Industrial Research Unit · Straits Institute for Applied AI
Applied AI in the Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic's AI record sits at its borders and in its classrooms — AI baggage screening at Punta Cana, AI coming to customs X-rays — under the national AI strategy launched in October 2023.
AI readiness
0.47
Rank 87 of 171 — IMF AI Preparedness Index
On the record
27
entries across 7 industries
National programme
2023
Estrategia Nacional de Inteligencia Artificial (ENIA)
More on Dominican Republic lands here as we find it.
Your essential monthly update on Applied AI, with the Dominican Republic specially tracked.
Services 60.1% · Industry 28.4% · Agriculture 4.6% of gross value added — World Bank, 2025
Compare with
Filters
Narrow the 27 entries from the Dominican Republic by what it is, the industry and the job it changes.
Kind
Industry
Role
27 entries
Government & Public Sector
17
Customs says it will add AI to its X-ray cargo inspections.
DeploymentGovernment & Public SectorDominican Republic29 Sep 2026
Dominican 9-1-1 system adds AI, robots and first-response drones
Sistema Nacional de Atención a Emergencias y Seguridad 9-1-1 — The Dominican Republic's 9-1-1 emergency and security system showcased AI emergency response tools, first-response drones and a Boston Dynamics robot at President Luis Abinader's LA Agenda Semanal. A 9-1-1 call can trigger geolocation, dispatch and a VAPRE-M2 drone streaming live images, with city cameras and NVIDIA-hosted AI offered as decision support. The robot is to assist agencies in high-risk emergency dispatch work.
RegulationGovernment & Public SectorDominican Republic15 Sep 2026
Senate commission merges two AI regulation bills
Senado de la República Dominicana — Dominican Republic AI regulation now moves forward as one bill after the Senate Commission on Higher Education, Science and Technology folded two rival drafts together, citing heavy overlap. Commissioners combined the Ethical and Safe Use of Artificial Intelligence bill with a separate AI policy guidelines proposal into one framework spanning design, deployment and oversight across all sectors. The goal: a single, efficient consolidated AI legislation text, not two competing measures.
Evidence of adoptionGovernment & Public SectorDominican Republic10 Sep 2026
Dominican Republic opens free AI training aimed at a million people
Government of the Dominican Republic / Instituto Tecnológico de Las Américas (ITLA) — The Dominican Republic has opened RD Inteligente, free national AI literacy for a million citizens, launched by President Luis Abinader at the National Palace and run through Instituto Tecnológico de Las Américas. Formally the Programa Nacional de Alfabetización en Inteligencia Artificial, the scheme is pitched as technological and social development. Its first wave reaches school and university learners, young jobseekers, founders and civil servants; population-scale AI skilling widens later to teachers, uniformed forces, smaller companies and parents.
DeploymentGovernment & Public SectorDominican Republic28 Aug 2026
Dominican customs to add AI to its X-ray cargo inspections
Dirección General de Aduanas (DGA) — The Dominican Republic's General Directorate of Customs (DGA) will add AI X-ray cargo inspection, with an advanced model reading non-intrusive scan images together to flag risk patterns, possible inconsistencies and items needing specialist review. Director general Nelson Arroyo told an Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic meeting that headquarters also wants live oversight of X-ray operators at ports and AI in its risk-management engine for sharper cargo profiling.
DeploymentGovernment & Public SectorDominican Republic2 Aug 2026
OGTIC builds Taína, an AI assistant for Dominican public services
Oficina Gubernamental de Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (OGTIC) — Taína, an AI assistant for public services from the Dominican Republic's Government Office of ICT (OGTIC), will handle passport renewals via WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. It flags expiring documents, fills forms, books appointments and takes payments, with human oversight, audits and fraud checks built into this AI-powered virtual government assistant. Five digitalised services launch in 2026, expanding afterwards, OGTIC's Edgar Batista said.
Evidence of adoptionGovernment & Public SectorDominican Republic17 Jul 2026
ITLA certifies Dominican police high command in AI
Instituto Tecnológico de las Américas (ITLA) / Policía Nacional — The Instituto Tecnológico de las Américas (ITLA) gave Dominican National Police leadership the country's first AI training for police in a five-week course, 'Artificial Intelligence Applied to Police Sciences', covering information analysis, decision-support tools, predictive analysis, automation and crime prevention. This law enforcement AI certification follows an ITLA-National Police memorandum of understanding.
DeploymentGovernment & Public SectorDominican Republic13 Jul 2026
Dominican judiciary trials Microsoft Copilot in Supreme Court
Poder Judicial de la República Dominicana — The Dominican judiciary is piloting Microsoft Copilot in the Supreme Court of Justice's First Chamber and administrative areas, using it for routine tasks, drafting help and case-information queries. This AI legal document automation also covers standardising rulings, certifications and decisions on alimony, divorce and eviction cases, plus portal tools for text recognition, file anonymising and automatic hearing scheduling.
Evidence of adoptionGovernment & Public SectorDominican Republic16 Jun 2026
MAP offers 2,000 AI scholarships for Dominican public servants
Ministerio de Administración Pública (MAP) — Dominican Republic's Ministry of Public Administration (MAP) is funding 2,000 places on a course covering AI in public sector training for civil servants across all state entities, part of a growing government push in this area. The self-paced, fully remote generative AI course for civil servants runs through Academia BID with Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) backing, needs no prior background, and leads to a certificate covering generative AI applications and ethics in government work. Applications closed 4 August 2026; the full title is "Generative Artificial Intelligence: Fundamentals for the Public Function of Latin America and the Caribbean | DR Edition".
Evidence of adoptionGovernment & Public SectorDominican Republic14 Oct 2025
Nearly half of Dominican public servants use AI at work
Ministerio de Administración Pública (MAP) / PNUD — UNDP research shows 49.7% of Dominican Republic public servants use AI during work hours, marking notable AI adoption in public sector roles, with 67.1% relying on it more than once weekly. Among respondents, 33.6% use these tools for public digital services—health chatbot queries, complaint escalation, legal and administrative tasks. This reflects rising AI use among government employees nationwide.
DeploymentGovernment & Public SectorDominican Republic30 Sep 2025
DGII deploys AI to detect tax irregularities and fraud
Dirección General de Impuestos Internos (DGII) — Dirección General de Impuestos Internos (DGII) has rolled out AI tax fraud detection in the Dominican Republic, targeting irregular transactions, abnormal electronic invoice volumes and money-laundering risks flowing through its e-invoicing platform. Director Luis Valdez Veras unveiled the tool at the Segundo Congreso CICI 2025, explaining that it flags unusual risk patterns and will support growth of the agency's data centre alongside a non-relational database built to handle unstructured documents. The AI-driven revenue monitoring effort forms part of DGII's broader push to strengthen oversight of taxpayer activity.
DeploymentGovernment & Public SectorDominican Republic20 Aug 2025
DGII launches innovation lab with AI virtual assistant
Dirección General de Impuestos Internos (DGII) — Four pillars anchor DGII's Innovation Lab: DIGI DGII, a virtual assistant answering taxpayer queries 24/7; pre-filled declarations; an upgraded Móvil DGII 3.0 app; and an API integration platform for outside systems. This AI in tax administration push aims to harness machine learning for data handling, part of a wider move toward AI tax services in the Dominican Republic.
DeploymentGovernment & Public SectorDominican Republic23 Jul 2025
DGCP launches DataCompras-GPT AI tool for public procurement
Dirección General de Contrataciones Públicas (DGCP) — DGCP rolled out DataCompras-GPT, an AI procurement tool on ChatGPT, for queries on public tenders in the Dominican Republic. Suppliers can check bid counts, winning contractors and conditions, skipping manual searches. It joins GeoComprasRD and Data Mercado RD in Carlos Pimentel's digitalisation drive, an AI tool for public procurement now standard.
DeploymentGovernment & Public SectorDominican Republic21 Jul 2025
Government creates HR system with AI for public servants
Government of the Dominican Republic — Decree 357-25 from President Luis Abinader folds AI in public administration into a new HR platform for the Dominican Republic's civil service, the Sistema Integrado de Servicios Centrales de la Función Pública (SISC). Built-in algorithms will guide staffing choices, predictive analytics, training design and performance tracking for individual workers and institutions. The Ministry of Public Administration (MAP) will phase this automated civil-service workforce platform in across government bodies.
RegulationGovernment & Public SectorDominican Republic22 Apr 2025
Dominican Senate committee reviews AI regulation bill
Senado de la República Dominicana — A Dominican Senate panel is scrutinising Senator Omar Fernández's AI regulation bill, the Organic Law to Regulate AI Systems. The Education, Science Commission is checking how the draft steers AI's rollout nationwide while shielding rights, openness, safety and ethics. Backers claim the AI systems regulation still permits innovation.
RegulationGovernment & Public SectorDominican Republic20 Feb 2025
First AI regulation bill presented in Dominican Congress
Congress of the Dominican Republic — Congressman Tobías Crespo filed a Dominican Republic AI regulation bill setting up CONIA, the National Council for Artificial Intelligence, to enforce codes, appeals and sanctions. Bans cover AI governance bill terms like military and security uses, social scoring, biometric categorisation and manipulation.
RegulationGovernment & Public SectorDominican Republic19 Feb 2025
Deputy Tobías Crespo files AI regulation bill in Congress
Cámara de Diputados de la República Dominicana — Fuerza del Pueblo lawmaker Tobías Crespo has lodged Dominican Republic AI regulation legislation with Congress, proposing a National Council for Artificial Intelligence, CONIA, to police how AI is built and deployed nationwide. His bill, part of a wider push for AI governance legislation, would bar the armed forces from using AI and stop agencies from scanning crowds with live facial recognition, reading emotions algorithmically, or ranking citizens through social scoring.
RegulationGovernment & Public SectorDominican Republic11 Oct 2023
Estrategia Nacional de Inteligencia Artificial de la República Dominicana
Presidencia de la República Dominicana (Poder Ejecutivo) — Decree 498-23 (11 October 2023), Dominican Republic's Executive Branch, approved the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (ENIA) — a Dominican Republic AI policy on four pillars: Smart Government, Talent and Innovation Hub, Data Hub, Regional Scale. Aims: automated citizen services, ethical governance, and regional leadership in artificial intelligence in government.
Banco Popular Dominicano hands card-delivery calls to AI assistants
Banco Popular Dominicano — Banco Popular Dominicano now uses AI virtual assistants to arrange bank-card delivery, calling customers to confirm addresses and chase new cards, renewals and replacements. Customers may switch to a human agent at any time, and the bank frames the AI as support for its staff.
DeploymentFinance & InsuranceDominican Republic14 Aug 2025
CADOAR launches Cadia, an AI assistant for Dominican insurers
Cámara de Aseguradores y Reaseguradores de la República Dominicana (CADOAR) — CADOAR (Cámara de Aseguradores y Reaseguradores de la República Dominicana) has launched Cadia, an AI assistant for insurance sector use, built on CrecerLab's Lisa platform. Cadia answers real-time information requests from insurers, brokers, regulators and the public, modernising access to insurance-sector data in the Dominican Republic. The rollout gives the industry a shared conversational AI channel for enquiries once handled manually.
DeploymentFinance & InsuranceDominican Republic4 Feb 2025
Cooeprouasd launches Cooperativina, an AI assistant for members
Cooeprouasd — Cooeprouasd, the Cooperativa de Servicios Múltiples de Empleados Profesores de la Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, has launched Cooperativina, an AI virtual assistant for cooperative members in the Dominican Republic. It answers questions on loans, savings and other services and processes payments, available 24 hours a day via text or voice. The move points to a wider shift toward AI-powered banking assistants at member-owned financial institutions.
Half of Dominican 15-year-olds use AI chatbots to learn every week, PISA 2025 found.
Evidence of adoptionEducation & TrainingDominican Republic8 Sep 2026
Half of Dominican 15-year-olds use AI chatbots weekly, PISA finds
OECD PISA 2025 — The OECD's PISA 2025 results show half of Dominican 15-year-olds (50%) use AI chatbots for learning at least weekly. Preliminary research on a new topic (44%), summarising assigned reading (40%) and drafting schoolwork (36%) lead, while only 9% never or almost never use chatbots for any school tasks PISA asked about.
DeploymentEducation & TrainingDominican Republic13 Feb 2025
Unibe launches Aurora, an AI virtual assistant for students
Universidad Iberoamericana (Unibe) — Universidad Iberoamericana (Unibe) deployed an AI virtual assistant for university students, built with CardNET and named Aurora, to handle admissions, enrolment, payments and academic documentation in the Dominican Republic. It answers multilingual queries from students, graduates, staff and faculty via WhatsApp and email, using generative AI with institutional data for real-time processing — an instance of AI in higher education administration.
DeploymentMedia, Telecom & EntertainmentDominican Republic18 Nov 2025
Dominican digital outlet Diario al Día adopts AI workflows for news production
Diario al Día (Santos Media Group) — Manual newsroom effort has been replaced by seconds-long automation at Diario al Día, a Dominican outlet: ChatGPT now handles data verification, source checking, grammar fixes and copy prep in a fresh AI in journalism setup. Clip-making sped up too, dropping from a prior 20 to 30 minutes to mere seconds through combined use of ChatGPT, HeyGen and ElevenLabs — an example of generative newsroom tools taking over hand-done work.
Teleuniverso becomes first Dominican regional TV to integrate AI in newsroom
Teleuniverso Canal 29 — A first among Cibao regional broadcasters, Teleuniverso Canal 29 in Santiago now embeds AI in newsroom operations as standard practice, ranking among the earliest nationwide to do so. Automated tools now handle social media content generation, editorial optimisation for the outlet's website, and newscast script writing, marking a shift from occasional use to routine editorial infrastructure powered by artificial intelligence in news production.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsDominican Republic5 Sep 2026
35% of Dominican formal firms now use AI, statistics office finds
Oficina Nacional de Estadística (ONE) — The National Statistics Office (ONE) puts business AI adoption at 35.0% of internet-connected formal firms in the National Survey of Economic Activity (ENAE) 2025. Corporate AI use peaks at 52.0% among employers of 250-plus staff, against 46.1% at firms of 50 to 99.
DeploymentMarketing & CreativeDominican Republic13 Oct 2025
Banco Popular launches GIA, an AI-generated finance influencer
Banco Popular Dominicano — Banco Popular Dominicano, with agency Pagés BBDO, has rolled out GIA, billed as the Dominican Republic's first AI-generated finance influencer for digital channels. Seven months of research, design and training on real sociodemographic data shaped the virtual influencer in banking, which posts educational financial content on Instagram as @gialosabe_.
Punta Cana airport's AI reads CT baggage scans for drugs and undeclared cash.
DeploymentTransport & LogisticsDominican Republic19 Aug 2026
Punta Cana airport uses AI to spot drugs and cash in luggage
Aeropuerto Internacional de Punta Cana — Punta Cana International Airport has deployed SeeTrue's AI baggage screening, which reads Leidos ClearScan CT scanner images at checkpoints live to help inspectors find possible illicit substances and undeclared cash in luggage. The airport calls it the first international-airport use of SeeTrue's algorithms with ClearScan for drug and currency detection, built to avoid slowing passenger processing.
Your essential monthly update on Applied AI, with the Dominican Republic specially tracked
We research and keep track of applied AI globally. The Dominican Republic's record did not change in October — we looked. Your next dispatch will open with the Dominican Republic, then the most important news about how AI is being used, applied and regulated globally.
One edition a month. Unsubscribe from any of them.
Method and sources
Every entry on this page is a named organisation putting AI to work in a real job, taken from the State of Applied AI record. Each one is traced to the report it came from and dated, and where a figure is the organisation’s own the entry says so rather than presenting it as an independent result. Readiness, ecosystem and policy figures, where shown, are attributed on the card to the body that published them.
The record is maintained continuously by the Industrial Research Unit of the Straits Institute for Applied AI: entries are added as they are found and verified, not on a schedule, and nothing is published without an open source behind it. It currently holds 4731 entries across 249 countries.
Dominican Republic29 Sep 2026
Brazil
Argentina
Mexico
Colombia
Peru
Chile
Uruguay
Venezuela
Ecuador
Guatemala
El Salvador
Paraguay
Bolivia
Costa Rica
Puerto Rico
Bermuda
Honduras
Trinidad and Tobago
Cuba
Panama
Bahamas
Jamaica
Barbados
Belize
Martinique
French Guiana
Guyana
Suriname
Curaçao
Saint Lucia
Guadeloupe
Haiti
Nicaragua
Turks and Caicos Islands
Aruba
Cayman Islands
Greenland
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Sint Maarten (Dutch part)
Virgin Islands, British
Virgin Islands, U.S.