Mercado Libre Executives Say AI is Key Focus

Mercado Libre CEO Marcos Galperin will focus “quite a bit” on artificial intelligence when he moves to a new role as executive chairman on Jan. 1, 2026, he said Wednesday (July 30) on the company’s investor relations podcast.

Galperin announced the CEO transition in a May letter to employees, saying that after 26 years leading the company that is now a leading commerce and FinTech ecosystem in Latin America, he will hand the role of CEO over to Ariel Szarfsztejn, who has been with Mercado Libre since 2017 and currently leads the company’s marketplace.

Speaking Wednesday on the company’s podcast posted on Spotify, Galperin said he will continue to be very involved in the company after the CEO transition.

His main objective for the next five years will be making sure that Szarfsztejn succeeds in his new role and helping him however he can, Galperin said.

“I intend to be participating in decisions regarding strategy, obviously regarding culture, which I believe has been a key factor why we have been successful thus far,” Galperin said. “I will focus in some projects, particular projects. Obviously right now I will focus quite a bit in AI and then decisions regarding capital allocations. But mostly I intend to be there as executive chairman trying to make sure Ari succeeds in his new role.”

Szarfsztejn said during the podcast that AI is also one of the things about which he is most excited.

“I think the platform change that will be faced in the future with AI, I think we are going through a unique moment in time and being able to lead the formation into this new era, I think that’s very exciting to me,” Szarfsztejn said.

In the May letter announcing the CEO transition, Galperin said that Mercado Libre “is experiencing one of its best moments: in terms of scale, growth, profitability, strategic positioning, financial strength, technology and market positioning.”

When reporting the company’s first quarter results in May, Mercado Libre said that it saw 25% year-over-year growth in unique active buyers and that this contributed significantly to gross merchandise volume (GMV) growth.