The transformation triggered by smartphones—now owned by roughly 90% of urban Latin American adults—unlocked competition in previously uncompetitive service sectors including transportation, accommodations, education, and entertainment. That first digital wave reset expectations across the region.
Now, a second transformation is underway, driven by artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and next-generation data infrastructure. These technologies will reshape payments, labor markets, commercial real estate, logistics, and mining far more quickly than many businesses expect.
Below, we break down how AI and cloud systems are redefining competitive dynamics across payments, mining, B2B services, and logistics—and how companies should respond.
LAC Payments Must Prepare for a Future Driven by APIs, Microservices, and the Cloud
As fintech increasingly becomes synonymous with “technology-first finance,” traditional payment companies are being displaced by cloud-native, AI-enabled competitors that can build and deploy solutions faster. As a result, in Latin America payments there will be a growing distance between the large well-known brands of today—that consumers perceive as traditional, secure, and robust—and the agile, exciting fintechs that are really bringing innovation to the market. In the near future, we’ll see LatAm consumers increasingly flow toward fintechs because of their embrace of technology.
What’s also flowing is venture capital—it’s stabilized since late 2022 and become more focused on AI and data.
At the same time, LatAm fintechs are embracing AI and some state that they wish to become an “AI-first company.” With this goal, these companies are treating AI as a regulated entity, not just as a technology, and are directing their innovation efforts toward agentic AI and other technologies to generate revenues from them, as opposed to relying on payments fees, which have become less viable as a long-term business model.
This shift is also influencing national policy. A second wave of national AI strategies is emerging across Latin America, accompanied by targeted investments from global AI and cloud leaders such as NVIDIA, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Databricks. These initiatives aim to accelerate adoption while shaping regulatory frameworks for a technology that most executives still feel unprepared to navigate.
Finally, cloud migration is becoming unavoidable. APIs, microservices, open finance, and hyper-personalization require scalable cloud infrastructure. AWS, Microsoft, and Google are expanding massive regional data centers across Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico—positioning themselves to service industries historically limited by legacy architectures.
Recommendations for Payments Players
- Embrace AI-first models to remain competitive as digital-native entrants accelerate innovation
- Participate in national AI strategy discussions to influence regulation and gain early visibility into compliance requirements
- Migrate to cloud-based core systems, enabling real-time personalization, open-finance partnerships, and scalable product experimentation
- Reevaluate business models, shifting away from fee-dependent revenue toward AI-enhanced credit, risk, and value-added financial services
AI Infrastructure Boosts Demand for Traceable, High-Spec Minerals in Latin America
Artificial intelligence is reshaping commodity markets by dramatically increasing demand for minerals essential to data centers and AI hardware. Copper, lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare earths — already critical — are becoming even more strategically important.
The geopolitical stakes are rising as well. China’s control over rare-earth supply chains and recent export restrictions on the United States threaten to escalate trade tensions and introduce new volatility.
Goldman Sachs has flagged AI-driven infrastructure as a new chapter in the copper supercycle, while the International Energy Agency estimates that by 2030, data centers will account for 1–2% of global copper demand.
Beyond demand, AI is also transforming what buyers require. AI chips, processors, and high-speed networking equipment depend on high-spec, consistent, and traceable minerals. The market will increasingly reward suppliers able to guarantee provenance, purity, and reliability. Digital traceability — from mine to processor to end-user —is quickly becoming a commercial necessity.
AI-related swings in demand may also amplify price volatility, particularly for minerals used in batteries or semiconductor-grade components. Critical mineral pricing is already two to three times more volatile than industrial metals.
Recommendations for Mining Companies
- Invest in extraction and processing of AI-relevant minerals and secure offtake agreements with data center operators, tech firms, and government-led AI programs.
- Implement digital traceability and quality systems to meet emerging requirements for high-spec materials.
- Prepare for volatility by diversifying mineral portfolios, building flexible production capacity, and using financial hedging where appropriate.
- Expand strategic stockpiles and supply agreements to maintain stability during abrupt market shifts.
AI Is Reshaping B2B Services, Affecting Hiring, Strategic Locations and More
AI will fundamentally change how B2B service firms operate. Internal analysis by AMI/PCMI—assessing 10 internal and 10 client-facing functions—found that a significant share of tasks across consulting, analytics, and project delivery can and will be augmented by AI.
The biggest shift is not automation replacing people, but productivity multipliers that dramatically expand what each employee can accomplish. To capture this value, companies must invest not just in tools but in training ecosystems. Many firms are now moving toward “corporate academies” designed to institutionalize AI skills within proprietary systems and workflows.
Technology investment will also have profound effects on commercial real estate and business geography. Data centers—critical for AI processing—are becoming the new infrastructure drivers of value. Historically, railroads, highways, and telecommunication hubs shaped business clusters. Today, data centers will define the next generation of strategic locations.
As AI models demand ultra-low latency, proximity matters. A query that takes 30 seconds in São Paulo could take six minutes in Guatemala under current infrastructure. Businesses will increasingly position themselves near data center clusters, reshaping the urban geography of business activity across the region.
Recommendations for B2B Firms
- Invest in internal AI academies to rapidly scale workforce capability
- Embed AI into workflows, not just discrete tasks, to create organization-wide productivity gains
- Monitor emerging data center hubs for strategic location decisions and new regional service opportunities
- Experiment with AI-enhanced service delivery to remain competitive in client expectations
Early AI Adoption Is Essential to Building a Competitive Edge in LatAm Logistics
Latin American logistics faces persistent challenges: high operating costs, fragmented systems, and historically low productivity. AI offers the region a path to accelerate efficiency improvements without relying solely on large-scale automation seen in the U.S. or China.
Chile is a leading example: roughly 70% of large Chilean firms already run AI pilots, though most have yet to scale these deployments. The next stage will involve moving from pilots to operational integration—where AI reduces fuel costs, optimizes routing through telematics, enhances terminal operations, and strengthens real-time decision-making.
This is why we recommend that logistics companies explore AI at the cross-functional level. They should involve their entire company in AI pilots to ensure benefits across different divisions, such as operations, customer service, and payments processing, for example. Companies must avoid silos in their AI trials—using it in customer service but nowhere else.
AI will also shape the next major logistics growth frontier: data centers. The expansion of data center clusters in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, and Colombia will generate massive demand for specialized cargo handling, server transport, secure storage, and high-tech maintenance logistics.
The opportunity is clear: Latin American logistics providers who master AI-enhanced productivity can close long-standing competitive gaps with global peers.
Recommendations for Logistics Providers
- Adopt cross-functional AI strategies, applying AI not only to customer service but to telematics, routing, billing, inventory, and port operations
- Prepare for data center–driven logistics demand, especially around server transport and specialized equipment distribution
- Focus on productivity over automation, targeting the quick wins AI can deliver in operational efficiency
- Break down AI silos to capture value across the entire logistics chain rather than isolated areas
Next Steps
Contact us for an opportunity benchmarking study for your company and industry. Our market intelligence can pinpoint key trends, how they will affect your company (and competitors), and how to best position your company to take advantage of them, whether your focus is payments, logistics, B2B services, mining, or other sectors.
