In developing countries, low literacy rates are often linked to the high cost of private education, which remains unaffordable for middle- and low-income citizens. Post-COVID-19 inflation has further strained economies, shifting national priorities toward economic survival over education and health (World Bank, 2025). As a result, many children remain out of school. ChatGPT and similar AI models offer a potential solution by enabling the development of digital education models, allowing students to access basic education from home through online courses. For educators, ChatGPT can assist in creating course frameworks, making educational content development more efficient. Additionally, the ease of access to information provided by these tools can foster greater awareness, enabling societies to pool resources and address community needs effectively.

Advancements in AI technology have transformed the need for curriculum reform and implementation strategies, particularly in medical education. AI tools like ChatGPT facilitate curriculum development by streamlining tasks such as creating assessment tools (e.g., Multiple choice questions (MCQs) and Short essay questions (SEQs), designing Objective structured clinical examinations (OSCE), validating assessment methods, and simplifying curriculum implementation (Sengupta et al., 2024). To maximize the benefits of these tools, faculty should integrate them into academic sessions, enabling students to enhance their knowledge and skills more efficiently. This calls for a reorganization of teaching and learning strategies to align with technological advancements, ensuring students can fully leverage the potential of AI in their education.

AI tools like ChatGPT enable students to learn at their own pace and according to their individual capabilities, addressing differences in learning styles without requiring significant financial investment (Hunaepi and Suharta, 2024). This approach promotes a culture of self-directed learning, as advocated by medical educationists globally (Figure 1). Medical schools can integrate hybrid teaching models—combining asynchronous and synchronous methods—to leverage digital technology for both learning and assessment. These models create a more conducive learning environment while simultaneously reducing the overall cost of education.

AI technology has revolutionized access to healthcare in underserved rural areas through telemedicine, bridging gaps where physical medical facilities are unavailable. Previously, patients in these areas faced high mortality rates from manageable illnesses due to lack of access to care. AI-driven digital technology now offers preventive measures and improved health outcomes. Additionally, telemedicine provides job opportunities for doctors who cannot operate physical clinics, allowing them to serve as a valuable resource for patients in remote areas (Mogavi et al., 2024).

The developing world lags behind developed countries in generating and pursuing novel research ideas, often replicating studies conducted in Western countries rather than fostering original research tailored to local populations. This occurs due to lack of technology and research driven policies, which is dependent on provision of resources. Resources depends on economy which cannot be afforded by these countries due to poverty. This limits capacity-building among youth and stifles innovation, which could otherwise contribute to economic growth. AI technology, such as ChatGPT, can help bridge this gap by facilitating the generation of innovative ideas. By promoting a culture of creativity and original research, AI empowers individuals, institutions, and societies to pursue projects that are both locally relevant and globally impactful (Thacharodi et al., 2024).

The rising use of AI tools by students poses dual challenge to maintain academic integrity and originality. Although it aids students to bridge the gap of under resource to education in these counties, however some institutes lack the facility to detect AI generated texts and the faculty is also not trained to detect plagiarism in assignments, exams, research, and data manipulation, posing serious threats to academic honesty and integrity. The solution is not to restrict AI usage but to integrate digital technology into curricula, along with robust implementation and assessment tools (Mhlanga, 2023a).

Over-reliance on AI for simple tasks, such as drafting applications, or emails, is diminishing students' critical thinking skills. Many students have become adept at generating AI prompts and copying results without evaluation. This replaces active intellectual engagement to solve problems with quick pre-formulated outputs without logic and analysis by the students. This has led to proficiency over depth. This may cause students to by-pass the process of thinking, analysis and original constructs generation in developing countries where rote learning is already in place. This could undermine their ability to think independently, innovate and adapt to real world challenges. To address this issue the students and faculty should be trained to critically analyze and review AI outputs, ensuring they refine and validate the content before using it in their academic work (Almatrafi et al., 2024).

Institutions face challenges in verifying the authenticity of students' work as AI becomes increasingly integrated into learning. Advanced tools like text generators, coding assistants and algorithms may mimic human originality which is difficult to detect. AI detection tolls also lack reliability as false negatives and biases against non-native English. This can be mitigated by establishing clear policies and guidelines for AI use in academics, applicable at both national and international levels. The faculty should be trained to detect the style of writing and encourage students to do more class work, flipped classrooms and viva examinations so as to verify what they have learnt. This can be mitigated by establishing clear policies and guidelines for AI use in academics, applicable at both national and international levels (Rane N. L. et al., 2024; Rane N. et al., 2024).

The introduction of AI bring trans formative changes in health, education and governance in developing countries but its adaption is restricted by multiple challenges regarding cultural attitudes and resource inequities. AI integration is limited in some countries due to language barrier as AI is mostly in English language limiting its use in these countries. Limited digital infrastructure, internet connectivity and limited data storage capacity also add to the challenges (Parker et al., 2024; Sozon et al., 2024). Limited resources and high publication costs often forces faculty and students to cover expenses themselves, leading to practices like gifted authorship to share resources,. Addressing these issues require systemic changes to foster equitable access to academic resources and support. Developing countries should focus on home ground AI development according to their cultural and socioeconomic needs (Figure 2).