In our February 2025 Community Chat, and with members of the Caribbean tech community, Kira Mohammed, an e-Commerce Strategist based in Trinidad and Tobago, and Mark Codling, a PhD Candidate in GeoInformatics from Jamaica, the panel discusses the following three topics: ways AI is transforming e-commerce;  AI and real-time weather; and cashless fraud.

 

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From the title of this month’s Community Chat, we are definitely witnessing more conversations on the ways in which Artificial Intelligence (AI), the role it is playing and could be playing in Caribbean society. For example, although AI has been a force in the e-commerce space for several years, especially in providing shoppers with personalised recommendations, that may not necessarily be the case in the region, On the other hand, AI has been transforming weather analysis and providing citizens with more relevant and accurate weather projections, in addition to helping improve the robustness and reliability of various societal structures and services.

Our February 2025 Community Chat covers a lot of ground. However, allow us to introduce our guest panellists and share more on the topics discussed.

 

Introducing our guest panellists

Kira Mohammed

Kira Mohammed is a results-driven eCommerce Consultant dedicated to helping businesses build, optimise, and scale their online stores. With deep expertise in eCommerce development, conversion rate optimisation (CRO), branding, and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, she partners with brands to create seamless shopping experiences that drive revenue and customer engagement.

Through strategic website design, data-backed search engine optimisation (SEO), and high-converting digital advertising campaigns, Kira empowers businesses to stay ahead in the competitive online marketplace. She specialises in platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce, ensuring that brands not only have a strong digital presence but also leverage the latest technologies for maximum profitability. Her expertise spans branding strategies that enhance brand identity and trust, PPC campaigns that focus on conversion KPIs and web development techniques that create personalised customer experiences. She works directly with business-to-business (B2B) and direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands to implement tailored strategies that enhance brand visibility, streamline operations, and increase online sales. 

Mark Codling

Mark Codling is a Hazard Mitigation Specialist dedicated to enhancing disaster risk management through the development, implementation, and maintenance of comprehensive policies, procedures, and programs at Hazard Management Cayman Islands. He is currently pursuing a PhD in GeoInformatics with a focus on GeoAI (Geospatial Artificial Intelligence Technology) and the Internet of Things (IoT) at the University of West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. Mark holds a Master’s Degree in Disaster Management from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, where he specialised in Transport Infrastructure Resilience, and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Technology, Jamaica.

With a wealth of experience in implementing WebGIS (Web Geographic Information Systems) projects, Mark has significantly contributed to public sector organisations in both the Caribbean and New Zealand. His expertise spans a range of sectors, including electric utilities, land management, social development, disaster, and emergency management. 

 

Topics discussed

With more people shopping online, especially in the Caribbean region. Although the region’s e-commerce market is projected to reach a revenue of over USD 5 billion in 2025 and grow to nearly USD 7 billion by 2029 (Source: Statista), much of that business is being done with shops outside the region. For our first topic, noting the prominence of AI in the business landscape, we discussed Ways AI is transforming e-commerce to explore the extent to which Caribbean online merchants are leveraging AI.

Thanks to Mark’s background in geoinformatics and hazard mitigation, our second topic was AI and real-time weather. In the Caribbean region, our weather tends not to change very dramatically day to day, so we might not have given much – nor have a need for – real-time weather updates. We thus touched on why having real-time weather is crucial and then focused on the role of AI in weather prediction and analysis.

Our final topic continued the discussion on Cashless fraud, which started due to reports in Jamaica that some merchants in Jamaica are no longer accepting contactless payment options, such as tap-to-pay, but especially digital wallets. However, the digital payments ecosystem in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean region has been doubling its effort to move our societies to become more cashless.

 

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Select links

Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful:

 

 

Image credits:  K Mohammed; M Codling;  Pixabay; Tumisu (Pixabay); DC Studio (Freepik); creativeart (Freepik)

Music credit: The Last Word (Oui Ma Chérie), by Andy Narrell

Podcast editing support: Mayra Bonilla Lopez