Brazilian IT multinational Stefanini raises investments, revenues and AI stakes

Brazilian IT multinational Stefanini is on track to end 2024 with close to 8bn reais (US$1.32bn) in global revenues, up by 14% and a record for the company, prompted by AI-related projects, CEO and founder Marco Stefanini told journalists during a press event on Thursday.

On the occasion, Stefanini updated the company's three-year investment plan announced in 2023, adding another 1bn reais to be invested by 2027. Previously, Stefanini said it was eyeing 1bn reais in capex in 2023-26, but the CEO now projects 2bn reais in 2024-27.

The bulk is expected to go to M&As, particularly of AI-focused startups and enterprises, according to the company.

AI

The company claims it has explored large language models (LLM) since 2018 – before the ChatGPT boom. At present, Stefanini reports 250 use cases of AI in place with over 100 clients.

GenAI projects developed by the group include cybersecurity, industry 4.0, cloud, digital marketing and finance, said Stefanini. 

Fabio Caversan, Stefanini’s VP of innovation and digital business for North America and the Asia-Pacific, admitted that many companies have invested in AI but have not yet seen a return. 

In his view, this could be because the solution chosen was not the most appropriate for the problem, or because the customer did not rely on a partner capable of outlining the right strategy, which might not necessarily include genAI.

Caversan is responsible for Stefanini's global AI center of excellence, opened this year at the group's headquarters in the US.

The company has AI development centers in all regions where it operates, including two in Brazil.

Finance

With AI, Stefanini developed a project in partnership with one of the largest private banks in Brazil to analyze customer profiles.

In another initiative, the same bank managed to double its initial revenue target in one year through AI related to the marketing of a specific product, Stefanini claimed.

At a digital bank, genAI deployed by Stefanini reportedly reduced the time to fulfill legal demands by 76%. None of these clients could be made public.

Mining

The Stefanini Group helped a mining company reduce the negative environmental footprint resulting from adverse events in the Amazon rainforest.

This came through a solution that assesses environmental variables, such as air quality and water, in addition to detecting forest fires, through data analysis, IoT technology and machine learning algorithms.

At the same company, real-time data collection reportedly reduced the need for field trips from 600km to 200km and, consequently, reduced employee exposure to risks. While it previously used to take seven days to collect data from 35 stations, today information is updated every five minutes, said Stefanini.

Founded 37 years ago, Stefanini is present in 41 countries and has over 38,000 employees.