Inside Andrés Vázquez’s vision for artificial intelligence and innovation at América Móvil

América Móvil is the dominant telecommunications provider throughout Latin America with operations spanning Europe. The company is owned by the Carlos Slim Group with sister holdings in finance and industry and retail. Its portfolio spans mobile, fixed, broadband and TV for consumers, small businesses, enterprises and governments across the region. It also owns Telekom Austria, now under the A1 brand, which serves eight countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

Scale is combined with lasting investment. América Móvil spends $8 to $9 billion each year on infrastructure and technology. The result is a network that keeps pace with peers in developed markets, from 5G at major hubs to sustained 3G in select locales. As Chief Digital Intelligence Officer, Andrés Vázquez helps steer this scale towards a new value. He describes himself as a “tech matchmaker” whose job is to “find what works, plug it in quickly and make sure it works.”

A Chief Digital Intelligence Officer with a Matchmaker mandate

Vázquez’s title is unusual in design. The role covers digital innovation, artificial intelligence, automation and adjacent disciplines that together form what he calls digital intelligence. Instead of building everything in-house, it searches the market for the right partners, aligns them with urgent use cases, and accelerates adoption where the impact is clearest. “I don’t need the most modern solution,” he explained. “I need one that solves a real problem this year.”

Governance reflects the culture of the company. Although América Móvil is publicly traded, the Slim family remains the main shareholder allowing quick decisions and a frugal mindset. “You don’t spend because something is fashionable,” he said. “You spend when it works.” If a problem is best solved internally, it supports this path, but the starting point is usually outside the walls.

An open innovation book

The approach is simple and rigorous. First, identify solutions that generate new revenue by integrating value-added services into the company’s massive customer base. Second, bring tools that streamline operations such as automation and applied artificial intelligence to reduce capital intensity and operational costs. Third, increase customer satisfaction through better journeys, faster support and clearer offers. “Everything is connected to these three lenses,” he emphasized. “If it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t go in.”

To execute, Vázquez and a small team run a continuous scan. They review thousands of companies each year, perform due diligence, select a shortlist that best fits the business, and make introductions to functional leaders. He likens the project to “venture capital without capital.” The team leads and guides, then retreats as the business implements and scales. Most ideas are rejected. The right few advance quickly.

Supply of pipeline

Vázquez starts where the money flows. It maintains relationships with top venture firms and tracks the same signal they do from platforms like PitchBook and Crunchbase. It leverages innovation hubs in Israel and China and collaborates with universities when the horizon is longer. The goal is a balanced feed of practical solutions that can land this year plus a smaller set of bets that will matter in three to five years.

Maturity matters. “We love the early founders, but we need partners who are already in the market,” he emphasized. Large telcos require reliability and speed to value. Startups without traction struggle to deliver both. The company still has pilots, but is piloting with partners ready to scale.

Customer experience across all departments

For consumers, the quality of service remains decisive. Coverage and reliability is the first test and then comes the value added services that follow the plan. The line between telcos and the top carriers continues to blur. Most providers aggregate offerings through alliances with media and app partners. Customers judge the whole package more than the price per megabyte.

Small businesses present a different challenge. “The market is huge and incredibly fragmented,” he said. Many companies still manage finance, HR and point of sale in spreadsheets or basic tools. Transferring them to modern applications requires specialized sales and support. The opportunity is clear, but it requires patience and new market movements. Large businesses are simpler but highly competitive. Some projects start with connectivity where América Móvil leads. Others start with software and systems integration where the partner takes the point and the provider provides the network.

The prepaid revolution

Vázquez lights up when he tells the story of prepaid plans. In the mid-1990s, most customers in Latin America could not qualify for postpayment programs. Without credit cards or predictable billing, adoption stalled. Inspired by prepaid public phones in Europe, Carlos Slim challenged handset manufacturers to enable prepaid on mobile devices so customers can load up on value and spend less.

“We lowered the barrier to entry and unlocked the market,” noted Vázquez. The concept mirrors the Gillette model: cheap handles, repetitive blades. Within a year and a half, the ecosystem came together and prepaid took off. He believes the shift explains much of today’s global mobile penetration, especially in India, Africa and Latin America. América Móvil later bought TracFone in the United States, grew it from tens of thousands of customers to tens of millions, and then sold it to Verizon. Prepaid started as access. Over time, value-added services and financial mobility drive customers to postpaid.

Thirty-five years in the making

Vázquez joined right after the privatization, when the mobile operator was operating in three Mexican cities with fewer than thirty thousand customers. Guided by the leaders of Southwestern Bell, he helped distribution from luxury boutiques to mass market channels, recruiting thousands of resellers in a few years. “We went where the customers were,” he recalls. This consumer mindset became a pattern of development.

It later moved to landline to prepare for intense competition as the long distance exclusivity ended. He created the enterprise business, launched the first Internet offerings under the Prodigy brand, and helped lead the shift to broadband. Most recently he led the creation of streaming and music services for the mass market. The through line is movement. “I’ve rarely held the same job for long,” he offered, adding, “I’ve lived through every wave from narrowband to broadband to mobile generations to artificial intelligence.”

The moment of AI

Vázquez has watched many technology changes. He believes genetic AI is the most profound yet. “The speed is something I’ve never seen before,” he said. “New companies, new models, new products every week.” He is cautious about claims of quick returns in legacy environments and emphasizes the importance of choosing the right first use cases. Productivity gains are already visible through tools like Microsoft Copilot and standalone AI applications, even as workers adopt them informally.

For telecommunications, artificial intelligence extends both the challenge and the opportunity. The industry is often characterized as a fool’s pipe, but the conclusion at scale will not live only in distant clouds. To meet latency and cost goals, much of it must run on devices and at the edge, where providers already excel. “We may not build foundation models,” he said, “but we will power the experiences that depend on them.” He expects networks, advanced infrastructure and quality of experience to matter even more as everyday AI becomes an environment.

Collaboration with Carlos Slim

Asked about Carlos Slim, Vázquez points out values. Frugality in good times and bad, spending discipline and ownership mentality. Great attention to features. He describes a leader who asks detailed questions “not to micromanage, but to make sure you know your business.” He admitted that he has made mistakes over three and a half decades, but was quick to add that he has never been offended by them. “The corrections are firm and respectful,” he stressed.

The organization is less hierarchical than many global peers. Slim and now his son, who chairs the companies, will call deep into the ranks to learn and push. The family’s philanthropy through the Carlos Slim Foundation fosters a purpose beyond profit. For Vázquez, this combination of rigor and impact has defined his career. “It keeps the bar high and the mission clear,” he emphasized.

What’s next?

Andrés Vázquez has lived through the modern history of Latin American telecommunications and much of the Internet era. Today’s mandate is to find what works in the market, connect it to one of the largest networks in the world, and do it quickly and wisely. He believes the next chapter will be written at the edge where intelligence meets real-time connectivity.

The suitor has many dancers. The trick is to pick the few that matter now and then move fast enough to turn opportunity into performance.

Peter High is its President Metis strategya business and IT consulting firm. He has written three bestselling books, including his latest Arriving at Nimble. It also moderates the Technology podcast series and speaks at conferences around the world. Follow him on Twitter @PeterAHigh.