The software industry is becoming increasingly relevant in the Latin American market, occupying an essential place in the GDP of several regional nations, particularly those with larger economies.
On the other hand, artificial intelligence is now an essential component of the software development industry if we consider the number of benefits it generates for both the company and its employees and, most importantly, for users who now get better user experiences by having more advanced developments, at a higher speed and with fewer errors.
According to Tortoise Media’s Global Artificial Intelligence Index, the leading economies in the region are beginning to stand out in terms of opportunities to take advantage of AI to be more competitive in software production, taking into account three levels: Investment, innovation and implementation of AI.
The United States (100), followed by China (61.5), Singapore (49.7), the United Kingdom (41.8) and Canada (40.3) are at the top of the list.
Brazil, the first Latin American country in this index, appears in 35th position, followed by Chile (41st), Colombia (48th), Argentina (49th) and Mexico (51st).
For Latin America, despite having its economies at a low level in terms of the use of AI, compared to the components analyzed in the index, there are significant opportunities for the development of solutions and applications that allow them to take advantage of an innovative and at the same time very competitive market such as the application of AI in their solutions.
To better understand the vision of the software development business, we asked three industry leaders the following question: How are software development companies in Latin America taking advantage of artificial intelligence to improve their productivity?
Here are their answers:
Giuliana Corbo, CEO,Nearsure.
Software development companies in Latin America are leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to elevate their productivity in multiple ways.
Process automation is critical, allowing the simplification of repetitive tasks such as testing, deployments, and system management, saving time and minimizing errors.
AI is also employed in predictive software development, employing machine learning to analyze historical data and anticipate challenges, enabling preventative measures.
AI algorithms that analyze usage patterns achieve resource optimization, improving resource allocation in complex projects.
Customer support benefits thanks to chatbots and natural language processing (NLP) systems that offer quick answers to frequently asked questions, freeing up employees for more complex tasks.
Additionally, by integrating AI capabilities into applications, businesses can provide more innovative solutions, such as speech recognition, computer vision, and personalized recommendations based on user behavior.
Finally, AI is used for advanced data analysis, providing valuable insights for businesses and their customers facilitating more informed decision-making. In short, AI is transforming the software development landscape in Latin America, improving efficiency and quality at all stages of the process.
Such companies are taking advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve their productivity in a variety of ways, including:
- Process Automation: AI automates repetitive tasks and enhances efficiency in software development. Businesses can use AI tools to automate testing, deployments and system management, saving time and reducing errors.
- Predictive Software Development: AI techniques, such as machine learning, are used to analyze historical data and foresee potential problems in software development, allowing businesses to anticipate challenges and take preventative measures.
- Resource Optimization: AI algorithms can analyze patterns in resource usage and help businesses allocate resources more efficiently, especially useful in large projects where resource allocation can be complex.
- Improved Customer Support: Businesses can use chatbots and natural language processing (NLP) systems to provide more effective and faster customer support. Chatbots can answer frequently asked questions and solve common problems, freeing up employees for more complex tasks.
- Intelligent Application Development: By integrating AI capabilities into their applications, companies can deliver more innovative solutions to their customers; this could include apps that use speech recognition, computer vision or personalized recommendations based on user behavior.
- Advanced Data Analytics: AI can help businesses analyze large volumes of data to gain valuable insights; this is useful for software companies and their customers, as they can make more informed decisions based on data analysis.
In short, software development companies in Latin America are embracing artificial intelligence to improve their productivity and compete in a globally competitive market. AI is changing the way it operates, from automating tasks to developing predictive software to optimizing resources. Not only is this trend improving internal efficiency but it is also enabling these companies to offer more advanced and sophisticated solutions to their customers. Artificial intelligence has become a fundamental pillar on the road to a successful future in software development in the region.
Felipe Villa, CEO, Sophos Solutions
The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in the field of software development companies in Latin America is marking a significant milestone, with a great focus on creating a disruptive and hybrid operating model
that allows coexistence and collaboration between intelligent machines and human talent.
We are entering a new era of building solutions for a connected world, and artificial intelligence is becoming more disruptive than the advent of personal computers, the Internet, and smartphones.
At Sophos Solutions, we’ve decided to embrace AI as part of our DNA and created a center of excellence to build strategic, agile AI applications, for example, from the internal talent selection process to creating Copilot solutions that accompany the entire development process with the client.
The objective is to allow greater efficiency and quality in the development process by complementing human creativity.
Our clients have the challenge of transforming their companies and businesses and we see that artificial intelligence integrated with their solutions and platforms helps this transition from legacy systems to modern technologies, reducing costs, accelerating return on investment and preserving human knowledge through intelligent machines governed by
autonomous processes; this translates into shorter development cycles, significant time savings in coding, hybrid teams, and faster project deliveries.
In the region, we have a high shortage of trained human talent for the software sector, and we see that with artificial intelligence, we have the possibility of building new development methodologies with machines that could build solutions in different stages under the supervision of human experts.
According to McKinsey, companies that incorporate AI into their software development strategy can reduce their operational costs by 20%.
We are rapidly entering an era where the environment of software development companies is going to be integrated with future technologies such as Metaverse for collaboration spaces in mixed and virtual reality, Blockchain technologies for business information transfer, artificial intelligence to increase capacity and productivity – in all this human talent is critical to enhance and apply creativity and innovation of new solutions.
It is also important to note that AI is narrowing the technological gap between Latin America and other countries.
This acceleration in technology adoption is transforming the competition in software development internationally and positioning Latin America at the forefront of the global landscape.
At Sophos Solutions, we believe that artificial intelligence is transforming our customers’ business models, and the understanding and rapid adoption of this technology make us as human beings develop the ability to learn to unlearn to relearn.
Mario Rugeles, Head of Data, Endava, Colombia
AI can help us with many tasks and even work autonomously, but it still needs human supervision and knowledge to organize the whole process. Currently, it helps speed up the testing process and reduce maintenance time.
But there are still challenges to overcome.
Today, it is a tool closely linked to the concept of cybersecurity, as it makes it possible to predict threats, examine the causes of attacks efficiently and improve the protection architecture. That’s why many companies use it to improve network security, increase the privacy of the organization’s data, and increase robustness in the cloud, among other processes.
For the software development industry, the incorporation of this algorithm in the work dynamics brought significant benefits for its clients: reduction of feedback times, generation of hypothetical universes with greater capacity, and helping to make the products of enterprise platforms more productive, among others.
The use of AI systems was only a decade ago, almost exclusively accessible to academia and large companies such as Google. To develop and use a Machine Learning model, you needed people with master’s degrees and doctorates. Today, products such as ChatGPT, Copilot and Dall-E have democratized access to Artificial Intelligence and have created fertile ground to strengthen the competitiveness of companies of all sizes.
There are some myths regarding Artificial Intelligence, and that is that people don’t have the tools to understand the world.
But we must not forget that it is just another tool, which should not generate fear and understand that, like any new instrument, it needs the criteria of a human being for its proper functioning.
Artificial intelligence can serve as an assistance at work but not as a replacement.
Since AI has no conscience behind it, it cannot reflect, understanding that it is essential for people to balance opportunities and risks to get the best out of these tools.
Today, anyone with access to the Internet can make use of AI systems, but they are systems that need human direction to get the best possible result; these systems are very susceptible to skewing their answers and need human oversight to maintain and improve the quality of their answers.
That is why it is challenging for Artificial Intelligence to replace us.
Perhaps many people feel frightened by the possible loss of their job due to the potential of being replaced by a robot but opening the debate to see that it is not a risk, but perhaps an advantage, a benefit: perhaps by shortening the working day thanks to its use we can have a better quality of life.
And to know that every cultural change entails risks for the entire population that, by taking them and understanding them, generate much more trust in them.
In Colombia, Endava has already started to use Artificial Intelligence to be able to get the best out of it in different areas, for example, in the data discipline, helping to get more employees or improve processes; all this to point you to various sources and have a proper understanding and knowledge before offering it to your customers.
