QCOSTARICA — For years, Costa Rica has been a prime destination for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), thanks to its democratic stability, proximity to the United States, and qualified bilingual talent.
In 2024 alone, the country closed 73 new FDI projects, generating more than 5,500 net jobs, according to figures from the Coalición Costarricense de Iniciativas de Desarrollo (CINDE) – Costa Rican Coalition of Development Initiatives. Of these, 21 were new companies and 52 were reinvestments, reflecting sustained confidence in the national ecosystem.
But the global landscape is changing. With artificial intelligence (AI) reshaping production and service processes, countries are now competing not only on cost but also on technological adaptability. In this scenario, Costa Rica can maintain and even strengthen its position in the new era of nearshoring, provided it accelerates the strategic integration of AI into its economic model.
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According to Guillermo Salas Dalsaso, an expert in technological innovation, the answer lies in an intelligent combination of physical proximity, cultural adaptability, and technical talent.
“AI can execute tasks quickly, but supervision, adaptation, and response to unforeseen events are still human. A robotic arm can fail. What is needed is someone nearby and qualified to resolve it in real time,” he states.
The traditional outsourcing model, based on volume and low cost, is losing ground to a more demanding logic: co-creation of solutions, specialization, and agility. Companies today are looking for partners who not only operate but also co-create solutions, especially in areas such as mechatronics, cybersecurity, data analysis, and artificial intelligence applied to regional contexts.
In Costa Rica, signs of progress are already evident: digital talent grew by 18.2% in 2023, driven by technical training programs and public-private partnerships. Furthermore, 65% of the country’s technology companies already use or plan to implement AI-based solutions, according to data from Cámara de Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación (CAMTIC) – Chamber of Information and Communication Technologies.
This opens up new opportunities for the services sector, particularly BPO (Business Process Outsourcing), which is facing a key restructuring. It’s not new to say or know that chatbots and virtual assistants are taking on repetitive tasks, but this also creates opportunities in fields such as conversational design, algorithm training, and localized technical support.
The challenge for Costa Rica, the expert warns, is to migrate from an operational support model to one of strategic value.
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“The value is not in having AI, but in knowing how to train it and adapt it to the Costa Rican reality. That is what generates a competitive advantage,” emphasizes Salas Dalsaso.
Rethinking the country’s future should lead us to accelerate an educational transformation focused on skills, not just degrees. Modular, continuous, and flexible training is emerging as key to responding to the speed of technological change.
Rethinking the country’s productive future also implies rethinking its educational system. The rigidity of traditional degrees must give way to modular, continuous training focused on specific skills.
“Higher education should integrate emerging technologies from the first year, not as an elective course, but as a core curriculum.
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“We must prepare talent to interact with technology, not just observe it,” warns the expert.
Three pillars for next-generation nearshoring
Salas identifies three key areas to consolidate Costa Rica as a strategic node in the new nearshoring:
- Technology with a local face: Train talent in AI, big data, and automation, with a focus on the national idiosyncrasy, language, and reality.
- Smart infrastructure: Accelerate connectivity in industrial zones and train technicians capable of operating and maintaining automated systems.
- Collaborative innovation: Establish alliances between the state, universities, and companies to create technological hubs that develop solutions from and for the country.
Furthermore, the expert emphasizes the urgency of acting with a short- and medium-term vision: “There is no time for ten-year plans. The speed of change forces us to think in 12- to 18-month cycles. The future is not planned, it is trained.”
Key profiles in the new productive economy
Among the new roles gaining prominence in The country’s key projects include:
- Consultants in artificial intelligence applied to customer service.
- Designers of automated conversations with a cultural focus.
- Algorithm trainers in regional Spanish.
- Technicians in automated line maintenance.
- Hybrid agents that combine AI tools with empathetic resolution.
For Guillermo, the key is to seize the moment to transform the country into a strategic partner in the automation economy.
Costa Rica has the talent, the location, and the export experience. The next step is to consolidate capabilities that allow for offering personalized, multilingual, and technologically advanced services.
From Revista Summa
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