The company remains a strategic partner in supporting Brazil’s economic and sustainable growth. Since 2020, its professional inclusion and training programs have impacted around 12.5 million people.
March 2024 marked 35 years of Microsoft’s presence in Brazil, a time to celebrate and reinforce its commitment to supporting the country’s development.
The company also celebrates the four years of the Microsoft plan Mais Brasil, which has four focuses of action: supporting inclusive economic growth, protecting fundamental rights, enabling a sustainable future and increasing trust in technology.
“We are proud to be part of the transformations that the country has undergone in these 35 years. We envision an increasingly promising and transformative scenario for Brazil, especially with the acceleration of the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the arrival of Generative AI, fundamental technologies for seeking answers to the most complex challenges in our society, in addition to contributing to the business growth and the acceleration of Digital Transformation locally,” said Tânia Cosentino, President of Microsoft Brazil.
An example of the impact made by Microsoft in the country are the free training and professional retraining courses in technology, which offer everything from digital literacy to more advanced modules in cloud computing, AI, data science and cybersecurity.
These initiatives have already reached around 12.5 million people and another 2.8 million people have been impacted. As a result, more than 245,000 were inserted into the world of work within six months of completing these courses. In the area of education, more than 6,800 teachers trained in Microsoft technologies during this period.
Through partnerships with local companies, startups and non-profit organisations, Microsoft aims to collaborate so that society is able to prosper in the era of Digital Transformation and, to this end, it has brought together Microsoft Conecta+ in a single portal, all free online course opportunities.
Having a well-prepared workforce is essential, not only to guarantee employability, but also to promote innovation and economic development in Brazil. According to a study released at the end of 2021 by the Brazilian Association of Information and Communication Technology Companies (Brasscom), the forecast is that the country will need 797,000 new technology professionals by 2025 – which means an average of 159,000 new vacancies per year. Despite the encouraging numbers, there is a talent deficit in the Brazilian market which, according to the survey, trains only 53,000 people with a technological profile annually.
Support for entrepreneurship
Another important pillar that is part of Microsoft’s long-term commitment to the country is the promotion of innovation and entrepreneurship. The company has numerous initiatives on this front, such as the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub, which aims to remove barriers to the success of startups and offer free resources to support startups and scale-ups.
The company also provides entrepreneurs with Microsoft Reactor, a technical learning and sharing centre where developers and technology professionals can connect with the local community and develop new skills to drive innovation in their organisations. This is a global initiative by the company, and Reactor do Brasil is located in the city of São Paulo and offers activities in a hybrid format.
Women Entrepreneurship (WE) is a program that aims to stimulate female entrepreneurship in the country. WE’s first major initiative came from Microsoft Participações which, in partnership with Sebrae Nacional and M8 Partners and in association with Bertha Capital, structured the WE Ventures fund, which focuses on investing in startups led by women and that are in the called the ‘Valley of Death’ stage. Contributions range from R$1 million to R$5 million.
For social entrepreneurs, there is the Microsoft Entrepreneurship for Positive Impact program, which focuses on projects aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Quality education (SDG 4), Decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), Action against global climate change (SDG 13) and peace, justice and effective institutions (SDG 16).
Interested startups go through a selection process and those qualified receive access to technology, education, networking and donations.
Equality is the priority
To achieve a more equal future, Microsoft supports the protection of people’s fundamental rights – from defending democracy to human rights and confronting injustice and racial inequality, in addition to expanding access to technology for all people, bringing Internet broadband access to difficult-to-reach locations.
Diversity and inclusion (D&I) is a fundamental pillar of the company’s culture, which believes that an environment with a variety of profiles and ideas is much more likely to understand society’s needs. In Brazil, Microsoft has four pillars of action in D&I: WAM (Women at Microsoft); BAM (Blacks at Microsoft); GLEAM (Global LGBTQIA+) and Accessibility.
The company offers several courses to increase gender equality in the technology environment and has already reached more than 795,000 women in the country with these actions since 2020. Among the initiatives are Black Women in Tech, a training program focused on training black women for the technology market.
Another action is the #GirlsPower mentoring program, in partnership with WoMakersCode, which has the mission of training women in the fundamentals of low code/no code programming (little or no code) on Microsoft Power Platform, with classes on Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, Copilot Studio and Power Pages, all certified.
Technology needs to be reliable
As we enter a new era based on AI, Microsoft believes it is important to articulate principles that will govern how it operates its AI data centre infrastructure and other important AI assets around the world.
The company released the ‘AI Access Principles’ eight to address Microsoft’s growing role and responsibility as an AI innovator and market leader.
The announced principles are a commitment by Microsoft to robust investments, new business partnerships and broader programs to promote innovation and competition. By publishing these principles, it is committed to providing broad access to the technology needed to empower organizations and individuals around the world to develop and use AI in ways that serve the public good.
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