ECLAC's AI Scorecard Ranks Mexico Eighth

Only 13% of Mexican companies use advanced artificial intelligence systems, according to an item presented by El Universal. Citing a specialist, the same item said AI use in Mexican companies remained at 64%. Those figures sit beside a regional ranking that places Mexico eighth among 20 countries, with 52 points out of 100. They measure different things: company use on one hand and national capacity on the other.

Who Sets the Scorecard

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean compiled the 2026 Latin American Artificial Intelligence Index. It assessed countries’ capacity to adopt, invest in, research, develop and use AI. Mexico landed in the middle category, not among the regional leaders. The index sorts national capacities into an ordered table, while the institution producing the measure decides what counts as performance.

ECLAC classifies countries scoring above 60 as “pioneers,” with “high and relatively consolidated performance in infrastructure, talent, research, innovation and governance.” Chile, Brazil and Uruguay took the top three places, each with more than 60 points. Mexico’s 52 points fell within the “adopters” band, from 35 to 60, which ECLAC says includes countries with relevant capacities but gaps that “limit a wider deployment of AI.”

That category also included Colombia, Costa Rica, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Panama, El Salvador and Trinidad and Tobago, listed after Mexico in the reported order. Below them, Paraguay, Jamaica, Cuba, Guatemala, Bolivia, Honduras and Venezuela scored under 35 and were classed as “explorers,” facing restrictions in infrastructure, research, adoption or governance. The labels turn uneven national resources and institutional capacity into a ladder.

Where the Gaps Show

Mexico’s weakest scores came in enabling factors, research, development and adoption. Its strongest performance came in governance, including national strategies, cybersecurity legal frameworks and responsible institutions. The index shows a stark contrast: Mexico’s national apparatus scored better on governance than on the conditions and activity needed to build, research and widely adopt AI.

Connectivity forms part of that picture. ECLAC said mobile-network and 5G coverage is relevant to using AI applications. Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, Colombia and Peru had the region’s broadest coverage, according to the report. But coverage is only one measure in a ranking that also assesses research, development, investment and adoption.

The region averaged 12.4 points out of 100 for professional training of AI experts. Mexico scored 15.8, above that average, while Paraguay scored 28.2, Brazil 24.5, Costa Rica 22.6, Colombia 19.6, Trinidad and Tobago 14.6, and Chile 14. In May 2026, Costa Rica maintained what the report described as “exceptional regional leadership” in its concentration of AI engineering skills, with more than twice the points of Chile and Colombia. Mexico, Uruguay and Argentina formed the next group.

The index reports national scores and institutional capacity. The company figures point to a separate limit: AI use remained at 64%, but just 13% of companies used advanced systems. The source material identifies no community-led response, mutual aid effort or direct action connected to these figures. It also reports no electoral or legislative remedy. What it does show is the distance between broad claims of adoption and the smaller share of companies using advanced AI, alongside gaps ECLAC identifies in Mexico’s research, development and adoption. That’s the divide the figures describe.