Automatización e Inteligencia Artificial: Perspectivas y Retos para el Empleo Juvenil en Ecuador (2015–2025)

Abstract

Automation and artificial intelligence have progressively transformed labor markets globally, generating opportunities for productivity and efficiency, but also new challenges for vulnerable groups such as young people. Faced with this dilemma, this research aimed to analyze the impact of automation and artificial intelligence on youth employment in Ecuador during the period 2015–2025. A quantitative approach was used for the research, with a descriptive scope and the implementation of a correlational model, using data from the Ecuadorian National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). The incorporation of ICT in business production processes was the independent variable, used as a proxy indicator of automation and artificial intelligence adoption given the absence of specific statistics on these processes in Ecuador. The findings reveal that companies have maintained progressive growth in the adoption of ICT, while also highlighting a growing landscape of informal employment among young people. Furthermore, the regression analysis showed a positive relationship between the use of technologies to support production and the number of young people in informal employment, with a coefficient of determination of 0.67. Based on these results, it is concluded that the technological transformation associated with automation and artificial intelligence can deepen the difficulties of youth labor market integration when there is no adequate adaptation of digital skills geared towards new production demands. Keywords: production automation, artificial intelligence, youth employment, labor informality, labor displacement, information technologies.