Costa Rica: First country to use artificial intelligence to create its Nation Brand strategy

International

Ten years after the launch of essential COSTA RICA, this Nation Brand took the initiative to define its strategy for the next decade, by applying one of its values, innovation, becoming the first nation brand in the world to use artificial intelligence to define its 2035 vision.

Together with Bloom Consulting, an international firm specializing in Nation Branding, essential COSTA RICA used four blocks of information to develop the 2035 Strategy: a) previous studies on the perception of Nation Brand as a digital identity and rankings; b) strategic documents about Costa Rica, such as decarbonization plans; c) global reports on future trends, e.g. Sitra Megatrends 2023, OECD Economic Outlook, Global Trends 2030 and more than 10 additional reports; d) as well as interviews with national stakeholders from various public and private sectors to get to know their perception of the country today and how they perceive Costa Rica in 10 years.

In order to become the first country globally to use AI in the development of a strategy, essential COSTA RICA and Bloom Consulting entered the three first blocks of information into an artificial intelligence platform to be processed and analyzed in depth. This technology not only made it possible to identify and evaluate the current perceptions about Costa Rica, but it also provided key insights about emerging trends and the general sentiment associated with the country in international media.

The system also generated projections about possible future media coverage, helping to anticipate areas of opportunity to enhance the image and presence of Costa Rica in strategic global markets, as well as to make more informed decisions, enabling communication strategies to be adjusted to maximize the positive impact on the international audience.

This was followed by a working session with stakeholders and the institutions that make up the governance of the Nation Brand, which defined the priority projects that would receive the most media coverage according to the elements of the Taxonomy Model of perceptions of the Nation Brand and the AI analysis, and which resulted in this theme as the focus of Costa Rica's strategy: climate change and environmental preservation.

"One of the five values of essential COSTA RICA is innovation; we are therefore looking to use it for creating the 2035 Strategy by applying AI and we are very satisfied with the results. This roadmap will lead us to establish the positioning of Costa Rica as the world leader in sustainability and the fight against climate change," affirmed Adriana Acosta, Director of essential COSTA RICA.

The application of AI represented advantages in the development of this Strategy, some of which were:

· Efficiency: by allowing large amounts of data to be processed from various sources, which ensured a complete analysis.

· Depth of perspective: AI enabled the detection of subtle patterns and correlations within the data, providing deeper insights into the dynamics of perceptions.

· Forward-looking analysis: through AI, future trends were analyzed, making it possible to model scenarios based on multiple variables, with an informed and complete vision.

· Predictive models: which made it possible to model future behavior based on global trends, obtaining more accurate predictions about future media trends.

"The fact that Costa Rica is the first country to develop the Nation Brand Strategy using artificial intelligence demonstrates how advanced it is and how it is leading the way in nation branding," added José Felipe Torres, Nation and Place Branding Global Director at Bloom Consulting.

The 2035 Strategy of essential COSTA RICA was launched at the end of 2023 with the objective of creating powerful messages focused on climate change and sustainability through the Natural Intelligence concept. To date, the Costa Rican Nation Brand has been implementing actions to strengthen Costa Rica's image as an articulator of innovation and knowledge on climate change and environmental preservation in various national and international forums.

It also works together with the Costa Rican private sector in a series of workshops to introduce sustainability and the fight against climate change in companies, while aligning the Nation Brand licensing program to this new narrative. In addition, digital campaigns and various training sessions are being carried out for local talent, especially young people, on the topics of the Strategy.

"Costa Rica is already well positioned in climate change and environmental preservation, which is why with Strategy 2035 – and thanks to the future scenarios analyzed with the help of AI – we are working to capitalize on what the country has built over decades with specific actions that help enhance its international image and promote the implementation of tactics that reinforce Costa Rica's leadership in these topics," ended Adriana Acosta.