AI Festival Ciudad Juarez 2026: Strategy, Governance, and the Value of Business Knowledge in a New Era
Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, September 29, 2026 – The AI Festival Ciudad Juarez 2026 recently concluded, offering profound insights into the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence. Eduardo Santin, Director at Viati Consulting, delivered a keynote address highlighting how emerging technologies are reshaping business strategies and competitive advantages.
The Unprecedented Era of Language Models
Santin pointed out that the widespread use of natural language through Large Language Models (LLMs) signifies an unprecedented historical juncture. Driven by supercomputers, global connectivity, and massive data availability, technology has become democratized for the average user. However, he cautioned that the real challenge lies in moving beyond individual use to apply these tools within the architecture of corporate knowledge.
“The smartest R&D in AI is not in the engine, but in who operates it and who governs it. AI is here to stay, but it won’t replace us as long as you understand and strategically direct it,” affirmed Eduardo Santin.
The speaker explained how tasks that previously required specialized programming knowledge are now performed through everyday language interaction. Nevertheless, he emphasized that a company’s competitive advantage is not achieved by consulting public global information, but by organizing its own historical data to formulate intelligent questions through AI engines.
High-Level Management’s Role in AI Adoption
From the perspective of senior management, it was argued that boards of directors should not limit themselves to delegating technological adoption to the IT department. On the contrary, the business strategy projected for 5 or 10 years should guide the requests made to technical teams to accelerate the achievement of goals in a structured manner.
Santin detailed a four-quadrant framework where AI can add value to organizations:
- Continuous Improvement: Optimization of current operational processes.
- User Experience: Enhancement of customer interaction and service.
- Internal Processes: Automation and integrated analysis within the organization.
- Business Innovation: Creation of new proposals and external solutions.
The executive stressed the importance of differentiating budgets allocated to cost optimization from those directed towards disruptive initiatives, where investments involve exploration and risk management.
Industrial Application: Predictive Maintenance
To illustrate the application in the industrial sector, a use case of predictive maintenance in manufacturing plants was presented. Through the deployment of sensors and real-time data integration, analytical tools enable the anticipation of critical machinery failures, significantly reducing unplanned downtime that represents costs of millions of pesos.
Five Pillars of Digital Transformation Success
Finally, Santin summarized the success of digital transformation based on five essential pillars: strategy, governance, awareness, technological infrastructure, and human talent.
