LocationsAI and Mongolia: A Chance to Close Gaps, Not Widen Them
June 8, 2025
AI and Mongolia: A Chance to Close Gaps, Not Widen Them
Mongolia is a country with a long history of change and innovation. From ancient trade routes to the first postal relay (urtuu) systems, Mongolians have always found new ways to move forward. Now, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) changing the world, Mongolia has a big choice to make: will AI make life better for everyone or just for a few?
Mongolia is no stranger to innovation. The country has developed one of the most user-friendly digital public service platforms in the region, E-Mongolia, offering access to over 1,200 services and reaching 83.9% of the population through steadily expanding internet connectivity. Yet, underlying this digital progress are enduring development challenges, including rural-urban inequalities, environmental vulnerability, brain drain and limited institutional capacity and funding. The question now is: can AI, if harnessed responsibly, become the next leap forward in Mongolia’s development journey?
We believe it can and should.
A Dual Starting Point: Where We Are and Where We Could Go
In recent months, UNDP, in close partnership with the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Communications (MDDIC), jointly commissioned two major exercises to shape Mongolia’s AI policy direction:
- An AI Landscape Assessment, looked at how ready Mongolia is to use and manage AI.
- A Futures Scenario Exercise, imagined what Mongolia’s future could look like with different uses of AI.
The findings were both promising and cautionary.
Mongolia’s AI ecosystem received a readiness score of 3.0 out of 5, indicating that foundational systems are in place but need strengthening to support scalable, responsible AI development. The country scored particularly well in digital infrastructure, thanks to platforms like E-Mongolia and KhurDan system. However, it continues to face significant challenges, including limited AI talent, insufficient high-performance computing capacity, fragmented data systems and gaps in ethical governance and regulatory frameworks.
In short, the foundation is strong, but the structure remains incomplete, requiring coordinated investment, clear policy, and inclusive capacity building.
The AI Landscape Assessment was completed with support from UNDP’s Chief Digital Office and Inclusive Growth Team in the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific.
A National Conversation to Shape the Future
The Government of Mongolia, led by the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation, and Communications, in partnership with UNDP, hosted the country’s first conference on National Strategy for Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in February 2025,
To ensure that AI policy reflects Mongolia’s values and priorities, the MDDIC and UNDP Mongolia have, over the past several months, convened a wide range of stakeholder consultations. These included voices from the private sector, public institutions, civil society, academia, and other stakeholders.
These inclusive dialogues helped shape both the analytical foundation of the AI Landscape Assessment and the vision-setting scenarios in the AI Futures Mongolia 2050 report. Most importantly, they informed the development of Mongolia’s first National AI and Big Data Strategy, which is now finalized and prepared to be submitted for discussion in the Parliament.
This marks a critical milestone not just in digital policy, but in Mongolia’s broader development.
AI for Mongolia’s Development: 3 Challenges and 3 Opportunities
If harnessed strategically, AI can help Mongolia leap ahead in a few years. Here’s how:
1. Reducing Rural Inequality and Bridging the Digital Divide
While over 80% of urban citizens have reliable digital access, many rural and nomadic communities still lag behind. This creates unequal access to services, education, and opportunity.
AI can bridge that divide. Edge AI and lightweight models, designed to operate in low-connectivity areas, can power remote education, livestock monitoring, and telemedicine. By investing in off-grid, decentralized AI solutions, Mongolia could become a global leader in inclusive digital access for rural populations.
2. Combatting Climate Risk with Smart Resilience
With 77% of its territory classified as arid or semi-arid, Mongolia is at the frontline of the climate crisis. Desertification, water scarcity, and extreme weather such as dzud and drought are already threatening livelihoods.
AI-powered climate adaptation tools, from predictive modeling for droughts to optimizing pasture rotation, can help farmers and herders make better, faster decisions. Countries like Kenya are already using AI for smart agriculture; Mongolia could do the same, rooted in nomadic knowledge systems.
3. Reversing Brain Drain and Growing a New Talent Economy
Mongolia faces a shortage of over 27,000 ICT professionals, yet enrollment in related university programs remains limited, and many skilled graduates continue to leave for opportunities abroad, highlighting an urgent need for stronger education and retention policies to close the digital talent gap.
AI doesn’t just need coders, it needs ethicists, linguists, designers, and domain experts. Mongolia can build a unique “digital nomad” strategy, offering remote job ecosystems for young Mongolians and incentives for returning talent. With strategic investments in AI education, PhD tracks, and research fellowships, the country can turn its small population into a smart, globally relevant workforce.
A Future Not Written in Code—But in Choice
Mr. Munkhbat Perenlei, Director of Innovation and Policy Coordination at the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Communications, during the presentation of key findings from two studies—Artificial Intelligence (AI) Landscape Assessment for Mongolia and Mongolia 2050: AI Futures Foresight Exercise.
UNDP’s AI Futures Mongolia 2050 report laid out four scenarios for the country’s AI trajectory, ranging from cultural renaissance (Digital Airag) to climate-tech leadership (Algorithmic Arid). Each path came with its own risks and rewards. But they all emphasized one thing:
Mongolia’s AI future will be defined not by the technology itself, but by the values it embeds, the voices it includes, and the systems it builds.
UNDP’s global Human Development Report 2025 echoed this message. With AI accelerating inequality in some contexts, countries like Mongolia must act fast to ensure they benefit from the AI revolution rather than becoming its afterthought.
The Road Ahead: From Foresight to Action
Knowledge-sharing session organized by UNDP Mongolia with global experts from UNDP’s Chief Digital Office, UNESCO, and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) to explore how the power of AI can be harnessed for good of the country benefiting all.
UNDP continues to support the Government of Mongolia as it prepares to launch the National AI and Big Data Strategy, anchored in:
- Inclusive infrastructure that reaches rural populations;
- AI-for-good use cases in education, health, climate, and public services;
- Ethical governance and algorithmic accountability;
- And a clear human capital investment plan to retain and grow AI talent.
If Mongolia can integrate AI into its national development strategy in a human-centered, ethical way, the payoff could be transformational—positioning the country as an emerging oasis for AI deployment and development in the region.
This is no longer a distant dream. The tools exist. The political will is growing. The vision is clear.
Now, it’s a matter of choice.
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