Anonymized pay equity data from Clara for Creators as well as Nino De Guzman’s own insights help inform the tool, but it’s built for any entrepreneur and their individual needs. The tool is designed to be a mentor, providing tailored guidance to help entrepreneurs move seamlessly from ideation to sustaining and growing their business, empowering them to take the next step toward success. That might include advice from generating business names and navigating copyrights to accessing startup capital or grants to boosting their financial know-how to understanding hiring strategies and franchise opportunities.
“AI can’t replace the power of human connection, but we believe it can be an exceptional catalyst for knowledge that can help entrepreneurs reach their fullest potential,” says Raja Rajamannar, Mastercard’s chief marketing and communications officer. His team developed the tool with Create Labs Ventures, a social enterprise focused on expanding tech access to underserved communities.
In addition to Clara for Creators, Mastercard also worked with media organizations, including Blavity, Group Black, Newsweek and Televisa Univision, to train the AI with inclusive content.
Currently being piloted through Mastercard.com in the U.S., the AI tool is part of the company’s commitment to small business growth, which included a pledge, recently met, to connect 50 million small businesses to the digital economy. The company recently launched Mastercard Biz360, a one-stop shop to streamline access to the business management tools small and medium-size businesses need, adding it to a growing list of small business programs.
“Creators and small business owners don’t have huge teams most of the time, so if we can lean into an AI tool like this and get the answers that we need and reduce the amount of work that we have to outsource, that’s incredibly helpful to us,” Nino De Guzman says. “One-to-one sharing, it’s not always feasible. Versus having to respond to 10 DMs on Instagram, the idea of being able to knowledge-share more widely on a greater scale is really exciting for me.”
Photo credit: Alexsey Reyes
