The Latin American Dilemma Over Artificial Intelligence

adapt or design the future?

Latin America faces a historic crossroads: to adapt to artificial intelligence designed by others, or to create its own technological future with justice and digital sovereignty.

By Jose Luis Sampietro Saquicela (Latinoamerica21)

HAVANA TIMES – At the threshold of a new technological era, Latin America watches with a mixture of hope and fear as artificial intelligence advances. In official speeches and business forums, the refrain is enthusiastically repeated: the region must jump aboard the innovation train. But in the streets, workshops, and classrooms, the question is different: who is really designing the future of our jobs? For if Latin American history teaches us anything, it is that technological revolutions, when they arrive without policy and without equity, tend to widen the distance between those who decide and those who obey.

Recent data from the International Labor Organization are telling. Between 26% and 38% of jobs in Latin America and the Caribbean could be affected by the rise of generative artificial intelligence. Of that total, between 8% and 14% could experience productivity gains through the use of automation and analysis tools, while between 2% and 5% risk disappearing altogether. Behind those percentages are real people: administrative workers, technicians, salespeople, teachers, or freelancers.

Artificial intelligence is quietly reshaping tasks, hierarchies, and opportunities. And in a region marked by structural inequalities, the impact will not be uniform. While large urban companies can invest in training, connectivity, and digital transformation, millions of informal workers, young people without access to technical education, or rural communities without stable internet remain outside the map of progress. The World Bank estimates that between 30% and 40% of jobs in the region are exposed to the effects of AI, and that up to seventeen million workers might not benefit from it due to…

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