Phoenix 24
Experimentation is growing, but scaling requires stronger technological foundations.
LIMA, PERU
Artificial intelligence is gaining ground in Peru’s corporate sector, but many companies remain unable to convert early adoption into reliable, large-scale operations. A regional survey of more than 1,100 executives found that 54 percent of Peruvian businesses have implemented AI tools, exceeding the Latin American average of 45 percent. However, 62 percent of executives described their organizations as only partially prepared to exploit the technology’s potential.
Companies are using AI primarily to generate reports, analyze data and automate repetitive administrative tasks. Marketing-content production and customer service are also becoming important areas of application. Yet introducing a chatbot or testing a generative platform does not necessarily constitute a complete AI strategy, particularly when the underlying data, systems and workflows remain fragmented.
The central obstacle is technological infrastructure. Artificial-intelligence workloads require large volumes of accessible and well-organized data, accelerated computing capacity, scalable storage, high-speed networks and strong cybersecurity controls. When those components do not function as an integrated architecture, projects can remain trapped in experimental stages or become too expensive and unstable to deploy across an organization.
Connectivity remains another structural limitation. Fewer than five percent of Peruvian companies reportedly have fixed internet service, while high-quality connectivity and fiber-optic networks remain concentrated in Lima and Callao. Rural areas and smaller enterprises therefore face greater barriers than large corporations with access to cloud services, specialized personnel and investment capital.
Peru nevertheless improved from eighth to seventh place in the Latin American Artificial Intelligence Index, receiving 51.93 points for its performance across infrastructure, talent, research, adoption and governance. The result shows progress but also places the country within an intermediate group whose capacity to use AI remains constrained by uneven digital development. The gap between large companies and micro, small and medium-sized businesses could widen if modernization remains concentrated in the most economically connected regions.
Training represents an additional weakness. Only 21 percent of surveyed companies provide formal education in AI or emerging technologies, while more than half offer none. Without employees capable of managing data, evaluating outputs and redesigning processes, infrastructure investment alone will not produce sustainable returns.
Peru’s challenge is therefore no longer simply persuading companies to try artificial intelligence. It must create the connectivity, computing capacity, data governance, cybersecurity and human talent needed to move from isolated tools to productive systems. Otherwise, visible adoption figures may conceal a deeper reality: widespread experimentation without corresponding organizational maturity.
Más allá de la noticia, el patrón. / Beyond the news, the pattern.