In Guatemala, the conversation about artificial intelligence often begins with the wrong question: how many jobs will it destroy? It is a legitimate concern, but it can distract us from the urgent decision.
Technology rarely enters a company and eliminates an entire function at once. Enter for a task: summarize a file, compare quotes, answer a question, prepare a forecast or write a proposal. Then modify the performance standard of the entire position.
The task is the unit of change. Therefore, the future of work will be decided task by task.
The important question for Guatemala is not whether people will compete with machines, but whether they will learn to work better with them.
That is the new digital literacy we need. It is no longer enough to know how to use a computer, search for information or handle an application. Being literate in the era of artificial intelligence means being able to apply it to a real problem, check your answers, communicate clearly, convert information into decisions and learn continuously.
The tool can produce a response in seconds. Human value lies in asking the right question, recognizing what is missing, interpreting the context, and taking responsibility for the outcome.
The speed of change forces action. The World Economic Forum estimates that 39% of the skills used today will change or become outdated by 2030. If the global labor market were an office of one hundred people, 59 would need training before the end of the decade.
These figures do not herald a world without work. The same report projects more jobs created than displaced by the major economic, technological and demographic transformations. They announce something more uncomfortable: there will be opportunities, but not necessarily for those who maintain the same capabilities.
The Guatemalan bottleneck
Guatemala already faces this tension. Our challenge is not only to create jobs, but to raise the quality of work, produce more value and, above all, believe: Guatemala can compete with global standards.
In an economy where much of the employment is informal, innovation can be concentrated in a few organizations, while the majority competes with tools, processes and learning from another era.
The Talent Gaps 2023-2024 study, by Fundesa, found that 66% of the companies consulted had difficulties in attracting candidates with specific technical skills and that 46% indicated a lack of relevant experience.
This doesn’t just describe a talent shortage. It also reveals a difficulty in identifying, attracting and developing it. In the search and evaluation of leaders and professionals there is one constant: organizations are entering into intense competition for talent.
And for people, the answer may not be to accumulate diplomas or simply learn how to write better instructions for a chatbot. We must build evidence of capacity.
For a young person, that means projects, internships, portfolios, mastery of a second language and concrete examples of solved problems. For a professional, it means identifying which tasks you can automate, which ones you can speed up, and where your judgment, empathy, or responsibility becomes more valuable. For a manager, it means using artificial intelligence to expand your capacity, without delegating the final decision to you.
Companies must change too. Buying licenses is not equivalent to transforming. Value appears when artificial intelligence is connected to strategy, entire processes are redesigned, and it is defined which decisions can be automated and which should remain under human responsibility.
It also requires a culture capable of experimenting, learning and modifying habits. Without that system, technology will only accelerate processes that may have already been poorly designed.
Talent management will have to move in two directions: attract better and develop faster. Waiting for the market to deliver “ready” talent will slow growth. Organizations will have to build their own pipelines through internships, mentoring, technical training and structured learning paths.
Literacy for all
There is, however, a serious objection. Research by the ILO and the World Bank found that, in Latin America, almost half of the positions that could benefit from generative artificial intelligence fail to do so due to lack of access to basic digital technologies at work.
Therefore, this is not only a business challenge. Secondary, technical and university education must integrate artificial intelligence into real problems, not confine it to an optional class. Teachers need training and clear rules. Companies must open more practice spaces and share with academia the skills they really demand.
The State can facilitate connectivity, short certifications and accessible training mechanisms for workers and entrepreneurs outside the formal economy. Digital literacy must become national infrastructure, as reading, writing and arithmetic once were.
The Guatemala No Se Detiene initiative proposed to promote the creation of 2.5 million jobs by 2030. But the country will not prosper solely by counting vacancies. You will prosper if you convert your human potential into productivity, higher incomes, and competitive businesses.
Artificial intelligence does not guarantee that result. It amplifies the capabilities, the decisions and also the gaps that already exist.
We have, then, a choice. We can wait for technology to determine how much our work is worth or prepare our people to decide how technology creates value.
The door is open, but crossing it requires more than optimism. To win in this new augmented era, we must first learn to compete.
Ramiro Castillo is CEO of ORANGE GROUP and director of the Board of Directors of the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala. He has more than twenty years of experience in strategy, business transformation, talent management and leadership. He is an industrial engineer, MBA and has completed executive education at Harvard Business School, INSEAD and the University of Cambridge.
Find more Guatemala Doesn’t Stop on our video channels Free press and Guatevision, alliance content focused on solutions journalism.