Consultancy to implement an artificial intelligence technical assistance program for software companies in Santander's IT ecosystem with its own product

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is calling on consulting firms to submit proposals to implement a hybrid technical assistance program (with a duration of up to 22 weeks) aimed at software companies with their own product in the department of Santander (Colombia), focused on evaluating value creation through artificial intelligence, designing business cases and validating its technical feasibility through functional proofs of concept.

1. Objectives and scope of the programme

Awareness and intensive accompaniment: Train 50 companies in the region in an opening phase and implement personalized technical assistance for a cohort of at least 20 companies in the traction or consolidation stage (with mandatory participation of their CEOs and technical leaders).

Business cases and proofs of concept: Identify transformation opportunities, mitigate risks of business model disruption, and build proofs of concept backed by a toolkit of technology licenses and credits of up to $14,000.

Intellectual property and responsible use: Provide guidance on ethical AI governance, mitigation of algorithmic biases, privacy under Colombian data protection regulations, and ownership of AI-assisted developments.

2. Implementation and mentoring phases

Phase 1 — Opening and selection: Open call, awareness workshops (minimum 3 group hours), application of digital maturity self-diagnoses and structured selection of the 20 beneficiary companies.

Phase 2 — In-depth diagnosis (11 h/company): Kickoff workshop, peer work sessions and integrated diagnosis of the business model and technical architecture, validated before a first external Advisory Board.

Phase 3 — Strategy and proof of concept (10 h/company): Prioritization of opportunities (impact vs. feasibility), structuring of the monetization model (unit economics), review in a second Advisory Board and analytical development of the proof of concept.

Phase 4 — Implementation and Closure Path (3 h/company): Consolidation of a documented action plan with milestones and key indicators, culminating in a face-to-face socialization event with the IT ecosystem.

3. Support resources, monitoring and impact measurement

Shared advisory pool: Provision of a shared pool of 40 flexible hours of specialized consulting on demand to meet specific strategic or technical needs of companies.

Traction and post-measurement indicators: Construction of a baseline with metrics on sales, active users, qualified AI employment and average ticket to enable the Bank's impact monitoring at 6 and 12 months after the end of the program.

Systematization and governance: Holding biweekly progress meetings with the IDB team, monitoring beneficiary dropouts, and delivering a report of lessons learned with documented success stories.

Note: Interested companies should review the requirements on the BEO Bidder Portal.

Executing unit: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

IDB project: CO-T1754

Contact: [contact details removed]

Financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).