Across Mexico, a new generation of entrepreneurs is putting AI skills into practice in farms, classrooms, recruiting platforms and recycling initiatives.
After participating in Microsoft’s Elevate skilling efforts, these young innovators are applying what they learned to build startups, tackle local challenges and create practical solutions for their communities.
In Mexico, Elevate is part of Microsoft’s global initiative to expand access to AI skills as the technology reshapes work, education and economic opportunity. Through partnerships with government agencies, industry groups, nonprofits and other organizations, the program is helping people across the country prepare for an AI-powered economy, build practical AI skills and apply them.
Since its launch in September 2024, the initiative has reached approximately 3.5 million people in Mexico, 70% of its goal to reach 5 million by the end of 2027.
Combining self-paced Microsoft Learn content with live, locally tailored instruction, the program serves students, educators, workers and public-sector employees. Participants learn topics ranging from AI fundamentals and generative AI to responsible AI practices, prompt design and the creation of AI agents. These four innovators show how AI skills are being translated into real-world impact.
Three Juárez friends, one smart AI bet #
In one of Mexico’s driest regions, three friends from Ciudad Juárez saw an opportunity in a persistent challenge: helping farmers use water more efficiently through AI.
In the northern Mexican border city, just across from El Paso, Texas, agriculture depends on careful choices in a dry climate. José Alejandro Del Río, Ares Arturo Molina and Héctor Hernández developed AgriTech, a platform that combines sensors, machine learning and a progressive web application to help farmers better understand crop conditions and optimize irrigation.
The system measures factors such as humidity, pH, electrical conductivity and nutrient levels, then analyzes the data to generate practical recommendations about crop health and water use.
“We’re not really about the sensors,” says Del Río, a chemical biologist. “What matters to us is the data, the machine learning behind it and how we interpret it.”
For the three entrepreneurs who co-founded the startup Chuuk, AI training helped sharpen both their technical skills and their ambitions. Learning about machine learning model development and deployment helped them improve how their systems run. “The training helped us make the system more efficient and able to run on limited hardware,” Molina explains, highlighting a critical requirement for tools intended to function reliably beyond the controlled conditions of a laboratory.
Chuuk traces its origins to a 2025 hackathon, where Del Río joined forces with Molina and Hernández to explore practical applications for AI. What began as an experiment evolved into a startup.
Each founder brought a different perspective to the project. Del Río is a chemical biologist, Molina a systems engineer and Hernández a self-taught software developer. César Gutiérrez, a computer science university student, recently joined the team to support the development of the required hardware and software.
“We were looking for a real need in our environment, and water is a major issue here,” Molina says. “It was also where everyone’s skills could come together into something functional.”
Today, the team is validating its agricultural platform through pilot deployments, including demonstration plots developed in collaboration with Ciudad Juárez’s rural development department.
Beyond agriculture, Chuuk has begun applying its AI expertise to new projects, including laboratory management systems and biomedical image analysis.
For now, the three entrepreneurs are focused on proving the technology, securing partnerships and turning prototypes into scalable tools.
Curious kid, determined builder #
For Ary Álvarez, AI is a tool for turning ideas into products. The entrepreneur from Chihuahua is currently building two ventures: Remotto, an AI-powered recruiting platform, and Tasky, a compact productivity device designed to reduce dependence on smartphones.
Remotto uses multiple AI agents to search for candidates, validate identities and match people with jobs. The system analyzes information from thousands of sources, helping recruiters identify qualified candidates more efficiently.
“You give me a profile and I find it,” Álvarez says.
Tasky tackles a different challenge. The cloud-connected device brings together calendars, notes and notifications in a simpler interface intended to reduce the distractions that often come with smartphones.
The projects reflect a mindset Álvarez has been developing for years. Growing up in Chihuahua, he spent much of his free time around electronics. His father repaired appliances and modified gaming consoles, sparking an early fascination with technology. “When you’re a kid, you’re a sponge,” he says.
His interests eventually expanded from hardware to cybersecurity, machine learning and AI. Álvarez participated in technical training that exposed him to cloud technologies, applied AI and more advanced architectures. “It opened a door,” Álvarez recalls. “I started connecting things that were just floating around before.”
Those lessons proved valuable after an earlier startup effort stalled. Álvarez and a friend had developed an AI-powered dog-behavior tracker that combined wearable sensors with machine learning models. Despite participating in an accelerator program in San Francisco, they struggled to attract the funding needed to scale.
Rather than abandoning entrepreneurship, Álvarez redirected what he had learned into new projects.
Now, the entrepreneur is focused on refining his two current ventures and bringing them to market. He envisions Remotto handling much of the recruiting workflow through specialized AI agents, while Tasky evolves into a practical alternative for people seeking a more intentional relationship with technology.
For the young entrepreneur who once spent afternoons modifying phones and experimenting with software, AI has become a way to transform curiosity into products that could reach far beyond his hometown.
Recycling know-how inspires an app idea #
Eduardo Ortiz wants to make recycling easier, and more valuable, for the people who do it every day.
From his home base in Candiles, Querétaro, Ortiz is developing an app that would help households and businesses schedule recyclable waste pickups, sort materials and connect with workers who collect and process reusable items. The project is the next step in a growing recycling initiative he launched in 2022 called *Escuadrón Mapache* (Raccoon Squad).
Using his learned AI skills, Ortiz is turning an idea into a digital tool to make recycling more organized, accessible and efficient. AI tools have become part of his planning, research and development process, helping him refine concepts, explore business models and build early versions of the application.
The project reflects an unlikely career path. Ortiz studied law and worked in civil and family litigation before the pandemic disrupted court operations and prompted him to reconsider his future.
Living near a landfill in the Mexico City metropolitan area made the environmental cost of urban waste impossible to ignore. That realization led him to create Escuadrón Mapache after relocating to Querétaro. Their mission is to help residents recycle more effectively while creating greater recognition for pepenadores, informal waste pickers who recover reusable materials.
Today, Ortiz collects recyclables directly from homes and small businesses using a cargo tricycle and transports materials to private recycling centers. On productive days, the operation can move nearly 450 pounds of material. The number of households participating has grown to more than 30 families, alongside several local businesses.
Elevate’s training introduced Ortiz to generative AI, prompt design, Copilot — Microsoft’s AI-powered assistant and companion — as well as other AI-assisted productivity tools. Copilot now serves as a brainstorming partner for presentations, social media content, data analysis, monetization ideas and early-stage app development.
“Before the training, I had only heard about AI in the media,” Ortiz says. “It opened the door to using artificial intelligence tools and to understanding what we can do with them.” As he continues seeking funding for his app, Ortiz is focused on combining technology with community action and using AI to help more residents participate in a more organized and sustainable recycling system.
Building AI learning experiences for the next generation #
When AI began appearing in student assignments, Alma Trejo decided not to fight the technology. Instead, she set out to learn it and teach others how to use it well.
Today, the Querétaro educator is creating customized AI learning experiences for dozens of students, helping prepare a new generation to work alongside AI rather than fear it.
Through AI skilling, Trejo deepened her understanding of generative AI, prompt design, use of Microsoft Copilot and responsible AI practices. Those skills are now reshaping how she teaches mathematics, as well as programming and digital literacy to high school students at Conalep, Mexico’s technical education system.
Using Microsoft 365 Copilot, which is grounded in the user’s content and context, in addition to other AI tools, Trejo has created academic agents tailored for her 56 students’ needs. The agents help explain concepts, propose exercises, review assignments and provide individualized feedback, giving students access to support beyond the classroom. There is also a programming tutor for computational thinking and another agent for digital culture and cybersecurity. Through Conalep, Trejo began taking free Microsoft training courses, starting with basic sessions on AI for teachers, Copilot, Microsoft 365 and prompt writing. She completed a Microsoft course on the fundamentals of generative AI two years ago and later took cybersecurity and professional AI tools courses.
For the teacher, the goal is to use AI as an ally and make learning more personal and accessible in a community with limited infrastructure and a small computer lab. “We cannot allow ourselves not to apply AI tools in education,” Trejo says. “Otherwise, we are not preparing them for the present they need, or for the future,” she adds, referring to her students.
The impact was almost immediate. Students who once turned in assignments they struggled to explain began arriving ready to discuss their ideas and reasoning. Others who rarely spoke up in class became more engaged, using AI-powered learning tools to review concepts, strengthen their understanding and build confidence.
Trejo, a mother of three with a background in mathematics and sciences, is now pursuing a master’s degree in AI through a scholarship program supported by Conalep.
Meanwhile, by building AI-guided learning experiences today, the teacher hopes to help shape the next generation of innovators who will create tomorrow’s solutions.
*All videos by Microsoft. *
*Juan Montes writes about how AI and digital innovation are reshaping industries and decision‑making across Latin America and Canada. His reporting spans stories from multinational companies deploying AI agents for executives to public‑school teachers adopting technology in classrooms. Born in Madrid, he worked as a journalist in Spain and Guatemala and was a foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. You can contact him on LinkedIn. *
*Gustavo Lo Valvo is an editorial designer specializing in new storytelling formats. He is a professor of Media Design at the University of Buenos Aires and since 2021 co-leads the design studio Lo Valvo Márquez Diseño. Previously, he served as design director at the Argentine newspaper Clarín, where he led visual architecture and innovation in journalistic storytelling across both print and digital platforms. You can contact him on LinkedIn. *