Scaling Digital Public Infrastructure

Digital public infrastructure can lower barriers to information, credit, and civic participation, but it also raises questions about interoperability, governance, privacy, and centralization. Compare approaches to building AI-enabled public platforms for data access, digital payments, trade receivables, and service delivery. Discuss what should be standardized by the state, what should be left to the market, and how to prevent a platform monopoly from forming around essential public data. Conclude with a roadmap for a middle-income country trying to modernize its digital state without excluding citizens with low connectivity or low trust.