Unleash the AI Beast in Mexico: Your Guide to Dominating Nearshoring
Technology is both an industry and a foundational pillar of all human development. It has enabled enormous leaps in human progress, both in relative and absolute terms. Every day, the barriers to accessing, acquiring, developing, and deploying advanced technologies from one part of the world and bringing them to your home country are getting lower.
The Fall of Barriers and the New Global Context
This drop in barriers is as significant as the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 or the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. There was a clearly defined “before” and “after” that changed how the world worked, what was possible, and how we should imagine the future. We’re living through a similar moment—one where shifts in access to intelligence, resources, and customers are unprecedented in world history. And this becomes even more relevant when we consider the case of Mexico and the opportunities emerging from nearshoring.
Mexico finds itself in a unique position. It is widely respected on the world stage and maintains close ties with the two most important geopolitical players on the planet: the United States and China. Businesses and investors from both countries are making major bets on Mexico to take advantage of the geographic and cultural closeness between both nations. A quick and curious datapoint (who needs Fast & Furious when you have stats like this? Sorry, Vin Diesel): 8% of all global phone calls in a given year are between the U.S. and Mexico.
It’s clear this is a golden opportunity for Mexican companies and entrepreneurs to take advantage of. Smart warehouses, logistics, RegTech (regulatory technology—yes, it’s a real thing), FinTech, and a long list of other sectors need new services, products, and startups to help fill the massive gaps the country is facing as it moves into the next phase of the Mexican Economic Moment.
So what does this mean for you? How can you seize this golden opportunity to do something interesting in your current job—or maybe even launch a new venture? How can you use technologies like generative AI as the foundation of your business future? Instead of diving into what I typically cover with advisory clients—which is usually more tailored to specific industries or solution types—I think it’s more useful here to share a few basic ground rules I give to graduate and PhD students at Stanford GSB and EGADE Business School.
I suggest they start by looking at companies in other markets that are solving the same problems.
How did they tackle those problems?
What services are they using?
What did they have to build?
And what are the key lessons they can take from those examples?
What often happens is that the challenges their ideas face have already been solved in other parts of the world by companies that combined off-the-shelf products with custom-built tech. Even better, they often realize that with many of today’s AI platforms, they can prototype products and services using generative AI for the code, the design, and many of the foundational elements they need to test their idea.
Of course, AI can’t do all the work for you. That’s where your unique spark comes in—to shape, refine, and add value to what AI generates. Still, it can give you a very strong head start. Sometimes, in a weekend—or after just a few sleepless nights—you can create something truly compelling that surprises your colleagues, clients, managers, or even investors. The most important thing is simply to start building.
Nearshoring and the Future of AI in Mexico
This brings me to another point related to nearshoring. Having come up through the AI ecosystems of the U.S. and Europe—and building on the previous idea about applying proven solutions to new markets like Mexico—my students often ask me:
“How can I make a lot of money with AI in Mexico?”
It’s a fair question, and one that many of their classmates share. This is what I tell them—and now I’m sharing it with you:
What are the biggest recurring problems you see in your industry? What do people constantly complain about?
Of those problems, which ones are non-negotiable—either because of regulations or client expectations? In other words, the kind of thing people must solve to keep a contract, avoid a fine, or both.
With that now shorter list of challenges, which of those have already been solved in another market? What’s their offer? What tech are they using? And what can you learn from their experience that you could apply to your market? Maybe even to Mexico?
In Mexico’s case, if the problem ties directly to regulatory compliance or improving productivity and/or efficiency, you may be looking at a valuable opportunity—whether to grow within your current company or to launch your own startup.
Will it be easy? Probably not. But it’s a strong way to start spotting opportunities in emerging markets that are benefiting from nearshoring, like Mexico. It has never been so easy, affordable, and accessible to build something new using generative AI. Technology will be the foundation of the future Mexico builds for its new economy—and it’s critical that anyone hoping to create something great starts with that understanding.
So let me ask you this: What do you see as a challenge that could turn into a massive opportunity? And the key question is: Once you’ve found it—what are you going to do about it?
Originally published in Spanish for Fast Company Mexico:
https://fastcompany.mx/2024/10/25/nearshoring-ia-guia-dominar/
