FEATURE: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
impact evaluation systems, reducing the effectiveness of these policies. Furthermore, environmental and gender equality approaches are largely absent despite their importance for sustainable and inclusive development. Policies also tend to focus on regulatory aspects rather than consolidating a technological ecosystem to support productivity and well-being. with productive development policies, including the digital transformation of priority sectors, in order to close infrastructure, talent, innovation and governance gaps, while also advancing regional cooperation to ensure an ethical, inclusive and responsible use of this technology,” said José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of ECLAC.
In summary, AI adoption in the region is concentrated in a small group of countries and is primarily oriented toward the consumption of ready-made, end-user solutions with low technical requirements. However, the growing interest in such tools creates an opportunity to democratise innovation and strengthen productivity since AI can generate significant benefits across economies of different sizes and structures – provided there are favourable environments for innovation and entrepreneurship.
“ ILIA 2025 confirms
AI’ s potential benefits in the region that artificial
intelligence can
• New industrial and productive strategies become a driver
• Improved access to public services for overcoming the
• Enhanced social protection systems development traps
• Reduced gender and economic inequality of Latin America and
• Greater government transparency the Caribbean. But
• Environmental monitoring and pollution mitigation for this to happen, it
• Higher productivity across sectors is essential to align digitalization policies
He emphasised that AI adoption can contribute, among other areas, to the design of new productive strategies; democratizing access to education, health and other public services; expanding social protection; reducing gender gaps; lowering environmental pollution; promoting greener growth; and strengthening government transparency and efficiency.
For ECLAC, the Latin American Artificial Intelligence Index is an essential benchmark to guide evidencebased policymaking and to assess the implementation and progress of such policies, ensuring the development of AI that is geared toward a more productive, inclusive and sustainable future for the region, Salazar-Xirinachs added.
Álvaro Soto, ILIA Director at CENIA, said that“ while in the first editions of ILIA we focused on how prepared we were to face AI disruption, paying special attention to enabling factors, this new edition shifts toward metrics that show how the AI game is currently being played in the region and what its impacts are. For example, we incorporated studies on how
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