who trained it. Public bodies should be first to publish those three facts, not last.
Rebuild one workflow around the tools staff already use
ChatGPT and Gemini are free and already in the building. Pick one document-heavy process and redesign it end to end.
Pilot Claude where people write and code for a living
That is where the region's professionals are already choosing it: 43 to 47% of Claude use is work.
Demand the model name, country of origin and hosting location
For every AI product bought or deployed, including the ones sold as Caribbean. A refusal is an answer.
Frequently asked questions
The Caribbean did not pick its two AI kings; they came with the phone. The first model it is picking on purpose is the one its professionals use at work, and the first it should question is any one sold under a local flag that cannot say where it was made. Caribbean AI Newsletter · September 2026
Source. Caribbean AI Association, AI Usage Across the Caribbean, January to August 2026 (caribbeanaiassociation.com).
About Caribbean AI
Caribbean AI is the official directory of artificial intelligence companies, labs, and innovators in the Caribbean. We exist to connect startups, enterprises, and researchers driving the region's AI growth.
We track who is building AI in the Caribbean, what is being built, and what the region needs to compete. From Jamaica to Curaçao, from Guyana to the Bahamas, we document the people, organisations, and ideas shaping the Caribbean's AI future. The AI Model Usage Index is published by the Caribbean AI Association.
