Enterprises are making investment in the Artificial intelligence (AI) deployments in Brazil as part of their innovation aimed at improving efficiency.
Microsoft Latin America President Tito Arciniega in a recent blog post said: “Brazil is emerging as a world-class AI innovation hub, a testament to the country’s collective ambition and optimism in the power of AI to deliver economic results.”
In 2021, Brazil has introduced its artificial intelligence strategy. Today, Brazil Government revealed it will make an investment of 23 billion reais or $4.07 billion during 2024 to 2028 for an AI plan aimed at developing sustainable and socially-oriented technologies.
Many of those initiatives include the development of AI systems to facilitate customer service and other operational procedures.
Nearly 14 billion reais will go towards business innovation projects over the next four years, while more than 5 billion will be invested in AI infrastructure and development. The balance will be divided among training initiatives, public service improvements and support measures for AI regulation.
“Instead of waiting for AI to come from China, the U.S., South Korea, Japan, why not have our own,” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said.
Brazil has recently halted Meta Platforms from starting to train AI models on Instagram and Facebook posts. BBC news report said Meta aimed to scrape public posts, images, and comments for AI training. Content would have included posts by children and teens. But AI adoptions are growing among several large enterprises.
AI ADOPTION
Several companies are using Microsoft’s AI solutions.
“By massively adopting AI, Brazil can experience productivity gains that will add a few percentage points to its GDP in the near future,” said Tania Cosentino, General Manager of Microsoft Brazil.
Petrobras, a global energy major, is working with Microsoft to create ChatPetrobras, an internal tool powered by AI. Utilizing the GPT model and AI technologies from Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, ChatPetrobras aims to facilitate decision-making, provide business insights, and improve internal workflow efficiency for more than 100,000 Petrobras workers.
“ChatPetrobras represents our latest effort to harness artificial intelligence to enhance the productivity, quality, and efficiency of our processes,” said Carlos Augusto Barreto, Executive Manager of Information and Communications Technology at Petrobras.
Sao Paulo State Government is working with Microsoft to integrate AI Copilot into classroom activities to benefit teachers and over 3 million students across Sao Paulo by streamlining tasks such as assignment corrections, test scoring, and providing student guidance.
Comgas, the largest natural gas distributor in Brazil, is using AI to enhance data utilization, aiming to improve decision-making and customer service.
“We realized the possibility of extracting data more efficiently with the use of AI and, better understand our customers for more assertive decision-making,” said Thiago Rolemberg, Head of Data and AI at Comgas.
AI algorithms, alongside standardized data presentation facilitated by Power BI, have streamlined data extraction processes from a duration of 8 to 15 days to real-time for Comgas.
Comgas has processed over 55 TB of information, with the platform encompassing 60 percent of the company’s representative data. A third of the company’s employees have utilized the environment, with expectations to increase to 55 percent by the end of the year.
Atento, one of the world’s leading Customer Relationship Management and Business Process Outsourcing providers, has unveiled a new AI-driven solution designed to improve customer service and enhance the company’s service agent productivity.
“The solution enhances the consumer-brand experience. During a pilot program, we observed a more than 20 percent increase in customer satisfaction within the first few weeks,” stated Eduardo Aguirre, Chief Information Officer of Atento.
Power Automate facilitated the integration of legacy systems, reducing manual labor and improving response times. This integration led to a 30 percent boost in team productivity and nearly a 20 percent decrease in operational errors.
Brasilprev, a private pension firm, has started the deployment of its AI tool, Brasilprev GPT, to empower over 20,000 consultants and relationship managers. Brasilprev is utilizing Azure’s API Management and Azure Cosmos DB. This integration contributed to 28 percent conversion rate surpassing $9.86 billion in business.
“This engagement has a profoundly positive effect on the end customer, who enjoys more personalized and comprehensive response to their needs,” said Bruno Venceslau, Superintendent of Data and Digital Business at Brasilprev.
B3, the Brazilian stock exchange, has launched an AI tool for assisting the public in making the right investment decisions. The free tool, developed by B3 in partnership with Microsoft, is part of B3’s purpose to democratize access to the capital market through financial education.
“The financial education chat joins other initiatives as an open and uninhibited dialogue channel. We want individuals to clear their doubts in a light and interactive way, demystifying the idea that investing is complicated,” said Felipe Paiva, director of Customer Relations at B3.
AI DEPLOYMENT COST
The latst Gartner report says at least 30 percent of generative AI (GenAI) projects will be abandoned after proof of concept by the end of 2025, due to poor data quality, inadequate risk controls, escalating costs or unclear business value.
Rita Sallam, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner, said: “Executives are impatient to see returns on GenAI investments, yet organizations are struggling to prove and realize value.”
A challenge for organizations arises in justifying the substantial investment in GenAI for productivity enhancement, which can be difficult to directly translate into financial benefit.
Many organizations are leveraging GenAI to transform their business models and create new business opportunities. However, these deployment approaches come with significant costs, ranging from $5 million to $20 million. Is Brazil ready for such huge investment in AI?
Baburajan Kizhakedath
