The global AI race is rapidly evolving from technological into geopolitical competition. The US is tightening control over critical infrastructure, China is building national ecosystems, while BRICS is forging its own model of digital sovereignty. The agenda is no longer just about innovation but a battle for global influence.
In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has driven a technological revolution across industries, from manufacturing and healthcare to tourism, art, and film. Yet this is only the beginning: according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the global AI market will reach USD USD 4.8 trillion by 2030, equivalent to the size of Germany’s economy. For comparison, in 2023, the market value of AI-based solutions was estimated at USD 189 billion.
Even so, UN experts note that access to AI infrastructure and expertise remains concentrated in just a few countries: 40% of global corporate R&D spending comes from just 100 firms, primarily based in the US and China.
A concerning trend is emerging where, in order to secure a competitive edge, AI advancements are artificially confined within national borders. The US–China standoff is a prime example.
The United States has consistently imposed export restrictions on critical technologies, primarily high-performance chips for training AI systems. For instance, since late 2023, major global companies such as Nvidia, AMD, and Intel have been officially prohibited from exporting specialized graphics processing units (GPUs) to China for use in developing and implementing advanced AI models. In July 2025, the White House released a document called Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan, which emphasizes that full technology stack exports will only be made available to America’s friends and allies worldwide. The risk of this approach is that many developing countries might miss out on the technological revolution, losing opportunities for digital transformation of their economies.
BRICS nations are advocating an alternative, inclusive approach to AI. At the July 2025 BRICS+ Summit in Rio de Janeiro, member states issued a declaration on global AI governance, asserting that all nations have the right to access digital economy benefits and emerging technologies, including AI solutions. BRICS leaders aim to promote open AI models, foster scientific and technological collaboration, eliminate technological barriers, and bridge the digital divide.
According to Pyotr Shcherbachenko, Associate Professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, BRICS+ leaders at the Rio Summit recognized AI as a transformative opportunity for humanity and stressed the need for global AI governance to address all nations’ needs while mitigating risks.
54% of Russian companies have implemented generative AI-based solutions in at least one organizational function.
Source: Yakov and Partners consulting firm, study Generative AI in BRICS+: Trends and Prospects.
According to experts from the consulting firm Yakov and Partners, cooperation in the field of generative AI (a type of artificial intelligence that creates new content based on information learned) could become a key agenda item for the BRICS alliance.
For instance, during the BRICS Summit in Kazan in October 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed creating a BRICS+AI Alliance to coordinate AI development strategies between Russia and BRICS+ nations. As noted by Pyotr Shcherbachenko, this alliance effectively positions BRICS+ AI as the second pole of AI development after the West.
The rapid digital transformation of the global economy presents BRICS with unprecedented opportunities, says Marat Safiulin, an expert at the Financial Literacy Laboratory of Moscow State University and the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation: “AI is no longer a technological novelty. It’s becoming a key competitiveness and sovereignty factor. Over the next 5–7 years, AI adoption promises BRICS colossal benefits that could reshape the global economic and trade balance.”
At this year’s St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko stated that, according to various estimates, the expected economic impact of AI technologies in BRICS countries could reach USD 2–3 trillion.
The study Generative AI in BRICS+: Trends and Prospects conducted by experts from the consulting firm Yakov and Partners indicates that, by 2030, the projected economic potential realized from implementing generative AI technologies across the alliance could amount to USD 350–600 billion. Moreover, the total economic potential from integrating generative AI models into BRICS economies might reach USD 0.9–1.4 trillion by that time, accounting for approximately 20% of AI’s overall impact in these countries.
Over the next 5–7 years, BRICS nations are projected to achieve double-digit growth rates in key sectors through AI-powered solutions. “This includes industrial automation, digital transformation of agriculture, enhanced financial services and smart urban infrastructure,” notes Pavel Karasev, Business Partner at Computer Technologies. He emphasizes that manufacturing and industrial production stand to benefit most significantly from AI. “China and India are already using predictive analytics in factories, cutting equipment maintenance costs by 15–20%. South Africa and Brazil apply AI in agritech, yield forecasting, fertilizer management, and satellite data analysis. Russia and India are advancing in fintech, with AI-powered credit scoring, anti-fraud systems, and virtual banking assistants boosting efficiency and customer loyalty,” the expert cites examples.
The global financial landscape is undergoing tectonic shifts. Approximately 1.4 billion people, the vast majority in emerging economies, still have no access to basic financial services. Yet, the drive for change and demand for full financial inclusion in these regions are immense. As a result, AI-powered solutions targeting mobile users have gained popularity, proving their scalability, accessibility, and commercial viability.
For instance, the Brazilian neobank Nubank bet on technology, and it paid off. The bank has managed to capture a significant market share from traditional credit institutions. The Nigerian fintech company MoniePoint built a financial ecosystem around small businesses and became one of the driving forces behind the country’s fintech industry, which grew by 70% in 2024.
In Indonesia, the volume of digital transactions increased by 226% in the same year. Egypt’s financial ecosystem has seen a fivefold expansion over the past five years, largely due to technological modernization.
Source: World Economic Forum.
Experts from Yakov and Partners believe that nearly 70% of the potential impact from adopting generative AI in the countries of the alliance will be concentrated in six key industries: banking, retail, engineering, energy, electronics and IT. At the same time, the banking sector is the biggest in terms of impact, accounting for 20% of the total effect for companies.
While in some countries, the benefits of AI adoption are distributed relatively evenly across different sectors (China, India, Brazil, Russia), in countries such as the UAE and South Africa, there is typically a single dominant industry, banking, accounting for more than a third of the total impact.
“Artificial intelligence will transform most economic sectors. For instance, in the UAE, areas such as education, logistics, healthcare, finance, and the oil and gas industry will benefit directly,” predicts George Tsaramirsis, Associate Professor and Head of the Information Sciences programme at the University of Wollongong in Dubai, in an interview with BRICS Business Magazine. “In education, AI can enhance the learning process by improving educational services, automatically generating educational content, and offering personalized learning at all levels. The UAE’s logistics sector could benefit from more advanced route optimization, inventory management, and demand forecasting. AI is also valuable for finance, particularly in areas like fraud detection, lending and risk management. Some AI technologies have already been implemented in UAE banks. AI is also widely used in crypto-trading, as several UAE-based companies employ algorithmic trading.”
According to George Tsaramirsis, there are compelling examples of AI applications in healthcare as well. For instance, hospitals such as Mediclinic and NMC use AI-assisted robotic surgical systems. Mediclinic became the first medical institution in the UAE (and the entire Middle East) to perform robotic knee replacement surgeries using the NAVIO surgical system.
Moreover, AI is, of course, already being used in one of the country’s economic pillars, the oil and gas sector. In 2023, ADNOC implemented over 30 AI tools across all its facilities, generating USD 500 million in profit and preventing 1 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions.
As for Russia, domestic developers have achieved the greatest success in three sectors, according to Nikita Nikolaev, COO of CELSUS: AI-based solutions, healthcare, and fintech. “It is in these industries that Russia is globally competitive and has a chance to dominate the market”, Nikolaev believes.
BRICS possesses a number of structural advantages that bolster its global AI development competitiveness. According to Nikita Nikolaev, one such advantage is sufficient energy capacity. At the end of 2024, BRICS accounted for 46% of global electricity generation, with the alliance’s countries demonstrating 6% growth in this sector. This provides a solid foundation for establishing the data centres essential for AI.
“Yet, the key technologies for AI, graphics processing units (GPUs), for example, are still predominantly manufactured in western countries,” notes Nikolaev. “As a result, the cost of deploying and maintaining data centres in BRICS nations remains higher than in the West, despite the expensive electricity there. Nevertheless, this could serve as an impetus for fostering collaboration between BRICS and Western countries.”
Another significant advantage is the sufficient labour force and low labour costs. Under certain conditions, this allows faster scaling of development and implementation of new digital solutions at lower costs than in developed countries.
At the same time, according to Nikita Nikolaev, Russia, China and India have strong academic institutions that train qualified personnel for the AI sector. “Yet, in other alliance countries, the situation with education is not as favourable. The only way to bridge this gap is to establish broad academic partnerships between universities in different countries. China, India and Russia could invite students from Brazil, South Africa and other alliance countries for training,” the expert believes.
The main factor hindering the development of AI technologies in BRICS countries, according to experts interviewed by BRICS Business Magazine, is the dominance of western technologies. Key components (microelectronics, graphics processors, and software for training big AI models) are manufactured and controlled by leading IT corporations from the US, EU and Japan.
As noted by Pavel Karasev, business partner at Computer Technologies, one key challenge for all member countries is to reduce dependence on western platforms. “Progress is being made in this direction: Russia is developing its own cloud infrastructures and language models, China is actively investing in national data centres and AI chips, and India has launched the Digital India initiative to support local developers. Successful examples include China’s Baidu and Huawei ecosystems, as well as Russia’s Sber AI and Yandex technologies, which operate without using western components,” Pavel Karasev explained.
The UAE is achieving technological sovereignty in AI through innovation, local infrastructure, and reliable governance, George Tsaramirsis adds. An example is the open-source large language model (LLM) called Falcon. It was developed by the Abu Dhabi Technology Innovation Institute and runs on servers in the UAE.
Advisor to the President of the International Alliance for BRICS Strategic Projects Vazgen Zargaryan comments on gradually bridging the technology gap: “We are now establishing cooperation with Chinese suppliers of AI-based chips that could revolutionize video surveillance. These chips can turn night into day without expensive thermal imagers. Agreements have already been reached with the Moscow government to install such chips in city parks.”
Nikita Nikolaev from CELSUS company believes that AI cooperation could also be hindered by significant disparities between countries. Gaps in technological development levels, infrastructure capabilities, and financial resources create obstacles to effective knowledge sharing and joint work on large-scale projects. Differences in regulatory approaches and data security standards increase risks of misunderstanding and conflict. Without coordinated mechanisms for mitigating these imbalances, BRICS countries risk facing partnership fragmentation, which undermines collective efforts to build a competitive AI ecosystem, the expert warns.
Pavel Karasev points out that insufficient coordination between government and business could become the weak link in BRICS AI projects. Vazgen Zargaryan shares this view: “Russia has many talented developers offering interesting AI-based solutions. From what I know, these include developments related to water rescue, forest fire monitoring, and other projects. Yet, communication between government and entrepreneurs remains a serious problem. The government develops perfectly sound strategies but, when it comes to specific decisions, officials follow long-outdated protocols. As a result, many brilliant, innovative ideas from businesses, especially small companies and startups, go unheard.”
BRICS already has numerous successful cases of knowledge sharing, notes Pavel Karasev: “For example, take the joint AI projects between Russia and India for medicine and remote diagnostics. Chinese companies supply equipment and train specialists in Brazil. These initiatives can be scaled up, particularly in the context of best practices for training models on multilingual and heterogeneous data.”
“The UAE collaborates with BRICS countries in many areas, including artificial intelligence,” George Tsaramirsis provides examples. “Branch campuses of UAE universities have been opened in several countries. The Emirates has become an educational hub with numerous international university campuses and a large number of foreign students, including from BRICS nations (primarily India and Russia). The UAE also maintains close ties with India and cooperates in R&D. Additionally, the UAE is home to a growing number of foreign investors and entrepreneurs from BRICS countries.”
One effective approach to economic cooperation would be to establish a unified platform for finding local partners in BRICS nations, believes Nikita Nikolaev: “Such a structure is sorely lacking. Often, Russian companies search independently for partners abroad or rely on outdated methods like trade missions and commercial attachés. A network of local partners could be crucial in enhancing the competitiveness of both stronger BRICS members and those still lagging technologically.”
If these countries manage to establish successful collaboration, breakthrough solutions unprecedented in the global economy could emerge. One such example, according to Marat Safiulin, an expert at MGU’s Financial Literacy Lab and the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, is creation of an integrated financial ecosystem like BRICS Pay, capable of challenging the existing world order. “Key sectors in BRICS countries are poised for a FinTech breakthrough: there already eist algorithms for credit scoring, fraud prevention, robo-advisory services, and investment portfolio optimization. This is where the BRICS Pay concept finds its primary application,” the expert emphasizes.
Pavel Karasev also believes BRICS could offer an alternative to the western approach to AI development. “This requires joint AI ethics standards, collaborative research, and active development of domestic ecosystems,” the expert stresses. “If member states continue exchanging expertise and investing in local innovations, they will not only be able to catch up to western levels but also offer the world new approaches tailored to the real needs of emerging markets.”
Russia
Companies in highly digitalized sectors, such as banking, e-commerce, petrochemicals, and others, are leading AI adoption. For example, T-Bank has developed six specialized AI assistants to support users across its service ecosystem. SIBUR uses AI assistants to optimize business processes, troubleshoot equipment failures, streamline procurement, and experiment with new polymers.
China
Among the BRICS+ nations, China is the most advanced in generative AI development. In 2023, Chinese foundational models accounted for 40% of the global market (compared to the US’s 50%). Applications range from everyday services (AI assistants in messaging apps) to critical industries (e.g., Huawei’s autonomous mining equipment systems). Automaker Geely enhances car multimedia systems with AI, while Insilico Medicine leverages AI to design medicine molecules.
United Arab Emirates
The UAE actively deploys AI in healthcare, oil and gas, transport, telecoms, and government services. PureHealth detects early-stage diseases through Big Data patient analysis, and the UAE government has launched a chatbot to assist citizens and tourists with public services.
India
India focuses on lightweight, high-impact AI solutions, prioritizing agriculture (1/6 of GDP, 70% of the workforce) and IT (55% of global outsourcing). Farmers use LLM-based chatbots to adopt agritech, optimize fertilizer use, and more.
Saudi Arabia
Notable cases centre on oil and gas. Saudi Aramco’s Aramco Metabrain model optimizes drilling by analyzing geological data and forecasting costs.
Brazil
Brazilian companies have been relatively slow in adopting generative AI into their business processes. Even so, there are some notable examples: the fintech service PicPay has developed a chatbot to help customers access company service information and navigate the platform.
South Africa
Most AI use in South Africa is concentrated in the banking sector. For instance, Absa has focused on boosting employee productivity by integrating AI across various office tools, including document translation, sales team communications, and other functions.
Source: Generative AI in BRICS+: Trends and Prospects (Yakov and Partners).
