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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
5
entries across 3 industries
National programme
2024
Estrategia Nacional de Inteligencia Artificial 2024–2027
National programme

Estrategia Nacional de Inteligencia Artificial 2024–2027

Announced 2024. Its pillars are ethical, safe and responsible AI, territorial and economic development, research and innovation, intelligent government, talent, digital infrastructure, international leadership.

Services 69.2% · Industry 19.9% · Agriculture 3.4% of gross value added — World Bank, 2025

Kind
Role
5 entries

Government & Public Sector

2

Costa Rica's drug institute has banned AI tools for processing its own data.

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.

diarioextra.com
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.

Municipal procurement officerdelfino.cr

Healthcare & Life Sciences

2

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.

Radiologistinfobae.com
DeploymentHealthcare & Life SciencesCosta Rica8 May 2026

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.

Waiting-list administratordelfino.cr

Manufacturing, Energy & Resources

1

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.

cicr.com
Latest on the record
  • RegulationCosta Rica's drug institute bans AI tools for processing its dataGovernment & Public Sector8 Sep 2026diarioextra.com
  • Evidence of adoption53% of Costa Rican manufacturers now use AI, industry survey findsManufacturing, Energy & Resources7 Sep 2026cicr.com
  • DeploymentCosta Rica's Calderón Guardia hospital adds AI-assisted ultrasound scannersHealthcare & Life Sciences4 Sep 2026infobae.com
Latin America & Caribbean
Costa Rica0.54Brazil0.50Argentina0.47Colombia0.49Mexico0.53Chile0.59Peru0.49Bolivia—Panama0.50Uruguay0.55Bermuda—Bahamas—Dominican Republic0.47El Salvador0.39Barbados—Jamaica—Venezuela—
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 1114 entries across 249 countries.