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About this episode
In the sixth episode of Genius Talks, we discuss the social impact that AI can generate globally in health.
Description
When discussing the advancement of artificial intelligence in corporations, it's very common to get stuck in the theoretical field or limited to productivity gains within technology teams. However, what is the true impact this technology can have on people's lives when applied on a global scale?
In the sixth episode of Genius Talks, our host, Alcebíades Araújo, AI Specialist at Squadra, welcomed Hugo Marques, SMB & Partner Leader & Board Member at Microsoft Elevate, Romulo Cioffi, Chief AI and Innovation Officer at Squadra, and Douglas Ramalho, Software Engineer at Squadra, to talk about the social impact that AI is capable of generating globally in healthcare.
Operation Smile carries out worldwide cleft lip surgery missions for children in vulnerable areas. The organization faced operational bottlenecks and took months in the patient screening phase, which was entirely done manually on paper. Another bottleneck was post-surgical follow-up, due to communication errors in reports written in various languages and read in others, depending on the primary language of the local doctor and nurse monitoring the patients.
With the support of Squadra, a solution for process automation, image classification, AI analytics, translation, and conversational models was designed.
During the project development, a critical engineering obstacle emerged: Microsoft's strict security filters (guardrails) prevented children's photos from being natively processed by generative AI, which required the creation of exception rules justified by the project's purpose.
Obeying the triad we discussed in the previous episode, problem, solution, and impact, we arrived at the results:
90% reduction in translation errors and interpretation of records;
More than 15% acceleration in surgical processes in several countries, reducing the waiting time for these children and families.
Another remarkable example of how technology can save lives on a large scale was the work done with the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF).
The institution was founded by Elizabeth Glaser, a mother who contracted the HIV virus in 1981 through a blood transfusion and lost her daughter to the disease in 1988. Since then, the foundation has been working to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission during pregnancy and breastfeeding, concentrating a large part of its operations in Africa.
During Hack4Good 3.0, a global hackathon held by Microsoft in Seattle in 2025, Squadra was the selected partner to create an AI solution capable of processing EGPAF's gigantic data ecosystem, which has 18 million registered patients and billions of data points.
Historically, healthcare professionals and analysts in the field needed IT teams to extract reports or waited weeks for new static BI dashboards to make preventive decisions.
The Squadra team created a resilient conversational architecture based on specialized artificial intelligence agents. Through the solution, instead of requesting new fixed reports, the healthcare professional interacts with this AI, fed by the foundation's database, using natural language to obtain on-demand visualizations and analyses instantly.
The solution, initially implemented in Kenya, earned Squadra the runner-up title, in addition to the project for expanding the system to 12 more countries, democratizing access to vital health information.
“Analyzing billions of data to save children's lives requires focus on the process and on generating value for those on the front lines. With the solution, the health analyst can now directly dialogue with the organization's knowledge in natural language.” - Douglas Ramalho, Software Engineer at Squadra.
Artificial intelligence differs from other past technological waves because, in addition to becoming an easily accessible commodity, it has the capacity to act as a cognitive amplifier.
Through their non-governmental organization operating in Nairobi, Kenya, young people in vulnerable situations participate in project-based learning dynamics, using cutting-edge tools like GitHub Copilot, Minecraft Education, and agentic models in Azure AI Foundry to solve real problems in their communities.
This same winning methodology was brought to Brazil in a partnership between the Microsoft Elevate program and the Gerando Falcões organization, led by Edu Lyra, called COLAI.
On this side, Squadra is acting as a bridge for training and hiring in another edition of its trainee program, New Thinkers, recruiting talents trained by the project for its own engineering team.
“AI is not here to eliminate jobs, but to include more people in the technology game and transform realities.” - Romulo Cioffi, Chief AI and Innovation Officer at Squadra
The problem, the technology, and the impact: AI's success triad | Genius Talks #05
