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
The month of March marked 35 years of Microsoft's presence in Brazil, a moment that celebrated and reinforced its commitment to supporting the country's development. The company also celebrates in 2024 the four years of the Microsoft Mais Brasil¹ plan, which has four focus areas : 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”, says Tânia Cosentino, president of Microsoft Brazil.
An example of the impact made by Microsoft in the country are the countless free training and professional retraining courses in technology, which offer everything from digital literacy to more advanced modules in cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence, 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 thousand people were inserted into the world of work within 6 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 organizations, 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+² 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 thousand new Technology professionals by 2025 – which means an average of 159 thousand new vacancies per annum. Despite the encouraging numbers, there is a talent deficit in the Brazilian market which, according to the survey, trains only 53 thousand 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 center where developers and technology professionals can connect with the local community and develop new skills to drive innovation in their organizations. 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 thousand women in the country with these actions since 2020. Among the initiatives are Black Women in Tech, a training program focused on training women 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 basics of low code/no code programming on Microsoft Power Platform, with classes on Power BI, Power Apps , Power Automate, Copilot Studio and Power Pages, all certified.
This year, the company launched fluêncIA, a course program carried out only by female Microsoft specialists who work in the areas of data intelligence, AI, cloud and sales. The objective is to reinforce that there is no gender distinction for technology careers and to overcome barriers for female professionals in the area, in which women are a minority. The classes are in Portuguese and are available through the teaching platforms of some partners listed on the Conecta+ website, including Escola do Trabalhador 4.0, ATN, and Capacítate from Trust for the Americas.
Aimed at software developers with some experience, DevOps 4 Women has already offered, in its first edition, in 2022, twenty-five vacancies for cis and trans women who wanted to enter the technology market. Security Girls, launched in 2023, in turn, created space for 100 women interested in the security and cloud area. All programs entitle participants to take exams to obtain certification in each of their areas.
Microsoft is also carrying out a project in partnership with the NGO Recode, and the Associação Terra Indígena Xingu (Atix), located in Mato Grosso. This action aims to provide access to technology and offer autonomy to 16 indigenous peoples living in Xingú. Technology workshops were offered in the city of Canarana, with a focus on providing digital literacy to the population of Xingu. In this process, 20 people were trained, who are part of the leadership of Xingu organizations, and 21 instructors were trained, who have the role of appropriating this content and multiplying it within the Xingu territory, taking the knowledge acquired to the inhabitants of the villages of the Xingu Indigenous Land.
Of the 41 indigenous people trained in this process, 13 were women, who had all the necessary support to participate in the training without compromising their demands as mothers and one of the deliveries was the creation of some dictionary videos to translate technology terms into some of the main indigenous languages region, which can facilitate digital literacy for new people. These videos were recorded by the instructors themselves and will be published on the networks of the organizations involved in the project.
And to increase adherence to these programs, it is essential that we support the expansion of internet access for people who live in unserved and underserved areas. Microsoft, through the Airband5 project, entered into a partnership with Brisanet. In work carried out in conjunction with the NGOs Amigos do Bem6 and Mais Unidos7, the telephone operator will extend access to high-speed internet to more than 11 million people and will support social and economic development in low-income regions of the country.
Sustainable practices
The company invests in green technologies and supports environmental conservation projects with global goals such as becoming carbon negative by 2030 and being able, by 2050, to offset all of the company's emissions history since its founding in 1975.
An action that reinforces Microsoft's commitment to accelerating sustainable practices and generating even more efficiency for its operation is the agreement signed with AES Brasil, a 100% renewable energy generation company, with the signing of a PPA (purchase contract and energy sales), reported in AES Brasil's 1Q23 results, for the supply of renewable energy for a period of 15 years, starting in July 2024. The energy will be generated by AES Brasil from the Cajuína Wind Complex, which is in development in the State of Rio Grande do Norte. The project will have 154 MW of installed wind capacity – which would be enough to generate energy corresponding to the consumption of around 250 thousand homes and to avoid the annual emission of 28.7 thousand* tons of greenhouse gases (GHG).
Another initiative focused on enabling a sustainable future is PrevisIA, a tool created in partnership between the company, the Institute of Man and the Environment of the Amazon (Imazon) and Fundo Vale, which uses Artificial Intelligence to analyze diverse data such as topography, land cover, urban infrastructure, roads and socioeconomic data to identify possible areas of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest.
ClimaAdapt, developed in partnership by the Ministry of Integration and Regional Development (MIDR) and Microsoft do Brasil, is another example of how technology can be used to support the solution of issues that are relevant to humanity. The platform is 100% automated and uses public and available data from bodies that work directly or indirectly with the climate change agenda.
Based on this information, the platform presents a map, with an accuracy of 100 meters, which allows the identification of vulnerabilities in regions, which facilitates understanding of the risks that the population is exposed to when there is extreme rainfall, tropical depressions, extratropical cyclones and severe droughts, for example.
Technology needs to be reliable
As we enter a new era based on artificial intelligence, Microsoft believes it is important to articulate principles that will govern how we operate our AI data center infrastructure and other important AI assets around the world. In February this year, the company released the “AI Access Principles”8, to address Microsoft's growing role and responsibility as an AI innovator and market leader.
Like other technologies used in the past, AI will create a sector of the economy that will not only offer new opportunities for existing companies, but will also be responsible for the creation of new companies and business categories that previously did not exist. 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, we are 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.
4 Worker School 4.0, ATN, Capacitate
5 Airband
* People employed up to 6 months after completing Microsoft training. This number includes formal and informal employment and people who were employed and achieved promotion after taking the course. This number was collected through an online employability survey, which uses sampling and anonymous responses.
EN 
PT 
