While behind the scenes the presidential election and the war between the US and Iran dominate conversations at the South Summit Brazil , on stage the topic is different. Artificial intelligence dominates virtually every panel.

One example is the visible and invisible AI at Renner, which presented the first results of using the technology with customers and in its processes at the South Summit Brazil. "There's what's visible to customers and what's invisible, in our back office," said the company's CEO, Fábio Faccio .

On the visible side, there are gains in the effectiveness of product offerings to consumers. According to Faccio, the company achieved a 75% increase in the conversion rate of products recommended on the website.

"AI can customize what used to be mass-produced, where we used filters and clustering. Now, clustering is more granular, because our AI is understanding the customer journey," he said.

In the "invisible" realm, Renner uses AI in its creative teams, with the technology helping to research trends worldwide.

Technology is also helping the company become more assertive in its inventory management. This allows them to send the right products, in the right quantities, to the stores. "We are generating more sales, with higher margins and less waste," said Faccio.

Vivo's AI concierge

Vivo is preparing to launch an AI concierge service in its call center, said Christian Gebara , CEO of the telecom company, during a panel discussion.

Anyone calling the phone company or accessing the service via the app will be assisted by an AI agent, who will then direct the call to three other specialized agents: one for billing, another for technical support, and one for plan changes.

With this model, the company aims to resolve between 60% and 70% of requests right at the point of entry, making service faster and more tailored to the complexity of each case.

Vivo has been practically applying artificial intelligence to transform its customer service processes and operational efficiency. According to Gebara, the company uses AI to support customer service representatives, reducing approximately 12,000 monthly inquiries that were previously handled manually and decreasing call times with customers by 10%.

Agents on the menu

iFood CEO Diego Barreto explained how the company has successfully incorporated AI agents into its daily operations. According to him, the company currently has over 9,000 agents working in various areas of the company, in the background, in activities where human intervention is no longer necessary.

"Currently, 32% of iFood's activities have been redesigned in some way with the agents, with some level of activity done in the background," he said.

According to him, achieving a high level of utilization requires that the topic be thoroughly discussed among employees. Since 2022, the company has had this issue on its agenda, initially implementing assistants, which he considers fundamental for the effective implementation of AI.

“Whenever there’s a culture that isn’t very well disseminated in the company, you have to keep explaining it, pushing it. I don’t have to keep explaining that at iFood. We have a low-code platform integrated into our system for people to create agents. Given that there’s a culture and this low requirement for coding knowledge, people adopt the agents,” he stated.

Legal certainty

Uber 's general manager in Brazil, Silvia Penna, warned that the proposal being discussed by Congress to establish minimum fares for rides could end up harming drivers on the platforms, due to the risk of reducing the number of users.

"The Brazilian market is very price-sensitive. Any increase in the price of a ride reduces demand," he stated. "Sometimes the intention of regulation is to protect drivers, but it ends up having the effect of reducing their income."

Highlighting his support for a bill addressing the issue of social security protection for drivers, Penna said the text needs to be balanced, without hindering Uber's flexibility in pricing rides, because it's necessary to ensure the platform can offer Uber to customers at any time. "On some trips, I need to offer incentives for the ride to take place," he said.

Even if the text goes ahead with this proposal, Uber will not leave Brazil, the country that is Uber's largest market in the world and where it is investing R$ 2 billion in technology. But Penna warns, "We need to work with legal certainty to continue investing in Brazil," he stated.

Founder (fast) first

With AI accelerating disruptions, the role and capabilities of entrepreneurs are even more important for a startup to move forward and succeed.

“There’s no more room for founders who are too hasty,” said Marcelo Ciampolini, partner at Antler. “Those who aren’t executing have missed the boat.”

The founder's role is even more relevant in the early stages, according to Larissa Bomfim, managing partner of Canastra Venture, considering that people and companies are still testing AI and realizing its value in everyday life, leading to high churn. Therefore, entrepreneurs need to be prepared to quickly rotate their businesses.

“The entrepreneur gets very excited because they’ve found their PMF [product-market fit, the stage where a startup offers a product that meets the needs of a specific market], but then the business loses momentum,” he stated. “One of the moats we look for in startups is the ability to reinvent themselves all the time, because their PMF today won’t be the same next week.”

Patient capital

Anita Fiori , director of the Soros Fund for Economic Development, used several impactful phrases in a debate about impact investing at the South Summit Brazil.

“Patient capital is the only thing left. Even more so with these interest rates,” said Fiori, referring to the pressure for results from investors and also the lack of appetite to allocate resources to new alternative funds.

She explained what patient capital means, illustrating her investment in several funds from the same manager, not all of which had good returns, but the result of one harvest surpassed all the bad years. "That's patient capital," she summarized.

Fiori was also emphatic in differentiating between ESG and impact. "ESG is not impact. It's compliance," said the director of the Soros Fund for Economic Development.