AI revolutionizes sectors across Colombia: From digital banking to Amazon rainforest conservation, AI is driving innovative solutions.
Nadella underscores the country’s potential to help solve global challenges with cutting-edge technology.
Bogotá – Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella visited Colombia today to explore how innovations in cloud and AI are empowering organizations across the country. During the ‘Microsoft AI Tour’ event, Nadella engaged with business leaders, government officials, technology ecosystem representatives, and developers, highlighting how AI is helping to propel Colombia’s digital economy and improve lives.
In his keynote address, Nadella emphasized how Microsoft AI and Azure are unlocking new opportunities for businesses in Colombia, driving productivity and enhancing competitiveness. Addressing an audience of over 800, he stressed the importance of embedding security and responsible AI practices throughout innovation, noting how AI is delivering solutions that address both business and societal challenges.
“This next generation of AI is changing how organizations operate and innovate everywhere, including in Colombia,” said Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “It’s fantastic to see firsthand how local companies and developers are applying our AI platforms and tools to build the future for Colombia and the world.”
Colombia: A Strategic Hub for AI
Microsoft’s Cloud and AI infrastructure in Latin America are set to play a pivotal role in the region´s digital transformation, enabling the deployment of advanced technologies like AI. These investments offer new opportunities for innovation, driving growth and unlocking value across the region.
AI represents a transformative opportunity for economic growth in Colombia. A recent Microsoft-commissioned study by IDC shows a significant return on AI investments, with organizations achieving ROI that triples their initial costs. Colombia, alongside Chile, leads the region in AI adoption. Notably, 59% of organizations in Colombia have implemented AI in less than 6 months, exceeding the global average of 48%., illustrating how quickly these technologies deliver tangible business outcomes.
Colombian companies are demonstrating their commitment to AI, with 82% planning to increase their AI budgets over the next two years—the highest percentage in the region. Nearly half of these organizations have already reallocated, or are planning to redirect, resources from other areas into AI projects.
Innovating Across Sectors with AI
During his visit, Nadella met with leaders who are driving AI adoption in Colombia. He highlighted how local organizations, through strategic partnerships, are innovating in areas like healthcare, ecosystem conservation, and business transformation. Among the standout examples:
- Project Guacamaya: This initiative employs AI to monitor and protect the Amazon rainforest, using satellite imagery, camera traps, and bioacoustics to track forest coverage and biodiversity. AI models analyze these data to detect deforestation and biodiversity shifts. Created through collaboration between public, private, and academic sectors—including Universidad de Los Andes, Instituto Alexander von Humboldt, Instituto Sinchi, IDEAM, and Microsoft AI for Good Lab—the tool is publicly available, helping to shape policies and conservation efforts for faster responses to environmental threats.
- Bancolombia: With a solid technical team of 4,000 people, including more than 3,400 software and infrastructure engineers, Bancolombia is a global leader in the adoption of GitHub Copilot. The bank has achieved a 30% increase in code generation, boosting automated application changes to an average of 18,000 per year, with a rate of 42 productive daily deployments. Additionally, the entity conducts more than 8,000 security scans per day to prevent vulnerability risks as part of its continuous hacking strategy.
- Sura Seguros SURA is a company with 80 years of experience in the insurance sector, offering a wide portfolio of insurance solutions and services that deliver sustainable well-being and competitiveness to 14 million clients in the country. In 2023, SURA launched its Omics Sciences Center with the aim of transforming the treatment of genetic diseases that affect millions of people in the region. At this Center, SURA employs Microsoft’s AI technologies for efficient genomic sequencing processing and the analysis of clinical and genetic data. To date, the platform has generated more than 11,500 reports related to Hereditary Cancer Panels and exomes, significantly contributing to improved diagnostics, personalized treatments, and progress in scientific research.
- Haceb: This Colombian appliance manufacturer, with 3,600 employees, considers after-sales service essential for improving customer satisfaction. With over 1,200 appliance models in Colombian homes, their 245 technicians handle more than 1,000 service calls daily. Haceb implemented Copilot Studio to document knowledge, manuals, and historical repair data, creating a bot assistant that enhances technician productivity and customer satisfaction by providing quick access to technical information, making service visits more efficient and improving the overall customer experience.
- Judge Quiñones: In the context of the digital transformation of justice led by the Superior Council of the Judiciary, Magistrate María Victoria Quiñones has been a pioneer in integrating technology and AI into Colombia’s judicial system, focusing on improving court efficiency and access to justice. Recently, she has tested the use of Copilot for Teams during virtual judicial hearings to generate transcripts, summarize proceedings, and assist with the creation of minutes. Her efforts demonstrate how the correct and supervised application of AI can streamline judicial operations, reduce costs, and support processes, making the justice system more efficient while always guaranteeing fundamental rights and judicial independence
These collaborations showcase how Microsoft is empowering Colombian organizations to harness the potential of AI, driving innovation and fostering economic growth.
For more information about Satya Nadella’s visit and Microsoft’s role in Colombia’s digital transformation, visit our website: https://aka.ms/colombia
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Microsoft (Nasdaq «MSFT» @microsoft), creates AI-powered platforms and tools to offer innovative solutions that meet the changing needs of our customers. The technology company is committed to making AI widely available, responsibly, with the mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
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