FEATURE: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
A new report from ECLAC and Chile’ s CENIA shows rapid growth in AI uptake across Latin America but highlights widening gaps in investment, governance and specialist talent. pioneers, adopters and explorers. Chile, Brazil and Uruguay have consolidated their positions as pioneers, scoring more than 60 points on the index. Eight countries – including Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic – fall into the adopter category, occupying an intermediate level and narrowing the gap with leaders thanks to improvements in connectivity, talent and national strategies. By contrast, more than one-third of the countries analysed remain in the explorer category with incipient ecosystems and limited capacities.
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean( ECLAC) and Chile’ s National Center for Artificial Intelligence( CENIA) presented the third edition of the Latin American Artificial Intelligence Index( ILIA 2025), a pioneering tool that systematically measures the level of preparedness, adoption and governance of AI in 19 countries of the region.
Based on more than 100 sub-indicators organised into three dimensions – enabling factors; research, development and adoption; and governance – the report provides a detailed overview of the progress made and the challenges that Latin America and the Caribbean still face in this field.
Pioneers, adopters and explorers – what the categories mean
Pioneers: Countries with consolidated AI ecosystems supported by national strategies, strong connectivity and accumulated research output.
Adopters: Nations that have progressed in infrastructure and policy but still face gaps in talent and innovation capacity.
What ILIA Measures
• AI readiness and infrastructure
• National strategies and governance
• Talent availability
• Investment flows
• Research output
• Adoption levels in public and private sectors
• The maturity of AI ecosystems
The results show that the region is accelerating AI adoption, surpassing what might be expected given its digital weight. According to ECLAC estimates, Latin America and the Caribbean account for 14 % of global visits to AI solutions compared to an 11 % share of the world’ s Internet users. However, this trend is marked by sharp contrasts across countries in the region.
ILIA groups countries into three categories according to their level of maturity:
Explorers: Early-stage countries with emerging AI activity and limited resources to scale adoption.
The study highlights significant structural gaps in talent, investment and governance. In particular, advanced training in AI remains insufficient and is concentrated in a small number of countries. Since 2022, the talent gap relative to the global average has widened, associated with an accelerated brain drain of specialists.
In terms of investment, Latin America and the Caribbean account for 6.6 % of global GDP but receive
Latin America and the Caribbean accelerate AI adoption despite investment, talent and governance challenges
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