Mexico and the New Era of Emerging Technologies

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to take part in a dialogue with lawmakers, experts, and private sector representatives about the challenges and opportunities that emerging technologies present for Mexico. Beyond the specific topics, I came away with a question that is often left out when we talk about the future. The question is not only which new technologies will arrive in the country, but how prepared we are to decide what to do with them.

This question matters because change is already underway. According to the World Economic Forum, 86% of employers expect artificial intelligence and information processing technologies to transform their businesses by 2030. This transformation is already reshaping how economies produce, compete, work, and make decisions.

The forum covered a wide range of topics, from artificial intelligence and digital health to advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, biotechnology, data, and regulation. That variety was precisely what made it so interesting. Although each conversation had a different starting point, they all returned to the same concern. Innovation can move very quickly, but its impact depends on whether the conditions exist to adopt it, regulate it, and integrate it into the country's productive, economic, and social fabric.

In Mexico, this discussion is particularly relevant. We have talent, a strategic geographic location, industries with global experience, and an economic relationship deeply integrated with North America. But we also face challenges that enthusiasm alone cannot solve. Energy, regulatory certainty, infrastructure, talent development, and coordination among institutions are not separate from the technology agenda. They are part of the foundation that allows ideas to drive development.

That is why technology can exist, be proven, and even be available in other markets, yet still lack the conditions to grow in a given country. The divide is not simply between those who innovate and those who do not, but between those who build an environment in which innovation can advance and those who are left watching from the sidelines.

The risk, then, is not simply losing access to a tool. It is waiting too long to make the decisions needed to use it well. We often begin discussing technology only after it has already been deployed, raised public concerns, or prompted other countries to move ahead with rules, incentives, and capabilities. With emerging technologies, that window is becoming increasingly narrow. Waiting for change to catch up with us can mean losing investment, talent, knowledge, and opportunities to solve concrete problems.

Preparing means changing the way we make decisions. It is not about regulating out of fear or opening the door without clear standards. Nor is it about trying to anticipate every technology or having definitive answers to every question. It is about building institutions capable of understanding what is changing, asking the right questions, and acting on evidence; establishing rules that provide clarity without hindering innovation; developing infrastructure that allows new solutions to scale; and creating spaces for dialogue where decisions are not made from a single perspective.

Trust, in this context, is not an abstract concept either. It is the difference between an environment where innovation can advance responsibly and one where it is held back by uncertainty, mistrust, or a lack of capacity.

That path is not easy, but it is possible. Mexico is not starting from scratch. It has talent, productive expertise, and a strategic position within North America. What it needs is to turn those advantages into a more consistent agenda capable of linking innovation with development, investment with well-being, and technology with real solutions for people.

Building that agenda requires moving from conversation to concrete capabilities. There is no single answer for every technology, but we can build a better way to prepare for them. From my perspective, Mexico should make progress on four fronts.

The first is to strengthen the capabilities of decision-makers. Governments, institutions, companies, regulators, and lawmakers need a better understanding of the technologies they are called upon to assess. Not so they can become experts in everything, but so they have the knowledge, technical teams, and consultation mechanisms they need to make more responsible decisions.

The second is to foster an informed citizenry. Technological transformation cannot remain in the hands of a small group of experts. We need stronger digital, media, and algorithmic literacy so people can understand how these tools affect their lives, their work, the information they receive, and their rights. A society that understands technology better can also participate more effectively in the conversation and demand better decisions about it.

The third is to strengthen science and technology education from an early age. If we want Mexico not only to adopt solutions created elsewhere but also to participate in their development, we need to invest more decisively in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Talent will be one of the main drivers of competitiveness in the years ahead, but it will also be essential to ensure that more people can benefit from the opportunities this transformation will bring.

The fourth is to bring science closer to public policy. Decisions about emerging technologies should not be based on intuition, immediate pressures, or fear. They require evidence, clear assessments, ongoing evaluation, and multisector dialogue. This is where government, academia, industry, and society can work together to build better responses.

These four fronts have something in common: none depends exclusively on new technology. They depend on the capabilities we build around it. And perhaps that is one of the most important shifts we need to make in this conversation: to stop asking only what comes next and start asking what we need to do today to be better positioned to capitalize on it.

Ultimately, the discussion about emerging technologies is not only a discussion about machines, data, algorithms, or laboratories. It is a discussion about the kind of country we want to build: one that reacts late to every change, or one that develops the capabilities to make decisions with greater clarity, stronger evidence, and more responsibility.

The future of technology will not wait for Mexico to have all the answers. But it does require us to develop better questions, stronger capabilities, and stronger agreements so we can respond in time.