CMPC First Peoples Entrepreneurs Strengthen Their Businesses with Innovation and AI Tools

With notebooks, questions, and close attention, 80 entrepreneurs arrived at CMPC's corporate building in Los Ángeles to take part in a session designed to provide them with concrete tools they can apply to their own businesses.

The activity was developed by CMPC together with Fundación CMPC and the Cultivadores de Futuro volunteer network, an initiative in which company professionals put their knowledge and experience at the service of various projects.

During the session, participants worked on three areas considered key to strengthening their ventures. The first was the Business Model Canvas, a tool that helps identify the main components of a business and detect opportunities for improvement.

The second module focused on the storytelling of the product and the venture. The idea was to provide tools so each participant can better communicate what they do, the story behind their product, what sets it apart, and what purpose lies behind their brand.

The third block incorporated a topic that is gaining more and more ground among small businesses: artificial intelligence.

Paolo Zappettini, AI developer at CMPC's Center of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence, showcased simple applications that can help entrepreneurs generate content, prepare posts, improve their social media, create presentations, and organize different tasks for their businesses.

"Many times entrepreneurs don't have the resources, for example, to hire a graphic designer to create graphics for their product or templates. With AI, they can do it themselves, customizing it according to what they need," he explained.

For participants, the experience also meant an opportunity to pause and look at their own ventures and discover new possibilities.

Lilian García, an entrepreneur from Collipulli and creator of Alfarería Piutril, described the mentorship as "very important, since it helps us improve as entrepreneurs and also learn new things." Among the content, she especially highlighted the Canvas, because it allowed her to do "an introspection of our venture and thus improve many things."

From Cholchol, Nancy Epulef, creator of La Manta Trarikán, especially valued the chance to be part of this initiative. "As a Mapuche woman, I feel proud to be part of CMPC, because it's an opportunity they gave me as an entrepreneur," she noted.

Her goal now is to take what she learned directly to her business: "To improve and be able to move forward and have better sales."

The session is part of First Peoples, a CMPC initiative aimed at valuing, preserving, and commercializing the crafts and ancestral trades of creators and communities in Biobío and La Araucanía.

Cristian Cuitiño, manager of Projects and Social Management at CMPC, highlighted that this activity is being held for the third consecutive year and, for the second year, in partnership with Fundación CMPC.

"It makes us very happy, because we are contributing through the installed capabilities we have at the Foundation and with the employees and volunteers who work within it, to deliver knowledge to the people who are part of First Peoples," he stated.

Currently, the initiative has stores in Santiago, Temuco, and Concepción, as well as a presence in digital commerce.

More than a training session, the gathering sought to provide tools that can translate into concrete actions: organizing a business, telling a story better, reaching new customers, and leveraging technology to grow ventures that keep alive the knowledge, trades, and traditions of southern Chile.