AI offers opportunities to improve efficiency, inclusion, and oversight in the financial sector. This column shows, however, that AI adoption remains limited in most emerging market and developing economies. While central banks are adapting to safely realise its potential, few countries have board-level AI strategies and policies. Many still lack the capacity to monitor AI risks and face skills gaps and weak data and IT infrastructure, which make it harder to address challenges such as cybersecurity, data privacy and sovereignty, reliance on third-party service providers, and model governance.