The latest AI news from the Latin America and Caribbean Economic Conference (aka Davos Latin America), OpenClaw, OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, and Sovereign AI in France, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
VOL 2 FEBRUARY 2026
INFO-TECH AI INSIGHTS
AI Transformation Brief
Featuring AI best practices and insights to enable our members to strategize, plan, develop, deploy, manage, and govern AI-based technologies and solutions.
In This Issue
- AI in the News
- AI Research Highlights
- Vendor Spotlight
- Upcoming Events & Resources
AI IN THE NEWS
Info-Tech presents AI at the Latin America and Caribbean Economic Forum 2026 (aka Davos of Latin America) in Panama CityRead the Economic Forum 2026 Summary
On January 28-29, 2026, the second annual International Economic Forum was held in Panama city with more than 6,500 participants from over 70 countries. The conference was kicked-off with speeches from the president or prime minister from Panama, Brazil, Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Chile (President-elect), and Jamaica.AI was highlighted as a strategic technology that has implications for the region’s competitiveness, regulatory sovereignty, and social unity.
ANALYST ANALYSIS
I had the privilege of being invited by the conference organizers, CAF, the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, to speak on Agentic AI and Digitalization as Drivers of Competitiveness.
I began my talk by asking if they heard the Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney’s, speech at Davos 2026 and was pleasantly surprised that most of the audience had listened to the speech and took to heart the need for working together with like-minded nations and to drive AI sovereignty initiatives for the region. After speaking on sovereign AI, I spent most of the time elaborating on the need for adaptive AI governance programs to address the new risks introduced by agentic AI.
Claude Cowork sparks the SaaSpocalypse
On January 12, 2026, Anthropic released Cowork, a no-code version of Claude Code, that provided an agentic AI assistant designed to automate everyday enterprise workflows for non-technical users.On January 30, 2026, Anthropic released 11 open-source plugins for Claude Cowork, that allows AI agents to autonomously handle complex tasks like legal research, contract review, data analysis, and coding. Investors feared these agents could replace traditional, seat-based software (SaaS) and IT outsourcing models.
ANALYST ANALYSIS
During February 3-4, 2026, shortly After the introduction of the 11 plugins for Claude Cowork, the stock market lost nearly $300 billion in valuation. Some report that over six days after the release, total losses approached $1 trillion as firms perceived AI as a direct replacement for software and services.
The software sectors that were impacted the most were:
- Legal and Data Services: Thomson Reuters dropped more than 15%, RELX dropped 14%, and LegalZoom dropped nearly 20% in value.
- SaaS Vendors: Salesforce, Adobe, and ServiceNow each dropped between 6% and 8%.
- IT Outsourcing: Infosys and TCS suffered 4% to 7% declines, highlighting renewed concerns over offshore service.
Critics viewed the reaction as overblown and driven by fear. Likely, we may see new pricing models emerge, from “seat-based” to “outcome-based.”
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INFO-TECH AI INSIGHTS
AI Transformation Brief
AI IN THE NEWS
The Ghost in the Machine: Introducing OpenClawVisit the OpenClaw homepageRead the Info-Tech analysis on OpenClaw (members only)
On January 30, 2026, Peter Steinberger rebranded his open-source AI project as OpenClaw.
OpenClaw (formerly known as Clawdbot and Moltbot) is a locally hosted, open-source autonomous AI ecosystem designed to transform the standard "chatbot" into a proactive "agent" that lives on your local hardware. Unlike cloud-locked assistants, OpenClaw runs as a background service on your machine – whether macOS, Windows, or Linux – and acts as a gateway between large language models like Claude or GPT-5 and your personal digital life.
ANALYST ANALYSIS
The primary benefit of OpenClaw is its "agentic" nature: it doesn't just talk; it acts. It can execute shell commands, manage calendars, control browsers, and even proactively reach out to you via its "heartbeat" feature to provide updates or alerts. However, this deep system integration creates a massive "blast radius" risk. Because the agent inherits your local permissions, it is vulnerable to prompt injection attacks where malicious external content (like a poisoned email or webpage) can trick the AI into deleting files or exfiltrating data. Furthermore, the "Clawhub" ecosystem of community-built skills lacks centralized vetting, meaning third-party plugins could potentially serve as backdoors for attackers to steal API keys or credentials, and even add new agent capabilities that are unknown to its creator.
What is required is an upgrading of AI governance programs to manage the risks introduced by autonomous AI agents. We will be releasing guidance in our upcoming Adaptive AI Governance framework shortly.
French President Emmanuel Macron unveils $112.5B in AI investment to boost France’s AI ambitions
On February 10, 2026, French President Emmanuel Macron revealed that private sector investments worth €109 billion ($112.5 billion USD) will be directed toward AI development in France over the coming years. A significant portion of these funds is expected to be allocated to the construction of data centres.
ANALYST ANALYSIS
Some of the major projects that will be funded include:
- 1-Gigawatt Data Centre, est. €30-€50 billion from UAE to build one of Europe’s largest data centers.
- €20 billion toward AI infrastructure development from Brookfield Infrastructure Investment.
- Mistral AI Cluster announced plans to build its own data center to support the development of their AI models.
- Goal of training 100,000 young people per year in AI technologies.
This investment represents the ongoing investments and evolution of France’s national AI strategy to become one of the major AI hubs in the world and to drive "technological sovereignty in AI."
OpenAI releases GPT‑5.3-Codex
On February 5, 2026, OpenAI released their most capable model for developing agentic AI applications, GPT-5.3-Codex.OpenAI describes the model’s improved capabilities as going from developing an agent that can write and review code to an agent that can do nearly anything developers and professionals can do on a computer.
ANALYST ANALYSIS
GPT-5.3-Codex marks the first time OpenAI has used its model to directly assist in its own development, debugging its training pipelines, managing deployment processes, and building internal tooling. This self-improvement process signals a shift in how advanced AI systems will be built. Anthropic has confirmed a similar pattern with developing Claude. This demonstrates how frontier models are increasingly being used to accelerate the creation of their successors, raising questions about autonomy and governance in AI development.
In addition, GPT‑5.3-Codex is the first model OpenAI has classified as high capability for cybersecurity-related tasks under their Preparedness Framework, and the first AI model they have used to directly trained to identify software vulnerabilities.
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INFO-TECH AI INSIGHTS
AI Transformation Brief
AI RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
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Build Your Agentic AI Prototype
Source: Build Your Agentic AI Prototype
Info-Tech Research Group
Defend Against Deepfake Cyberattacks
Source: Defend Against Deepfake Cyberattacks
Info-Tech Research Group
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INFO-TECH AI INSIGHTS
AI Transformation Brief
VENDOR SPOTLIGHT:
AI Marketplace
Unlock the potential of AI tailored to your needs and transform possibilities into reality with our dedicated support.
- AWS Frontier Agents and the Future of Autonomous Enterprise OperationsAWS Frontier Agents and the Future of Autonomous Enterprise Operations
- Salesforce Data 360 and SnowflakeSalesforce Data 360 and Snowflake
- Datamotive’s Strategy to Address Cloud Lock-In and Disaster Recovery CostsDatamotive’s Strategy to Address Cloud Lock-In and Disaster Recovery
- ServiceNow Q4 Results Reinforce Enterprise AI Driving Business ImpactServiceNow Q4 Results Reinforce Enterprise AI Driving Business Impact
- Pendo’s AI Pivot: From Product Analytics to Enterprise IntelligencePendo’s AI Pivot: From Product Analytics to Enterprise Intelligence
UPCOMING AND RECENT EVENTS
LIVE Brisbane Brisbane, Australia, March 17-18, 2026
LIVE Las Vegas Las Vegas, Nevada, June 9-11, 2026
LEVEL-UP Series: AI Workforce DevelopmentNew York, New York, March 12, 2026
Regina, Saskatchewan, April 8, 2026
Austin, Texas, May 14, 2026
AI AND DATA ANALYTICS SOLUTIONS – RESOURCES
AI MarketplaceArtificial Intelligence Research Center
AI Workforce Development Program
AI Workshops
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- Drive Business Value With M365 Copilot
- Design Your Agentic AI Prototype
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- Scale and Optimize Your Agent Implementation
AI EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Bill Wong – Info-Tech AI Research Fellow
