8. Mobilize AI investment funds and incentives If Latin American economies increased their level of investment in AI by around five percentage points, they would reach a level that is closer to their share of global GDP . Such investment increase would help to multiply the productivity gains from AI in the region. Dedicated policies to foster adoption by small and medium enterprises are also key. Innovative financing models can help unlock scale. For instance, public-private funds or fund- of-funds could channel capital into AI innovation and digital infrastructure. These arrangements can expand the pool of available capital for early- stage companies and initiatives while maintaining transparency and effective risk management. Latin American countries can prioritize securing development funding, as investment from these organizations can de-risk projects, anchor AI- focused funds and direct capital into cross-border infrastructure, research and ecosystem development. 9. Build innovative AI centres and ecosystems Collaboration among governments, universities and companies, including hyperscalers, accelerates innovation. Together, they can build dedicated technology centres that combine computing centres, research labs, training and start-up incubation. These centres do more than coordinate fragmented partnerships; they create places where talent can learn, experiment and build. By structuring them with joint steering groups, multi-year agendas and pooled funding, countries can align research and development with national priorities. Publicly funded R&D programmes and co-developed projects with academia and industry help ensure that emerging researchers, engineers and entrepreneurs can develop cutting-edge skills locally while having access to clear pathways into industry or start-up creation. In doing so, these centres not only expand AI innovation capacity but also increase the likelihood that highly skilled talent remains in the region, contributing to a growing and self-sustaining AI ecosystem. Joint public-private funders could both help equip these centres and act as early customers, promoting prototypes at scale. 10. Foster regional, cross-sector collaboration While Latin America could hardly be considered homogeneous, many countries share a language, culture and values, which can make collaboration and partnerships easier. Moreover, with countries at different stages of AI development, there is an opportunity to share knowledge, enabling countries that are more advanced in certain areas to pass on what they have learned, amplifying impact and attracting further funding interest. Useful playbooks for fostering regional collaboration include the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking for shared supercomputing, RedCLARA’s BELLA for research backbones, NIIS for secure cross-border data exchange and LACChain and LACNet for regulation-aligned digital public infrastructure. These existing efforts can be complemented by additional focus on integrating individual countries’ relevant digital and physical infrastructures, tapping into the potential of market scale and unlocking further critical AI investment. Realizing this AI roadmap will demand a collective and coordinated effort among all stakeholders in Latin America. Only through shared commitment and unified action can the region close its AI competitiveness gap and fully capture the benefits of this transformative technology. The time for action is now: Latin America must move decisively from planning to execution to translate its AI ambitions into tangible, inclusive growth. To encourage prompt execution, these actions are categorized into three phases. The first phase contains actions that would benefit from immediate attention, while the second phase expands on these initial actions. Finally, the third phase focuses on working to sustain the scaled efforts in development and collaboration.

Latin America Intelligent Age