Public observatory
Open map of AI adoption across Costa Rica’s public sector: institutions, projects, legislation and indicators benchmarked against the region.
01 / Institutions
Seven public institutions run at least one active AI project, in production or pilot.
Judicial Branch
Broadest state portfolio: document classification, Continuous Disbursement (¢5,245M in 2024), budget ML with +₡100M saved, Nymiz anonymization, Constitutional Chamber analysis with UCR/PEN, ChatbotPJ since 2018.
Autonomous institution
TEC-CCSS medical AI training program, EDUS (100% insured coverage), AIDA (AI consultation assistant, 15-area pilot), LIDIA (predictive models, diabetes pilot at Clorito Picado with 95% accuracy), REDIMED (medical imaging network with AI prioritization, partial rollout) and an AI bot for wait-list cleanup (operational since May 2026, 367K patients resolved and 136K cases cleaned 2023-Q1 2026).
Ministry
Tax fraud detection with Microsoft Anomaly Detector (₡8,000M recovered in 2025), TRIBU-CR (live since October 2025, replacing ATV/Travi) and virtual taxpayer assistant.
Ministry
Technical AI specialization with Intel in vocational high schools. First Latin American country with AI as a formal technical track in secondary education.
View details →Ministry
National AI Strategy (ENIA) 2024-2027 — first national AI policy in Central America. LINC Labs: 24 operational labs (target 26), +4,500 people trained, 70% female participation. CONECTA (CRI/003): adoption of the country interoperability model based on X-Road with support from LuxDev and Estonia's e-Governance Academy, ~30 public institutions.
University
Public university with its own AI research: CITIC integrates AI into the software lifecycle and CIOdD leads Ethical AI (Erasmus+) with a consortium of 9 institutions across 4 countries.
View details →Research center
Interuniversity center under CONARE, operating 5 labs (CENIBiot, CNCA, PRIAS, LANOTEC, LANBA). Champions LaNIA, the proposed National AI Laboratory in partnership with IDB’s fAIr LAC.
View details →02 / Legislation
Costa Rica still has no formal AI regulatory framework. Of the five bills filed since 2023, two already have a committee report.
General framework to regulate the development, use and application of AI in Costa Rica. Creates the AI Regulatory Authority (ARIA). Has a positive majority committee report (September 2024), but faces opposition from CAMTIC and other tech ecosystem stakeholders.
Creates controlled spaces for regulatory experimentation with emerging AI technologies. Modeled after financial sandboxes in the fintech sector. Has a substitute text approved in committee (March 2025).
Proposes a tiered classification by risk level (similar to the EU AI Act). Has an approved substitute text (October 2025). The most recent and technically robust of the five bills.
Establishes disclosure obligations when AI-generated content is used, prohibits electoral deepfakes, automated fake accounts, and micro-targeting strategies designed to undermine electoral integrity. Fines range from 10 to 50 base salaries. Filed by Vanessa De Paul Castro Mora (PUSC).
Criminalizes identity impersonation through digital means, including unauthorized use of voice, image, and artistic creations. Aimed at combating deepfakes and digital identity fraud, rather than regulating AI as such.
03 / Indicators
Ranking in the Latin American AI Index (ILIA), published annually by CEPAL. 2025 data.
Costa Rica’s gap behind Chile (regional leader) is 16.73 points. Closing the gap requires implementing ENIA with measurable targets, allocated budget and an approved regulatory framework.
04 / Resources
Regulatory framework
Decree 44507-MICITT — National Code of Digital Technologies
PGR-SCIJ
Regulatory framework
Current CNTD — Chapters I through XIX
MICITT
Public policy
National AI Strategy (ENIA) 2024-2027
MICITT
Regional milestone / AI governance
AI4LAC Regional Dialogue on AI Governance
MICITT / ONU Costa Rica / CEPAL
Costa Rica leads the AI4LAC regional process convened in May 2026 by MICITT, UN Costa Rica and ECLAC to consolidate Latin American and Caribbean AI governance priorities ahead of the Global AI Dialogue in Switzerland.
Diagnostic assessment
AILA: Artificial Intelligence Landscape Assessment
PNUD / MICITT
Training program
DisruptIA 2026: AI-Augmented Business Decision Making
MICITT / INA
Institutional framework
Basic Guidelines for Generative AI use in the Judicial Branch
Poder Judicial
Coverage
LIDIA Program — Predictive AI in healthcare
CCSS / Teletica
Regulation
Judicial Branch Data Protection Regulation
Poder Judicial
Regional indicator
Latin American AI Index (ILIA)
CEPAL
International indicator
Government AI Readiness Index (GTMI)
Banco Mundial
Regional governance
Decree 276/025 — AI regulatory sandboxes (Uruguay, Dec. 2025)
IMPO
Regional governance
Decree 276/025 — Official Presidency communication (Uruguay)
Presidencia Uruguay
Regional benchmark
Latin American AI Index 2024 — Costa Rica
CENIA Chile · UNESCO · CEPAL
CR 4th in infrastructure (53.09 pts), behind Chile (67.19), Uruguay (65.27) and Brazil (59.65). Compute: 40.02 · HPC: 2.35. In ILIA 2025 CR rose to 53.83 points but dropped to 5th — absolute score grew while other countries (Mexico) accelerated faster.
Updates
This observatory is updated as new public sources, institutional projects, legislative bills and indicators on artificial intelligence in Costa Rica are identified.
| Date | Type | Update | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resource | Factual correction in the Current-Affairs item on the Second National Forum on AI in Health: Marvin Palma is the CCSS 'acting medical manager' (appointed a.i. on May 8, 2026 for six months), not the substantive holder. Massimo Manzi's title is also updated to 'executive director of the Costa Rican Chamber of Health (CCS) / PROMED' to use the full institutional form. Verified against official CCSS pages (appointment) and GlueUp/Promed (Manzi's title). | CCSS, Costa Rican Chamber of Health (PROMED) ↗ | |
| Resource | Enriched the Current-Affairs item on the Second National Forum on AI in Health with additional sources triangulating the published data: Delfino.cr (official announcement listing organizers CCS + ULACIT + DHIT and a Massimo Manzi statement) and Promed Costa Rica (official event site with speakers and agenda). The text now mentions the official panel 'The AI in Health Agenda' featuring Deputy Minister of Health Allan Mora and Elliott Garita (Medical Association), the HL7 FHIR R5 Laboratory Results Connectathon held in parallel, and the event's institutional organizers. The implication is strengthened with the technical dimension of clinical-data interoperability. | Delfino.cr, Promed Costa Rica ↗ | |
| Resource | Added the Second National Forum on AI in Health (June 17, 2026) and the announcement of a national AI-in-health agenda under construction by the Ministry of Health and MICITT as a Current-Affairs item. Includes statements from CCSS medical manager Marvin Palma (15 primary-care AI pilot areas, mammography and cardiovascular risk) and from the executive director of the Costa Rican Chamber of Health, Massimo Manzi (balance between regulation and innovation, training need). The CCSS projects referenced are already catalogued (AIDA, LIDIA, REDIMED, waiting-list cleanup). | Observador.cr ↗ | |
| Project | Updated fuenteUrl for project cenat-lania (LaNIA — National AI Laboratory): from dplnews.com to the primary MICITT institutional source confirming CENAT's presentation of the LANIA pilot plan. The institutional source carries more weight for audit purposes than the secondary news outlet; the change does not affect the project's substantive data. | MICITT ↗ | |
| Resource | Added AI4LAC Regional Dialogue on AI Governance as a resource/milestone. Regional process convened in May 2026 by MICITT, UN Costa Rica and ECLAC; Costa Rica leads the consolidation of Latin American and Caribbean AI governance priorities ahead of the Global AI Dialogue in Switzerland. Verified against MICITT official press release of May 29, 2026. | MICITT / UN Costa Rica / ECLAC ↗ | |
| Resource | Fixed 2 links in the CNTD layer on Marco País: Decree 44507-MICITT now points to the full text at PGR (SCIJ) and the current CNTD points to the official MICITT page (node/625, 2026 version). | PGR-SCIJ, MICITT ↗ | |
| Resource | Added Latin American AI Index (ILIA) 2024 as regional benchmark resource. CR ranked 4th in infrastructure with 53.09 pts. Note includes evolutionary comparison vs ILIA 2025 (5th, 53.83 pts) to show that absolute score grew even as ranking dropped due to other countries (Mexico) accelerating faster. | CENIA Chile (National AI Center) · UNESCO · CEPAL ↗ | |
| Project | Added AgroBoost project (precision coffee farming with AI and sensors) by MICITT in partnership with the Municipality of Dota, INA and five coffee cooperatives. 86 growers integrated in Los Santos. Operational since 2025, scale-up of Coopedota's Project One pilot. | MICITT ↗ | |
| Indicator | Added DisruptIA 2026 as an observatory resource: a training program on AI-augmented business decision making, coordinated by MICITT with INA. | MICITT / INA ↗ | |
| Indicator | Added AILA (Artificial Intelligence Landscape Assessment) as an observatory resource. It is the UNDP readiness assessment applied by MICITT to 75 Costa Rican institutions; initiated March 2026. Not an AI application project but an institutional diagnostic. | UNDP Costa Rica ↗ |
05 / About
AI Observatory Costa Rica fills a gap: there is no public, up-to-date and verifiable source on where, how and with what results artificial intelligence is being adopted across Costa Rica’s public sector.
This site gathers active projects, pending bills and indicators benchmarked against the region. Every data point comes from official sources and links back to the original document.
The goal is to build a useful tool for decision makers, journalists, academia, the private sector and citizens interested in how AI is being used with public funds.
Do you know of an AI project in a public institution that is not listed here?
info@observatorioia.org →Learn who maintains the observatory and how data is verified →
