The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) ๐ค & automation could create $450 billion in annual economic value across Latin America & the Caribbean, including as much as $4.2 billion in Panama by 2030. This according to the McKinsey Global Institute report: Agents, Robots, and Us: How AI Reshapes Work and Skills in Latin America.
Existing technologies have the potential to automate 57% of current working hours across the 15 Latin American countries assessed, including 39% through AI agents and 18% through robots, depending on the pace of adoption. The report uses agents as a broad term for technologies that automate cognitive or nonphysical activities, while robots refer to those applied to physical tasks.
Brazil ๐ง๐ท ( $204 B.) & Mexico ๐ฒ๐ฝ ( $135 B. ) represent approximately 75% of the regionโs AI & automation value, mainly due to the size of their labor forces and, in Mexico, comparatively higher wage levels. Panamaโs potential is estimated at $4.2 Billion.
For Panama, the report identifies agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting as the sectors with the strongest potential to adopt AI and automation, followed by retail & wholesale trade, administrative & government support, and educational services.
๐ข๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐๐ป๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐ ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ถ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ป๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐ฎ๐น ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป๐ถ๐ฒ๐
The report stresses that AIโs actual impact will depend not simply on acquiring or implementing new technologies, but on whether organizations can restructure workflows around the complementary capabilities of people, intelligent agents, and robots.
Throughout the region, demand for AI fluency โ the ability to operate, manage, and increasingly build with AI systemsโis rising considerably faster than demand for specialized technical AI expertise. The number of vacancies requiring AI fluency increased 11x in the past two years, roughly double the pace recorded in the United States and Europe. It is now the fastest-expanding skills category in Latin Americaโs labor market.
Enabling employees to work with these technologies will be essential to business growth in the years ahead. Such capabilities will be needed not only in technology roles, but also across creative, administrative, sales, and service occupations. In turn, this also provides opportunities to AI training companies & specialized recruitment bureaus, among others.
Check out the full report McKinsey Global Institute report here: Agents, robots, and us: How AI reshapes work and skills in Latin America, July 2026.
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