María Soto Castro @mariasotocast
I am thrilled to introduce María Soto Castro, a powerhouse in the intersection of technology and marketing, whose expertise and passion have made her a trailblazer in the industry. With a background in computer engineering and a master’s degree in digital marketing, Maria seamlessly bridges the gap between technical innovation and creative strategy.
Currently serving as the Innovation Team Lead & Global Marketing Manager at Bravent, Maria is at the forefront of driving digital transformation and shaping the future of marketing. Her dedication and leadership have earned her the prestigious title of AI Microsoft MVP, recognizing her outstanding contributions to the field of artificial intelligence.
In addition to her professional roles, Maria is a driving force behind various community initiatives, serving as the organizer of the GlobalAI Bootcamp and actively participating in projects like W4TT. Her passion for technology and community building extends to her role as a GlobalAI Bootcamp Organizer, where she empowers others to explore the endless possibilities of AI.
Maria’s insatiable curiosity and love for innovation are further reflected in her role as a GPT enthusiast and her commitment to sharing knowledge through her blog, Marketing in Tech. Through her insightful articles and thought-provoking discussions, Maria continues to inspire and educate others in the ever-evolving landscape of technology and marketing.
Join us as we delve into Maria’s journey, exploring her career milestones, passion projects, and insights into the exciting world of technology and marketing. Get ready to be inspired by Maria’s vision, expertise, and unwavering dedication to driving meaningful change in the digital age.
1.- María, as a Microsoft Artificial Intelligence MVP and Innovation Team Lead, could you share some insights into the most exciting AI projects you’ve been involved in recently?
In my company we are making incredible developments to our customers thanks to artificial intelligence, in particular a solution that we are demanding a lot is related to AI Document Mining, the way we have now to ask questions and perform semantic searches on our documents, whatever type it is: email, pdf, Word, ppt, Excel etc. is a matter of seconds you have the answers and a reference of where you have obtained the document. For me it is one of the coolest projects and also, it is a very useful development for anyone.
2.- How do you see the role of AI evolving in marketing, particularly in terms of customer engagement and personalized experiences?
For example, thanks to developments with generative AI we can offer intelligent assistants that can remember conversations of specific users or customers, contrast with their behavior or purchase history and offer personalized recommendations at the most appropriate time to offer them a better user experience and therefore increase customer satisfaction and the likelihood of purchase.
Regarding the generation of personalized content in different languages depending on the customer, generation of promotional videos entirely generated with AI: from ideation, script or storytelling and images.
3.- As someone deeply involved in the Global AI Bootcamp, what opportunities do you think such initiatives offer for fostering AI talent and innovation?
The Global AI Bootcamp, like any community event, is an event where knowledge sharing is more important than any business benefit, where the latest technologies, use cases and real applications are presented.
It is a forum to train attendees who want to get into AI, or recycle those technical professionals who want to get into AI and innovation.
4.- Could you share some examples of how AI is being used to enhance productivity and efficiency within organizations, based on your experiences?
On the one hand we have tools such as Microsoft Copilot, which thanks to its functionalities can increase employee productivity: obtain transcripts and summaries of meetings without having to document them manually, get summaries of email chains, create content or presentations based on a text with a specific corporate image, etc..
Thanks to intelligent chatbots for semantic searches on documents, we can speed up oboarding processes in companies, or facilitate and optimize day-to-day processes of employees.
Or customized developments with artificial Vision than can automate manual tasks or detect process failures before it is too late, and therefore save time and costs by optimizing processes.
In short, there are countless examples and use cases that help companies to be more efficient.
5.- What advice would you give to women looking to pursue careers in AI, particularly in leadership roles such as yours?
Technology and in particular AI, is fascinating, demanding because you have to keep up with everything at a frantic pace but very rewarding, it does not give time to stagnate.
That the most important thing above knowledge and skills is attitude, you have to have desire, be up to date, strive and trust yourself, the road will not always be easy and there will be people who bet on you and others who do not, but based on hard work and perseverance goals and objectives are achieved.
6.- María, can you discuss the importance of diversity and inclusion in AI development and how it impacts the technology’s outcomes?
Diversity and inclusion is essential to obtain diverse developments, if the data on which the model is trained has biases and nothing is detected or done to correct them, we will be creating an AI with biases, so it is essential to have diverse teams that are able to detect them and include examples and points of view that cover all groups or cases, at least most of them.
7.- What would you advise young people who have talent but do not dare to take the next step? What would you advise parents who do not support their children’s talents?
Well, I would tell young people that effort has its reward and is the key to success, it is very important to have a clear goal, the objectives and set actions to achieve them, and working and striving are achieved.
Interview with María Soto Castro by Jaime William Mostacero Baca
Jaime William & Leading Ladies – María Soto Castro