Phoenix 24
Workers are advancing faster than the organizations employing them.
LATIN AMERICA — July 2026. Demand for workers capable of using, managing or developing artificial intelligence multiplied elevenfold across Latin America between 2023 and 2025. Over the same period, demand increased approximately fivefold in the United States and Europe. Much of the regional growth occurred in sales, administration, design and content rather than engineering.
Argentina leads the region, with 34 percent of occupations now requiring some form of AI competency. However, McKinsey projects that only 14 percent of Latin American working hours will be automated by 2030 under its medium-adoption scenario. The equivalent figures are 27 percent in the United States and 25 percent in Europe.
Lower wages reduce the financial incentive to replace labor, while robotics remains comparatively expensive and many companies lack the organizational maturity required for large-scale transformation. Yet approximately 57 percent of the region’s working hours could technically be automated using existing technology. Software agents—not physical robots—are expected to generate 80 percent of the potential economic value.
Early deployments demonstrate how quickly benefits can appear. A regional bank reduced credit-decision time by 55 percent after implementing 45 specialized AI agents, while a telecommunications company converted its call center into a sales channel with a 5.6 percent conversion rate. Its system analyzes every incoming call in real time for less than one cent per interaction.
McKinsey estimates that automation could unlock $450 billion annually across Latin America by 2030. Achieving that potential will depend less on whether workers learn the technology and more on whether companies are prepared to redesign operations around it.
Latin America’s AI revolution is accelerating from below—but corporate deployment remains the decisive bottleneck.