This article is part of The AI Revolution in Latin America, a series that addresses what steps Latin America needs to take in order to effectively implement AI and further digitalize the region.
Many countries in Latin America view AI as a pathway to greater growth and economic prosperity and are in the process of preparing for its engagement. Effectively deploying AI could help the region to provide access to education, healthcare, and other public services. However, some elements of an effective rollout are still missing in many parts of the hemisphere. Latin America needs to invest now in preparing for AI development in order to seize the moment of opportunity.
Seeing the benefits of AI implementation requires a favorable environment for digitalization along with the leadership to carry it out. The region will need to develop an AI strategy that includes governance, financing, implementation mechanisms, and evaluation systems to realize AI’s potential in the region while avoiding the pitfalls. A successful AI strategy should involve structured collaboration across the region, not only to provide support and guidance to the countries in Latin America, but to better utilize the various resources available within those countries, thereby facilitating foreign investment.
In January 2026, the World Economic Forum in conjunction with McKinsey and Company issued a report about the development of AI and the opportunity it presents for Latin America. This report identified four broad areas for LAC to address regarding AI and digitalization for the region: 1) Define implementable AI strategies, 2) Build the infrastructure and data backbone, 3) Provide clear paths to develop talent, and 4) Enable trust, capital, and coordination. Advancement in these areas will help facilitate AI development by increasing connectivity between the urban and rural areas, providing an educated workforce in the region, providing a governance environment that investors can trust, and establishing regional collaboration.
Multilateral organizations such as UNESCO, OECD, and the IDB have developed strategies for the successful implementation of AI, including recommendations regarding ethics in its deployment, establishing a readiness assessment methodology, principles of AI such as human rights concerns and the rule of law. Nonprofit organizations in the region have also emerged to promote AI and digitalization in Latin America, such as the Latin American Cooperation of Advanced Networks (Red CLARA) in Uruguay that collaborates with the IDB, among others, to promote digital transformation and connect academic institutions. These organizations are and will be instrumental in preparing Latin America to capitalize on the opportunity that AI can present to the region.
AI’s development in the United States is largely focused on performance and speed of deployment; whoever wins the AI “race” in the U.S. will dominate and will capture the value of AI, dependent only on technical or existential risks. However, AI presents different risks outside the United States, where the discussion around AI is more concerned with how the technology is structured and what it means for those economies and democratic systems, especially in Latin America.
Discussions concerning AI and its development and implementation in Latin America begin first with the political economy. Policymakers, researchers, and individuals within the region are asking whether AI will reproduce familiar patterns, where resources, labor, and knowledge are extracted while the value is captured elsewhere, or whether it could support more balanced forms of development. In other sectors, Latin America has often been a source for cheaper labor, resulting in certain industries and companies moving operations to the region without real investment in the region. Many are concerned that their countries would provide the resources for AI development but would not reap any benefits in the form of growth in their own economies and societies. The first concern for the region is not whether AI poses safety risks or catastrophic global threats, but rather the immediate challenges it poses to everyday people and communities.
Historically, supply chains have been structured in ways that concentrate value while shifting environmental and social costs elsewhere, while promising growth. Although many promise that investment in AI infrastructure will drive economic growth, the claim that this new technology will prove to help everyone does not recognize how uneven that growth tends to be, particularly when it comes to large-scale, capital-intensive investments like data centers. Latin America needs to avoid the trap of providing key inputs—energy, minerals, labor, and data that are located in fragile ecosystems—while much of the economic return accrues outside the region.
At the same time, investing in AI can assist the region with increasing digital connectivity, expanding high-performance computing capabilities and promoting innovation. Obtaining these advantages will require diversification in funding sources, establishing public-private partnerships, and engaging with international funding entities including multilateral development banks. Achieving and maintaining growth in the region also requires establishing the appropriate infrastructure, governance structures, and business processes.
Public-private partnerships are vital not only to AI’s success but to allowing the region to prosper, provide more for its citizens and to ensure its sustainability. Independent organizations such as Global Americans will play an important role in preparing the region for AI and its investment while allowing for the benefits of that investment to remain in the region. Such organizations can serve as facilitators, connecting private organizations across the region with each other and with governments, and can guide constructive conversations over the long term about how investments will be protected, whose laws will be followed, and how to ensure value is captured locally.
For Latin America and the Caribbean, AI represents a tremendous opportunity which will only be realized if governments proactively plan for success and mitigate potential risks associated with this new technology. The sooner action is taken, the higher the benefit for the region and its people.
Marianne Scott Dwight is the Director of Institutional Investor Services at Strategic Insight Group and a member of Global Americans’ International Advisory Council.
Image via Context
