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

entries across 4 industries

National programme

2023

Estrategia Nacional de Inteligencia Artificial (ENIA)

National programme

Estrategia Nacional de Inteligencia Artificial (ENIA)

Announced 2023. Its pillars are smart government, talent and innovation hub, data hub, regional scale.

Services 60.1% · Industry 28.4% · Agriculture 4.6% of gross value added — World Bank, 2025

Kind

Role

4 entries

Education & Training

Half of Dominican 15-year-olds use AI chatbots to learn every week, PISA 2025 found.

Evidence of adoptionEducation & Training

Dominican 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.

diariolibre.com

Finance & Insurance

Banco Popular Dominicano uses AI assistants to phone customers about card deliveries.

DeploymentFinance & Insurance

Dominican Republic15 Jul 2026

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.

Contact-centre agentdiariolibre.com

Government & Public Sector

Customs says it will add AI to its X-ray cargo inspections.

DeploymentGovernment & Public Sector

Dominican 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.

Customs inspectoreldinero.com.do

Transport & Logistics

Punta Cana airport's AI reads CT baggage scans for drugs and undeclared cash.

DeploymentTransport & Logistics

Dominican 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.

Airport security screenerdiariolibre.com

Latest on the record

Evidence of adoptionHalf of Dominican 15-year-olds use AI chatbots weekly, PISA findsEducation & Training8 Sep 2026diariolibre.com
DeploymentDominican customs to add AI to its X-ray cargo inspectionsGovernment & Public Sector28 Aug 2026eldinero.com.do
DeploymentPunta Cana airport uses AI to spot drugs and cash in luggageTransport & Logistics19 Aug 2026diariolibre.com

Latin America & Caribbean

Dominican Republic0.47

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 1114 entries across 249 countries.