Training to Create a Future of Digital Talent in Mexico

Today’s technological euphoria is colliding with a pedagogical gap. While 79% of executives in Mexico already report a return on investment from generative AI, according to a Google Cloud report, talent development remains one of the main concerns for technology leaders in the country, as highlighted by IDC data. The success of organizations in the near future will not depend solely on adopting technology, but on building teams that master essentially human skills: critical thinking and advanced digital literacy.

According to the same study, 52% of organizations are already reallocating budgets from other areas to fund AI initiatives. These figures paint a picture of tremendous enthusiasm but also reveal the main vulnerability: preparing the next generations in AI. The challenge is no longer the technology itself but human capital. The question that arises in every conversation with industry leaders is: What are we going to do with this potential in our hands? The answer depends on one crucial factor: prepared talent.

Considering these opportunities and the current context’s challenges to harness this wave of innovation, at Google Cloud we are committed to strengthening local talent. We cannot wait for four-year university curricula to be updated. We must act now, with agility and scale.

By the end of 2024, we have set the goal of training 1 million people in Mexico over the coming years, with the aim of contributing to the creation of a pool of professionals ready to drive Mexico’s digital economy through their creativity and diversity. This is not a traditional philanthropic effort, it is a strategic investment in the ecosystem that will enable us to grow together.

In line with this objective, in December, we will take an important step — one that reflects the new pedagogy that 2026 demands from us. In a single day, together with civil society organizations and 50 universities, we will train more than 200,000 people, both students and professionals without a technical background, to gain a deep understanding of generative AI and learn how to apply it in their respective fields.

This initiative for continuous learning and reskilling is called "Capacita+AI in Practice with Google Cloud" and will take place in 10 countries across the region, including Mexico, on Dec. 6.

The key to this initiative lies not only in its massive scale but in its focus. We are not teaching people to program AI from scratch, we are democratizing access to its creative power. The focus will be on mastering prompt engineering — the art of giving precise instructions to AI — and on no-code experiences, so that even individuals without technical backgrounds, such as lawyers, marketers, or public servants, can create their own AI agents to automate tasks, analyze data, or generate content.

This marks a radical shift in digital literacy. It is no longer enough to know how to use software. The new standard will be knowing how to create solutions with AI. By training 200,000 people in a single day, we aim to send a clear message: AI is not an exclusive tool for engineers, it is a tool for everyone.

The key themes for the coming year will focus on the deep integration of technologies such as AI, not only as tools for consumption but as engines of creation and decision-making. However, technology alone is not the answer. True transformation will come through pedagogical innovation.

In this new paradigm, the value of a professional will not lie in their ability to memorize information — a task that AI already excels at — but in their capacity to ask the right questions, interpret results, and apply ethical and strategic judgment. We are transitioning from a knowledge economy to an applied wisdom economy.

Furthermore, companies that manage to scale their AI talent will be able to optimize costs, yes, but more importantly, they will create entirely new revenue streams, personalize services at unprecedented levels, and accelerate their innovation cycles from months to days. Those that fail to do so risk becoming obsolete.

The challenge is too great for any single actor. Collaboration between the private sector, which provides technology and market vision, the public sector, civil society, which ensures inclusion, and universities, which contribute academic rigor, is essential for Mexico to ride this wave of innovation. We must bring together all available creativity and collective intelligence to harness the full potential that AI has unleashed. Capacita+ is our next major step in that direction.