AI regulation in Colombia: laws & policy (2026)

The Petro administration invoked urgency powers to accelerate processing of Bill 043/2025 in Congress, signalling AI regulation as a top legislative priority. The bill proposes a risk-tiered framework (prohibited, high, limited, low risk), a national supervisory authority, and regulatory sandboxes, closely modelled on the EU AI Act.

MinCiencias and MinTIC jointly filed Bill 043/2025 in the Senate, Colombia's first government-sponsored omnibus AI regulation. It establishes binding principles (transparency, human oversight, privacy), a risk-based classification system, and a National AI Supervisory Authority, with the explicit aim of positioning Colombia as a Latin American leader in responsible AI.

Colombia enacted Law 2502 of 2025, amending Article 296 of the Criminal Code to add a one-third sentencing enhancement whenever identity fraud is committed using AI tools such as deepfakes. This is Colombia's first enacted AI-specific statute, and it also mandates a public policy on AI-assisted fraud co-authored by the Prosecutor's Office, National Police, and MinTIC.

Colombia's National Economic and Social Policy Council approved CONPES 4144, a successor to CONPES 3975, with 106 concrete actions and COP 479 billion (~USD 115 million) in committed investment through 2030. The policy covers six axes: ethics and governance, data and infrastructure, R&D and innovation, talent, public-sector adoption, and international positioning, making Colombia one of only six Latin American countries with a full AI national roadmap.

Senators introduced Bill 059/23, the first standalone congressional initiative to codify public-policy guidelines for AI development, use, and implementation in Colombia, including a mandatory MinCiencias AI registry and a code of ethics. It passed first committee debate in November 2023 but was ultimately archived in 2024 for failing to complete all required debates within the legislative calendar.

The National Development Plan 'Colombia Potencia Mundial de la Vida' enacted via Law 2294 of 2023 formally adopted OECD AI recommendations and designated AI as a strategic pillar for digital transformation and state modernisation. This gave AI policy a statutory basis for the first time and anchored the National Digital Strategy 2023-2026 around AI democratisation.

MinTIC announced Colombia's early national implementation of the UNESCO Recommendation on AI Ethics (adopted by all 193 UNESCO members in November 2021), applying its principles to both public and private sectors. This made Colombia one of the first Latin American countries to align domestic AI governance with the global UNESCO framework and initiated national consultations on institutional capacity-building.

The Ministry of Science (MinCiencias), with IDB and CAF support, published the 'Marco Ético para la Inteligencia Artificial en Colombia,' establishing 10 ethical principles, including transparency, accountability, non-discrimination, and human-centricity, for public and private AI development. This was among the first dedicated national AI ethics frameworks in Latin America and directly informed subsequent CONPES and legislative drafting.

Colombia's National Economic and Social Policy Council approved CONPES 3975, the country's first comprehensive AI and digital-transformation policy. It established four strategic pillars, reducing adoption barriers, enabling digital innovation, building human capital for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and preparing the economy for AI-driven change, and remained the anchor governance document for all subsequent AI policy through 2022.