Artificial Intelligence for Better Regulation: Opportunities and Challenges for Latin America and the Caribbean

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have made progress in institutionalizing regulatory improvement policies aimed at strengthening competitiveness, promoting investment, and improving relations between the state, the private sector, and citizens. However, these efforts continue to face structural limitations associated with the increasing complexity of regulatory frameworks, the availability and processing of information, and capacity constraints that hinder the systematic and large-scale generation of evidence. The availability of artificial intelligence (AI) tools presents a concrete opportunity to address these gaps.

This technical note identifies concrete opportunities for the use of AI in regulatory improvement. To this end, it organizes the main opportunities for AI application into three key functions: (i) the simplification and review of the existing body of regulations (the regulatory stock), (ii) regulatory drafting and rulemaking (the regulatory flow), and (iii) supervisory and enforcement responsibilities. The proposals for implementing AI throughout the regulatory cycle draw on international experience and the Inter-American Development Banks (IDB) own initiatives developed for governments in the region.