Afghanistan
In line with what its income predicts · expected 22.6% at its GDP per capita
Afghanistan ranks 13 of 13 countries in the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan: 22.9% of its task time is at least partly delegable, below the world figure of 35.2% and 25.8 points below high-income countries.
| Indicator | Afghanistan | Rank in region | Highest in region | Region | High income | World | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delegability | |||||||
| ADI: task time at least partly delegable (L2–L3) | 22.9 | 13 of 13 | Israel (54.3) | 33.2 | 48.7 | 35.2 | ADI v2026.1 |
| ADI3: task time fully delegable (L3) | 1.1 | 13 of 13 | Malta (3.8) | 2.2 | 3.7 | 2.5 | ADI v2026.1 |
| ADIs: expected share of working time delegable | 22.1 | 13 of 13 | Israel (40.5) | 28.3 | 37.4 | 29.5 | ADI v2026.1 |
| Adoption | |||||||
| AI use per working-age adult (index) | – | – | Malta (3.94) | 1.41 | 2.80 | 1.53 | Anthropic Economic Index |
| Context | |||||||
| GDP per capita, PPP (constant 2021 international $) | 1,964 | 13 of 13 | Qatar (110,136) | 29,547 | 56,341 | 27,620 | World Bank WDI |
| Informal employment, % of total employment | 86.1 | 8 of 9 | United Arab Emirates (4.0) | 56.7 | 12.5 | 50.2 | ILOSTAT |
Region: the 13 countries of the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan in the atlas (World Bank regions). Delegability rows are employment-weighted means; adoption and context rows are simple means over countries with data. For informality, rank 1 is the lowest. With equal weights inside reported groups, the preregistered sensitivity check, Afghanistan’s ADI is 22.8%.
Afghanistan against the delegation divide
Each flag is a country; the dashed line is what GDP per capita alone predicts. The Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan keeps its colours, the rest is grey. Afghanistan is in line with what its income predicts.
Balam Labs · Agent Delegability Index v2026.1 · balamlabs.org/adi
Who works in Afghanistan, and how delegable their tasks are
Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers and service and sales workers supply 54% of Afghanistan’s delegable task time while employing 62% of its workers.
Hover a block to read one group. Shade: the group’s ADI, light 10% to dark 85%.
| Major group | Employment, Afghanistan | World | ADI of group, Afghanistan | Points of ADI, Afghanistan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · Managers | 1.8% | 3.9% | 84.1 | 1.5 |
| 4 · Clerical support workers | 0.2% | 5.0% | 86.4 | 0.1 |
| 2 · Professionals | 5.4% | 11.2% | 56.3 | 3.0 |
| 3 · Technicians and associate professionals | 1.3% | 6.7% | 79.9 | 1.0 |
| 5 · Service and sales workers | 11.5% | 17.8% | 48.0 | 5.5 |
| 8 · Plant and machine operators and assemblers | 5.1% | 7.6% | 27.5 | 1.4 |
| 6 · Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers | 50.5% | 21.9% | 13.5 | 6.8 |
| 7 · Craft and related trades workers | 10.3% | 10.8% | 17.0 | 1.8 |
| 9 · Elementary occupations | 13.9% | 15.2% | 12.0 | 1.7 |
Barriers, weighted by its jobs
The largest gap with the world is physical presence: 84% of task weight against 72% worldwide, a heavier brake on agents.
| Barrier | Share of task weight | AFG | World |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical presence | 84% | 72% | |
| Accountability | 24% | 26% | |
| Trust and care | 18% | 26% | |
| Access to systems | 58% | 59% |
Dashed tick: world, weighting the same tasks by world employment. A task can carry more than one barrier.
Delegable work and actual AI use
The Anthropic Economic Index has no usage figure for Afghanistan; it covers 101 of the 146 countries.
Within its region
Afghanistan closes the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan at 22.9%, behind Pakistan (28.9%); Israel leads the region at 54.3%.
| Country | ADI | % |
|---|---|---|
| Israel | 54.3 | |
| Malta | 50.7 | |
| United Arab Emirates | 43.0 | |
| Lebanon | 39.6 | |
| Qatar | 37.9 | |
| Iraq | 36.8 | |
| West Bank and Gaza | 36.4 | |
| Egypt | 36.2 | |
| Iran | 36.0 | |
| Jordan | 36.0 | |
| Tunisia | 31.6 | |
| Pakistan | 28.9 | |
| Afghanistan | 22.9 |
Dashed line: regional employment-weighted mean, 33.2%. World: 35.2%.
Espinal Maya, Cristian, and Santiago Jiménez Londoño. 2026. ADI v2026.1: Agent Delegability Index data, code and MCP server. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23552918. Record: Afghanistan (AFG), https://balamlabs.org/adi/countries/AFG
@misc{espinal2026adidata,
title = {{ADI} v2026.1: Agent Delegability Index data, code and {MCP} server},
author = {Espinal Maya, Cristian and Jim{\'e}nez Londo{\~n}o, Santiago},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Zenodo},
version = {v2026.1},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.23552918},
url = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23552918},
note = {Record: Afghanistan (AFG)}
}Static JSON: /adi/v2026.1/country/AFG.json