Industrial Research Unit · Straits Institute for Applied AI
Applied AI in Costa Rica
Costa Rica's record reaches from hospitals to factories — AI ultrasound at Calderón Guardia, AI in 53% of manufacturers — under the 2024–2027 national AI strategy.
AI readiness
0.54
Rank 54 of 171 — IMF AI Preparedness Index
On the record
15
entries across 7 industries
National programme
2024
Estrategia Nacional de Inteligencia Artificial 2024–2027
Your essential monthly update on Applied AI, with Costa Rica specially tracked.
Services 69.2% · Industry 19.9% · Agriculture 3.4% of gross value added — World Bank, 2025
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Narrow the 15 entries from Costa Rica by what it is, the industry and the job it changes.
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15 entries
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6
Costa Rica's drug institute has banned AI tools for processing its own data.
Evidence of adoptionGovernment & Public SectorCosta Rica7 Oct 2026
126 local-government leaders complete a Costa Rican AI bootcamp
Incubadora de Liderazgos +CR with InnovaLab — 126 people graduated from the first Bootcamp de Inteligencia Artificial para la Gobernanza Local, AI training for local government run July to September 2026 by Incubadora de Liderazgos +CR and InnovaLab; 121 of 150 selected held elected municipal posts. The 27-hour municipal AI literacy course spanned analytics, writing, services, data governance and risk. Of Costa Rican applicants, 73% used generative tools weekly, yet 65% claimed little or no knowledge.
RegulationGovernment & Public SectorCosta Rica8 Sep 2026
Costa Rica's drug institute bans AI tools for processing its data
Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas (ICD) — Costa Rica's Institute on Drugs (ICD) imposed a total, immediate AI ban on processing its own data, inputs or information, through circular CIRCULAR-ICD-DG-016-2026 issued on 28 August by director general Jorge Torres. It revokes an April 2025 directive permitting regulated use, as Torres cites a social and national-security duty to guard its information.
DeploymentGovernment & Public SectorCosta Rica1 Jun 2026
Costa Rica's Santa Ana municipality launches an AI-agent procurement pilot
Municipalidad de Santa Ana — Costa Rica's Municipality of Santa Ana has started a pilot in which two AI agents for public procurement will help departments draft market studies and technical specifications for tender documents. A workload study showed departments sinking time into SICOP e-procurement paperwork; municipal police, parks, culture, public works and purchasing are all taking part.
RegulationGovernment & Public SectorCosta Rica20 Feb 2026
Lineamientos básicos para el uso de IA Generativa en el Poder Judicial
Corte Suprema de Justicia (Supreme Court of Justice) — Human judgment cannot be delegated away, per new guidance from Costa Rica's Supreme Court of Justice, issued through its Superior Council on 20 February 2026 for generative AI in judicial work. The signer of any ruling bears full responsibility, states the circular 'Lineamientos básicos para el uso de la Inteligencia Artificial Generativa autorizada en el Poder Judicial', binding court staff, the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Public Defence and the Judicial Investigation Agency to treat such AI use in courts as support, not substitution. Personal data must be anonymised manually, and staff must disclose which AI tool was used and how.
RegulationGovernment & Public SectorCosta Rica2025-03
Ley para la Promoción Responsable de la Inteligencia Artificial en Costa Rica
Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica — Costa Rica AI regulation cleared a key hurdle as the Legislative Assembly's Human Rights Committee backed Expediente 23.919 with a favourable majority opinion (dictamen afirmativo). Officially named 'Ley para la Promoción Responsable de la Inteligencia Artificial en Costa Rica', this AI governance law envisions ethics-driven oversight for every stage of machine intelligence work nationwide — spanning research, design, construction and eventual rollout — anchored by a proposed watchdog, the Interinstitutional Commission for the Development of Artificial Intelligence (CIDIA), alongside a standalone, autonomous panel of technical and ethical advisers. No plenary ballot had been cast as of September 2026.
RegulationGovernment & Public SectorCosta Rica24 Oct 2024
Estrategia Nacional de Inteligencia Artificial 2024-2027
Ministry of Science, Innovation, Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT) — The Ministry of Science, Innovation, Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT) launched the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (ENIA), Central America's first AI public policy. Costa Rica AI policy sets seven strategic axes, including ethical AI, research and innovation, talent and skills, smart government, and infrastructure and data, guided by principles of transparency, human dignity, equity, cybersecurity and risk management. The national AI roadmap prioritises 5G rollout and a National Centre of Excellence in AI.
Calderón Guardia hospital has installed three AI-assisted ultrasound machines in radiology.
DeploymentHealthcare & Life SciencesCosta Rica4 Sep 2026
Costa Rica's Calderón Guardia hospital adds AI-assisted ultrasound scanners
Hospital Dr. Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia (CCSS) — Hospital Dr. Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia, run by Costa Rica's social security fund (CCSS), has added three AI ultrasound machines to its radiology and medical imaging service. They track breast lesions live and advise the doctor on how suspicious findings are, help identify and classify thyroid lesions, and estimate liver fat percentage and elasticity. Each costs USD 67,000, part of a renewal replacing the service's seven older scanners, which see about 950 patients a month.
DeploymentHealthcare & Life SciencesCosta Rica2026-05
Costa Rica's CCSS puts AI to work cleaning its waiting lists
Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) — Costa Rica's social security fund, the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), is using AI waiting list management to update and prune lists for surgeries, procedures and outpatient consultations. The bot compares the digital health record, civil registry and other records to find cases no longer needing care, and staff validate every case before anyone leaves a list.
DeploymentHealthcare & Life SciencesCosta Rica2025-02
CCSS pilots AI to predict diabetes at Clorito Picado Clinic
Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) — A million-plus health records mined by an algorithm at Costa Rica's Clorito Picado Clinic in Tibás are the basis for a new AI diabetes risk prediction pilot run by the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social, CCSS). Drawing on the Single Digital Health Record (EDUS) database, the tool marked 2% of patients as likely candidates for type 2 diabetes, and follow-up exams verified 132 had already progressed to the disease since 2023 - those individuals now receive ongoing monitoring to halt further deterioration. Early findings surfaced within months, paving the way for broader predictive healthcare analytics targeting acute coronary syndromes, retinopathy and cancer.
53% of Costa Rican manufacturers use AI, rising to 71.4% in free-trade zones.
Evidence of adoptionManufacturing, Energy & ResourcesCosta Rica7 Sep 2026
53% of Costa Rican manufacturers now use AI, industry survey finds
Cámara de Industrias de Costa Rica (CICR) — The Costa Rican Chamber of Industries (CICR) finds, asking for the first time in its annual competitiveness survey, that 53% of manufacturers run some AI system or software. AI adoption in manufacturing hits 71.4% in free-trade zones versus 47.1% under the definitive regime, and 60.6% of large definitive-regime firms versus 38.9% of small and medium ones. Administration and business management (54.1%) and marketing or sales (52.5%) lead the uses, and 95.1% of AI users report no headcount change as a result.
Evidence of impactManufacturing, Energy & ResourcesCosta Rica7 Sep 2026
AI left headcount unchanged at 95% of Costa Rican manufacturers using it
Cámara de Industrias de Costa Rica (CICR) — Costa Rica's manufacturers register almost no AI employment impact on staffing: 95.1% of businesses running artificial intelligence reported headcount unmoved, the Cámara de Industrias de Costa Rica found. Its Encuesta anual Perspectivas Empresariales y Valoración de Factores de Competitividad de la Industria Manufacturera, 2026 puts uptake at 53%, climbing past 71.4% inside free-trade zones. Hours, pay and task mix escaped measurement.
Evidence of adoptionBusiness OperationsCosta Rica28 Sep 2026
29.7% of Costa Ricans now use generative AI, Microsoft finds
Microsoft (Global AI Diffusion Report Q2 2026) — Costa Rica leads Latin America and the Caribbean in generative AI adoption: 29.7% of 15-to-64-year-olds, per Microsoft's Global AI Diffusion Report for Q2 2026, up from 28.5%. The nation ranks 32nd globally, beating the 18.8% world figure plus Colombia (25.9%), Panama (24.2%), Mexico (21.4%) and Brazil (20.2%) on AI usage.
DeploymentEducation & TrainingCosta Rica21 Jan 2025
UNED introduces Unedia, a metahuman AI assistant for students
Universidad Estatal a Distancia (UNED) — Costa Rica gained an AI assistant for higher education when UNED (Universidad Estatal a Distancia) unveiled Unedia, a metahuman avatar helper — the first at a public university nationally. Generative AI drives the lifelike figure, fielding enrolment, academic and service questions nonstop, 24 hours daily, by text or voice — a university virtual assistant Leandro Camacho built free in two months.
University administrative staff / student advisorselmundo.cr
Finance & Insurance
1
DeploymentFinance & InsuranceCosta Rica2025-06
Banco Nacional integrates AI tools for cybersecurity defence
Banco Nacional de Costa Rica — Banco Nacional, Costa Rica's largest state-owned lender, adopted AI cybersecurity tools between June 2024 and June 2025, sharpening detection of digital intrusions and speeding up its reaction to them. That upgrade helped judges award the bank its fifth Bank of the Year title, calling the AI-driven threat detection one of the strongest factors behind the win.
Megasuper introduces AI-powered produce recognition at checkouts
Megasuper — A first for Central America and the Caribbean: Toshiba's ELERA Produce Recognition now runs inside Megasuper stores in Costa Rica, bringing AI produce recognition in retail checkouts to the region. Lenses catch unbarcoded produce mid-scan, freeing shoppers from typing codes. The rollout extends Toshiba's MxP Self-Checkout kiosks, already beyond 10% of Megasuper's lanes — computer vision item identification at self-checkout, now part of daily grocery runs.
Your essential monthly update on Applied AI, with Costa Rica specially tracked
We research and keep track of applied AI globally. Costa Rica's record gained 1 entry in October. Your next dispatch will open with Costa Rica, then the most important news about how AI is being used, applied and regulated globally.
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Method and sources
Every entry on this page is a named organisation putting AI to work in a real job, taken from the State of Applied AI record. Each one is traced to the report it came from and dated, and where a figure is the organisation’s own the entry says so rather than presenting it as an independent result. Readiness, ecosystem and policy figures, where shown, are attributed on the card to the body that published them.
The record is maintained continuously by the Industrial Research Unit of the Straits Institute for Applied AI: entries are added as they are found and verified, not on a schedule, and nothing is published without an open source behind it. It currently holds 4731 entries across 249 countries.
Costa Rica7 Oct 2026
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