Costa Rica has spent years building the foundations for an AI-driven economy. Now comes the execution problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A new United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) assessment has found that the country has the strategy, institutions and digital foundations needed to push artificial intelligence deeper into government and the economy. But significant gaps in data, infrastructure, skills and governance could determine how quickly that promise becomes operational reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Artificial Intelligence Landscape Assessment (AILA), developed by UNDP with Costa Rica\u2019s Ministry of Science, Innovation, Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT), places the country at the \u2018Systematic AI readiness\u2019 stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That designation matters. Costa Rica is no longer starting from scratch. It has structured policies, institutions and capabilities. The challenge is scaling them consistently enough for AI to deliver measurable economic and public-sector benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis assessment confirms that Costa Rica now has a solid foundation for advancing artificial intelligence, thanks to a national strategy, institutional capabilities, connectivity, and progress in digital transformation. The challenge ahead is to translate these capabilities into concrete actions that improve people’s lives, strengthen public services, and generate new opportunities for our country. At the Ministry of Science, Innovation, Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT), we will continue to promote responsible, safe, and inclusive artificial intelligence that puts innovation at the service of development and reaches all territories and sectors of society,\u201d said Paula Bogantes Zamora, Minister of Science, Innovation, Technology and Telecommunications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AILA identifies five pressure points: governance and data quality, digital infrastructure, public-sector implementation, talent and AI safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Together, they expose the gap between having an AI strategy and possessing the machinery to execute it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Costa Rica has already made progress in Digital Transformation. The next stage requires better integration of data, computing infrastructure, skilled workers, government coordination and regulatory trust. Without those pieces working together, AI risks remaining a collection of initiatives rather than becoming infrastructure for productivity and public services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cArtificial intelligence can be a powerful accelerator of human development if it expands people\u2019s capabilities, generates public value, and helps reduce inequalities. Costa Rica has an important opportunity to put this technology at the service of development, ensuring that its benefits reach all people and territories. At UNDP, we will continue to support the country in moving towards more inclusive and people-centered human development,\u201d said Sandra Sosa, Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Costa Rica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AILA assesses readiness across three pillars: AI Ecosystem, AI for Government and Regulation and AI Ethics. That makes the exercise broader than a measurement of technology adoption. It examines whether the institutional, technological, regulatory and social foundations can support AI at scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The assessment combined research, international indicators, expert consultations, stakeholder surveys and participatory workshops, involving more than 75 public, private, academic and civil society organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The message is increasingly familiar across emerging AI economies: possessing a strategy is becoming the easy part. Building the infrastructure, governance and human capability to turn that strategy into working systems is the real test.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Costa Rica has spent years building the foundations for an AI-driven economy. Now comes the execution problem. A new United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) assessment has found that the country has the strategy, institutions and digital foundations needed to push artificial intelligence deeper into government and the economy. But significant gaps in data, infrastructure, skills […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":20097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4674,440,74,3],"tags":[5960,6527,8388,8588,112,434,2550,121,8056,8357],"class_list":["post-20096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai","category-costa-rica","category-digital-transformation","category-top-stories","tag-ai-governance","tag-ai-readiness","tag-ai-skills","tag-aila","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-costa-rica","tag-digital-infrastructure","tag-digital-transformation","tag-public-sector-ai","tag-undp"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/latam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/latam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/latam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/latam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/latam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20096"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/latam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20098,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/latam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20096\/revisions\/20098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/latam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/latam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/latam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/latam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}