Artificial Intelligence (AI) and blockchain were the main topics of the Third Seminar by the BAES Research Group, the International Economics Inter-university Institute and AlicanTEC, celebrated at Alicante University, and entitled ‘Blockchain & AI: New global challenges in the financial system and business collaboration models’. BBVA Microfinance Foundation has participated in this forum, where it shared the current state of its technological and innovative processes that aim to reduce poverty in Latin America.
The Foundation’s Digital & Customer Experience director, María José Jordá, and Carmen Zaragoza, from the same area, have participated in this conference, explaining the challenges faced by digitalization in microfinance, and how chatbots or virtual assistants “could advance a lot of entrepreneurs’ productive activities, and help them abandon poverty”. In fact, this initiative has already kicked off in the shape of a digital solution designed by the BBVAMF, implemented in a region where it serves almost 2 million vulnerable people, so they, along with their families, could progress thanks to entrepreneurship.
The Foundation’s Digital & Customer Experience director, María José Jordá, and Carmen Zaragoza, from the same area, during the Workshop. (R) María José Jordá with María del Carmen Pastor Sempere, BAES Blockchain Lab director and professor at Alicante University
Another aspect that BBVAMF wanted to highlight, was the importance of state-of-the-art technologies that could greatly assist in granting microcredits through mobile phones, such as voice and image recognition, as well as geolocation.
Generally, this forum has tackled blockchain technology analysis and how it relates to artificial intelligence, just as the impact it could have on financial inclusion. In addition to sharing knowledge and good practices, that put a spotlight on the importance of applying technology to help reduce poverty in the most unequal region in the planet.
