Authors: Ana Basco; Paula Garnero
Executive Summary
The study examines the potential of Triangular Cooperation in Artificial Intelligence between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) as a mechanism for promoting inclusive, ethical, and sustainable digital development. It argues that AI has become an emerging source of economic and geopolitical power, with profound impacts on production, governance, and employment. The study further notes that LAC faces the risk of being confined to lower value-added segments of the global economy if it fails to develop its own technological capabilities.
Triangular Cooperation is presented as a strategic instrument for combining financing, technical expertise, and regulatory governance among partners with diverse development trajectories. In this context, it can contribute to strengthening regional digital autonomy, fostering regulatory convergence, and promoting the use of AI as a tool for human development.
The main findings of the study are summarized below:
• AI Is Reshaping Value Chains, Technological Power, and Global Governance
The study argues that artificial intelligence has evolved beyond being merely a technological innovation and has become a new source of economic and geopolitical power. Its deployment entails profound changes in production, knowledge generation, and governance, while raising tensions regarding data control, computing infrastructure, international standards, and regulatory frameworks. AI operates within highly asymmetric value chains, with capabilities and benefits concentrated among a limited number of global actors.
• Latin America Occupies a Peripheral Position in the AI Value Chain
The region is primarily integrated into lower value-added segments of the AI value chain, such as the extraction of critical minerals, the provision of data, and outsourced digital labor, with limited participation in strategic stages such as design, advanced manufacturing, computing infrastructure, or regulatory standard-setting. This pattern reproduces technological and industrial dependencies and restricts the region’s ability to capture the economic, technological, and cognitive benefits generated by AI development.
• The Transformative Potential of AI Depends on Enabling Conditions That Remain Incomplete in the Region
The document identifies high-impact applications of AI in healthcare, education, agriculture, public administration, urban mobility, and climate adaptation. However, it emphasizes that its effective impact depends on structural factors such as digital infrastructure, connectivity, talent availability, digital skills, data governance, and regulatory frameworks. Without these enabling conditions, AI may generate isolated improvements but is unlikely to produce sustainable productive or institutional transformations.
• The Uneven Deployment of AI Entails Significant Risks for the Region
The study highlights risks associated with algorithmic bias, surveillance and opaque data practices, the concentration of technological power in global platforms, asymmetric labor market impacts, socioeconomic and territorial inequalities, and the risk of technological exclusion. It also underscores that weak regulatory frameworks and limited institutional capacities increase the region’s vulnerability to these challenges, particularly in contexts characterized by labor informality and educational gaps.
• Triangular Cooperation Emerges as a Strategic Tool to Avoid Technological Dependencies
The analysis emphasizes that Triangular Cooperation enables the combination of European financing, the technical expertise of experienced Southern countries, and the contextual knowledge of beneficiary countries. This mechanism facilitates the co-design of policies and technological solutions aligned with national priorities, avoiding vertical models of technology transfer. It also promotes mutual learning, local ownership, and institutional sustainability.
• Technology Diplomacy Is Essential for Building Democratic AI Governance
AI requires not only technological policies but also international negotiations concerning standards, digital rights, technological sovereignty, and ethical frameworks. The document argues that technology diplomacy is the key mechanism for aligning interests and principles between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean, thereby advancing a more inclusive, rights-based digital order.
• Institutional and Political Foundations Already Exist to Expand This Bi-Regional Agenda
The study notes that a strategic framework is already in place, combining investment, regulation, digital infrastructure, and political cooperation. Relevant initiatives include Global Gateway, the EU–LAC Investment Agenda, the EU–LAC Digital Alliance, and the Ibero-American Charter on Digital Rights, as well as operational platforms such as ADELANTE and the EU–LAC Digital Accelerator. This ecosystem provides a foundation for expanding Triangular Cooperation into emerging areas such as data interoperability, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, digital skills development, and institutional capacity-building.