Between July 2024 and June 2025, knowledge economy exports reached a record of US$9,685 millionwhich consolidated the Knowledge Economy as the third export complex in the country, according to the Argenconomics report, prepared by Argencon.
The year-on-year growth of 20.8%, which doubles the world average of 9.5% reported by the WTO, reaffirms the strategic role of the sector in the generation of foreign currency and qualified employment. Total employment rose to 283,500 workers, with 3,200 net new jobs in the final quarter, in contrast to the contraction in overall private employment.
“It is evident that the record levels of exports observed in all areas of knowledge-based services are motivated, for the most part, due to the revaluation of the Argentine currency against the dollar. This monetary adjustment impacted the wage cost in dollars, increasing the cost of production and, consequently, the sales price of exports,” the report noted.
“This positive performance is explained by a combination of factors: a more competitive macroeconomic environment, process reengineering driven by the incorporation of AI, the redesign of products and services, and growing global demand in the face of international geopolitical reconfiguration,” he analyzed. Luis Galeazzi, Institutional Executive Director of Argencon.
At a global level, Knowledge-Based Services (KBS) exceeded US$4 trillion in 2024with a growth of 9.5% annually, four times higher than that of trade in goods. Western Europe led the expansion (11.45%), followed by North America (8.53%) and Eastern Europe (7.74%). South America and the Caribbean grew 6.87%, while Argentina occupies 43rd place among world exporters, with a share of 0.23% of the global total, surpassing its record from the previous year (0.22%).
Leandro Mora Alfonsín, Executive Director of Development at Argencon, highlighted that “international trade linked to AI has become the main shock absorber of global trade, in a context in which the WTO foresees stagnation towards 2026.” And he added: “Argentina has a huge opportunity thanks to its talent, technological capabilities and speed of adoption of new tools.”
The report also compares Argentine performance with countries such as Costa Rica, Uruguay, Poland and Portugal, which have gained global participation, and projects that Argentina could achieve exports by US$30 billion in the next decade, as long as it maintains policies that facilitate the expansion of the sector.
The advance of Artificial Intelligence
Furthermore, the advance of artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the profile of the Knowledge Economy in Argentina, where 41.5% of companies in the sector plan to incorporate this technology in all their areas by 2026, while 95% of large exporters already have specialists and mandatory training programs.
The AI Adoption Survey, carried out by Argencon in September 2025 on 42 companies, shows that the integration of this technology is in full expansion. 41.5% plan to implement it in all their areas during 2026, and 17% consider it their main strategic project. Large exporting firms lead the process: 95% have teams specialized in AI, and 75% offer advanced training programs, while 43% of SMEs have not yet developed formal policies.
74% of companies maintained their hiring pace and opted to train their staff internally, prioritizing talent retraining. The areas most transformed by AI are technology (74%), human resources (50%), finance (48%) and marketing (43%), with notable improvements in productivity and cost reduction.
Leandro Mora Alfonsín, Executive Director of Development at Argencon, pointed out that “global trade related to AI today is the main shock absorber of world trade, which according to WTO projections tends towards general stagnation by 2026.”
He added that official estimates indicate that “knowledge-based services behave outside of that logic” and that, in that context, “Argentina has an enormous opportunity based on its capabilities, talent and capacity to adopt new technologies.”
ecom
Main indicators of the knowledge economy – July 2024/June 2025
- Total exports: USD 9,685 million.
- Year-on-year growth: +20.8%.
- Exports (2nd quarter 2025): USD 2,447 million, 15.5% more than in the same quarter of 2024.
- Expansion rate: Doubles the global average of 9.5% recorded in 2024.
- Employment: 3,200 new jobs were created in the last quarter.
Source: Ambito
