Colombia IT sector faces innovation hurdles due to high maintenance costs

Colombian companies are facing significant challenges in digital transformation due to high operational costs and fragmented technology ecosystems. According to a ManageEngine study, 80% of IT budgets in Colombian organizations are currently consumed by the maintenance of existing infrastructure, leaving limited resources for strategic investments in automation and artificial intelligence.

The report highlights that 78% of executives report increased operational complexity due to a proliferation of platforms, with 48% of companies managing between 11 and 25 different technological solutions. Furthermore, only 25% of organizations have consolidated their operations into unified platforms, and just 5% utilize AI-orchestrated ecosystems.

At the AWS Summit Bogotá, industry leaders discussed the shift toward 'agentic AI'—autonomous programs capable of reasoning and executing tasks. While over 130,000 Colombian companies have adopted AI, a gap remains in how its value is measured. Daniel Saldarriaga, country manager for AWS Colombia, noted that while most companies track AI usage, less than one-third evaluate its impact on core business metrics such as revenue growth or customer satisfaction.