Costa Rica Has the Region's Most AI-Skilled Professionals. Why Isn't It Showing in the Boardroom?
- Costa Rica has the highest professional AI-skills penetration of any country measured in Latin America — more than double the second-place country (CEPAL/CENIA, 2025).
- Despite that, Costa Rica ranks only 5th of 19 countries overall (score 53.83) — the "Adoptantes" tier, not the Pioneer tier.
- Only 10% of Latin American organizations have AI strategy systematically linked to business strategy with accountable senior leaders (WEF/McKinsey, Jan 2026).
- Only 23% of Latin American organizations report any economic value from AI; just 6% report significant value.
- The gap isn't talent. It's that skilled people sit inside unfunded, unowned systems.
Costa Rica has the highest professional AI-skills penetration of any country measured in Latin America — more than double the second-place country. It also ranks only 5th of 19 countries overall in AI readiness. That's not a contradiction. It's a diagnosis: the country has the people. It doesn't yet have the systems those people are working inside.
The paradox in the numbers
Costa Rica scores 53.83 in CEPAL and CENIA's 2025 Latin American AI Index — the "Adoptantes" (Adopters) tier, fifth of 19 countries, behind Pioneer-tier Chile (70.56), Brazil (67.39), and Uruguay (62.32). At the same time, Costa Rica leads the entire region in professional AI-skills penetration — more than double the second-ranked country — and ranks second in demand for AI courses. The skill is there. The overall system score isn't catching up to it.
Skills without systems don't compound
Only 10% of surveyed organizations in Latin America report that their AI strategy is systematically linked to business strategy, with senior leaders accountable for the outcome (World Economic Forum, January 2026). Only 23% report any economic value from AI at all; just 6% report significant value. Skilled individuals inside a company don't automatically add up to an AI-capable company — that requires someone senior who owns the connection between the two.
What multinationals in Costa Rica are already demanding
Multinationals running global business services centers in Costa Rica — a sector convened by CINDE and McKinsey at the 2026 GBS Forum, with 3M, BAC Credomatic, Roche, and Western Union among the attendees — are explicitly redefining what they demand from local talent: analytical and critical thinking, end-to-end process redesign, AI-system validation, change management, and AI governance knowledge, over transactional task skills. That's a hiring signal, not a training-course signal.
Where the gap actually gets closed
AI governance strategies are advancing on paper across the region, including in Costa Rica, but lack the budgets and execution mechanisms to actually run (CEPAL, 2025). A governance document with no funded owner isn't governance — it's a slide deck. Closing the skills-to-boardroom gap starts with one senior person who owns AI accountability personally, not a committee, and not a policy nobody reads twice.
This is why CRAFT treats governance as a role, not a checklist
In the CRAFT methodology, Governance is a standing role — not one of the standard delivery roles borrowed from elsewhere, but a deliberate addition: policy, data protection, and responsible-use guardrails owned by a real person from day one, not bolted on after something goes wrong.
FAQ
Is Costa Rica behind on AI compared to the rest of Latin America?
Not on skills. Costa Rica has the highest professional AI-skills penetration in the region, more than double the second-place country. Its overall AI-readiness rank (5th of 19, "Adoptantes" tier) reflects gaps in strategy and governance execution, not in people.
Why don't skilled employees automatically create AI value for a company?
Because value realization requires a strategy that's actually linked to the business and owned by an accountable senior leader — only 10% of Latin American organizations report having that (WEF/McKinsey, January 2026). Individual skill without organizational ownership doesn't compound.
What are multinationals in Costa Rica actually hiring for in AI roles?
Analytical and critical thinking, end-to-end process redesign, AI-system validation, change management, and AI governance knowledge — per the 2026 GBS Forum convened by CINDE and McKinsey — over narrower transactional task skills.
What's the fastest way to close the skills-to-boardroom gap?
Name one senior owner for AI governance and accountability — a role, not a committee or an unfunded policy document. CEPAL's 2025 index found governance strategies advancing on paper across the region but lacking the budgets and execution mechanisms to run.
- Índice Latinoamericano de Inteligencia Artificial (ILIA) 2025 — CEPAL
- World Economic Forum — Latin America and the Intelligent Age — World Economic Forum
- La IA redefine las habilidades que demandan las multinacionales en Costa Rica — Estrategia y Negocios