SANTO DOMINGO – Banco Popular Dominicano and its Impulsa Popular Forum trained over 1,000 entrepreneurs and representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on the opportunities presented by applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) functionalities in business. Experts addressed trending topics to enhance the competitiveness and development of companies. For this tenth edition, registration reached 2,800 people, reflecting a growing interest in the application of AI in the business sector.
Under the title “AI-Future: for smart companies”, the tenth edition of the Impulsa Forum offered a wide range of content to attendees, with four conferences, a discussion and a panel on artificial intelligence and its effects on business, examples of local application, the cybersecurity challenges it poses, the management of advanced algorithms and legal aspects related to this new exponential technology.
Popular, a bank that supports SMEs
In his remarks, the CEO of Banco Popular, Mr. Christopher Paniagua, reaffirmed the bank's commitment to the development and innovation of businesses, encouraging the attending SMEs to take advantage of the forum's content.
“Consider how you can incorporate this exponential technology into your own business models to continue moving towards more competitive and sustainable leadership. At Banco Popular, we are by your side to support you on this journey,” Mr. Paniagua emphasized.
The CEO of Banco Popular took advantage of the meeting to show the attending companies how the financial organization's app ecosystem, with applications such as Comerza and BIZ, helps manage the business sector and marks a milestone in its digital transformation.
Platform for SMEs Impulsa Popular
Around 15,000 attendees have enjoyed the nine previous editions of this Impulsa Forum, which is a central component of the Impulsa Popular platform, through which the bank offers products, services and a complete content and training strategy to support the business development of Dominican SMEs.
More than 71,500 SME clients are part of this platform, with 24% in the service sector; 26% in commerce; 14% in manufacturing; and 36% in real estate, the remainder distributed among other sectors of the economy. Of these SME clients, 24% are women-led businesses.
In addition to the Impulsa Business Forum, the Impulsa Popular platform integrates the Impulsa Popular Franchise program, the SME Business Strengthening program, and the Impulsa Popular web portal.
National and international experts in AI
This tenth edition of the Impulsa Forum began with the presentation “Reimagining Customer Service”, given by Mr. Juan Martín Maglione, associate director – head of Deep GenAI at the international consulting firm Boston Consulting Group; then, Mr. Roberto Icasuriaga, director of SMEs and Digital Native Companies at Microsoft, spoke about “The transformative power of Artificial Intelligence in companies in the Dominican Republic”.
The event featured a discussion on innovation and the equitable use of AI, moderated by Said Saillant, founder of Societas Sapiens, and José Armando Tavárez, managing partner of BDO Digital, who discussed the importance of equity in AI implementation. Ricardo Ramírez, Director of Consulting and Analytics at VISA INC, then gave a presentation titled “The Evolution of Commerce Through Artificial Intelligence.”.
Experts Mabel Cueto, founder of IP Privacy Boutique Legal, Omar Silié, Vice President of Data and Analytics at Popular, and Víctor Yomayusa, manager of the Information Security Architecture Division at Popular, explained how data protection and cybersecurity are key factors for implementing AI in organizations.
The day ended with a talk by Enric Quintero, founder and CEO of Datarmony, entitled “Beyond the machine: AI and its footprint on the social fabric”, in which he analyzed the ethical and social consequences of this technological transformation.
