AI Week LATAM 2026 Expands Free AI Training to Mexico

AI Week LATAM 2026, led by SoftServe, NVIDIA, and regional universities, will provide free artificial intelligence training to over 4,000 participants in Colombia, Mexico, and Chile from Sept. 29 to Oct. 3, 2026, including 400 NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute certification slots. The program addresses a documented skills gap affecting 68% of employers in Mexico, particularly in cloud computing, cybersecurity, AI, and data analytics, according to the Inter-American Development Bank. It signals growing reliance on employer- and university-led certification models to close talent shortages that constrain nearshoring, technology, and manufacturing sectors across Mexico. 

SoftServe, NVIDIA, and a group of regional universities opened registration for AI Week LATAM 2026, a free technology and education program that will train more than 4,000 participants in Colombia, Mexico, and Chile between Sept. 29 and Oct. 3. The initiative offers hands-on sessions in physical, agentic, and generative AI, along with 400 opportunities to obtain an NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute certification.

The regional expansion of this third edition responds to a persistent gap between the technology skills employers require and those available in the labor market. In Mexico, 68% of employers report difficulty finding qualified talent, particularly in cloud computing, cybersecurity, AI, and data analytics, according to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

"Across Latin America, demand for AI/ML, data, cloud, and DevOps skills keeps growing. But as employers, we see that the real differentiator is the ability to turn knowledge into execution: deploying AI, designing cloud-native systems, and building production-ready data pipelines," says John Howard, Regional Leader, SoftServe LATAM. "Certifications are an important starting point: they validate knowledge, create a recognized standard, and help professionals make their skills more visible."

The program builds on two previous editions held only in Colombia, where AI Week trained close to 2,200 participants in partnership with Universidad de los Andes, Universidad EIA, and NVIDIA. For 2026, the initiative extends to Mexico and Chile, adding Tecnológico de Monterrey and Universidad Técnica Federico Santa Maria as academic partners to strengthen practical AI capabilities across the region.

The expansion arrives as employers in Latin America increasingly prioritize internal training over external hiring to close skills gaps. According to the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025, 84% of employers in Latin America and the Caribbean plan to close skills gaps by training their current workforce, while 68% plan to hire people with new skills.

This trend is consistent with data from Mexico's own labor market. A 2026 ETS Human Progress Report found that Mexican workers are adapting to AI faster than certification systems can validate their new abilities, with only 37% reporting access to microcredential programs despite 87% expressing interest, a rate below the global average. The certification bottleneck limits how quickly employers can verify AI competencies, a friction point that becomes more pressing as companies scale automation and nearshoring-driven digital transformation.

The disconnect between academic supply and employer demand also extends to sectors beyond pure technology roles. Structural talent shortages in advanced manufacturing and digital technologies affect industries tied to global supply chain integration, including automotive, aerospace, and electronics, as traditional education programs struggle to keep pace with the technical skills nearshoring investment requires.

During AI Week LATAM 2026, participants will explore how agentic AI systems are built and secured, how physical AI and digital twins bring artificial intelligence into robotics and industrial environments, and how AI is transforming software development. Sessions will cover practical work with Claude Code and prompting techniques for agentic systems, the secure deployment of autonomous agents, and the construction of multiagent workflows, alongside foundational topics such as CUDA, machine learning, and NVIDIA platforms used to develop and deploy these systems.

Workshops will be led by specialists from SoftServe, university faculty, and NVIDIA experts, with an emphasis on direct exposure to the tools and approaches used in active AI projects. "AI Week LATAM seeks to strengthen artificial intelligence capabilities in the region by connecting academic training with practical experience. At Universidad de los Andes, we consider it essential to create these spaces of interaction to promote AI training that combines knowledge, experimentation, and the capacity for implementation," says Ruben Manrique, Professor and Researcher, Universidad de los Andes.

In-person activities will take place in Bogota, Medellin, Guadalajara, and Valparaiso, while select sessions will be available in hybrid format. Online sessions will remain open to participants from other parts of Latin America.

Registration for AI Week LATAM 2026 is open through an online form. Talks and in-person sessions are open to the general public, though some in-person sessions may have limited capacity. Participants applying for NVIDIA workshops must meet the technical prerequisites specified for each session and hold an active institutional academic email address. Workshop applications will be reviewed, with participation confirmed by email based on eligibility and available seats.

The program adds to a growing set of employer-led training initiatives in Mexico, as companies increasingly treat certification and continuous learning as a faster route to closing skills gaps than relying on traditional academic pipelines alone.