Cloud adoption in Mexico and across Latin America tells a story of ambition tempered by regulatory uncertainty, cultural complexity, and the sudden leapfrogging into artificial intelligence.
“We’ve tried to move very, very fast,” says Alex García, Cloud Director- Mexico, Intcomex. “But the reality is very slow. Security concerns, unclear regulations, and fragmented requirements across countries keep pulling us back.”
A Patchwork of Regulations
Unlike the U.S. and Canada, which often align on policies and corporate standards, Mexico sits at a crossroads. Multinational companies bring practices from Silicon Valley, Europe, and Asia, but implementation often clashes with local realities.
“We don’t have clarity about local regulations in each country,” García explains. “In Mexico, for example, some policies prohibit sensitive information from leaving national borders. That started with banks, and now it’s expanding. But in many cases, regulation comes after the technology is already here, so customers don’t know what’s safe or legal.”
This regulatory lag means that while adoption numbers look promising, cloud in Mexico is still growing at a double-digit annual rate—businesses remain cautious. Many projects stop at the “lift and shift” stage, moving servers to the cloud without embracing modernization.
The AI Distraction
What complicates things further is the sudden acceleration of AI. Generative AI, copilots, and chatbots have dominated executive conversations.
“Customers say, ‘I don’t care about cloud, I need AI now,’” García says. “But if you don’t have the infrastructure, the data management, the security practices, how can you expect ROI? Most companies here are not prepared for cloud security—80 to 90 percent.”
This creates what García describes as a dangerous skipping of steps. Instead of cloud maturity, reliable migration, modernization, security, companies chase AI pilots, demos, or licenses. It’s a pattern that echoes other emerging markets, like India, where proof-of-concepts multiply but implementations rarely scale.
The Commercial Trap
Part of the problem, García argues, is how cloud and AI are sold.
“In Latin America, everything sounds like a sales pitch,” he says. “Companies want Copilot or ChatGPT licenses without asking, ‘What is the real necessity?’ Sometimes the financial data they want to analyze isn’t even centralized, it’s in Excel sheets across assistants’ laptops.”
This hype-driven purchasing leaves CIOs with fragmented deployments and little long-term value.
Building a Consultative Future
García insists the path forward requires a shift from selling to advising. His own work has moved toward consultative collaboration: starting with questions, not tools.
“What is your main necessity? Do you have security in place? Have you planned the next three years?” he says. “Forget about the budget for a moment. Let’s focus on priorities.”
It’s a harder conversation in a market where hype cycles drive demand. But he sees no other option if Mexico wants to avoid being perpetually behind.
Why It Matters
Mexico’s story mirrors a broader Latin American challenge: balancing global innovation with local realities. Regulatory uncertainty, fragmented infrastructure, and short-term decision making risk leaving businesses unprepared for the technologies they crave most.
As García puts it: “Everyone wants AI, but without cloud maturity, it’s like building a skyscraper without foundations.”
