AI education: Tec and Microsoft train leaders of organizations

Tec de Monterrey and Microsoft Mexico have joined forces on the Copilot for Pilots program to train business leaders on how to use generative artificial intelligence.

The Center for Digital Evolution at the School of Business and EGADEBusiness School have developed strategies for taking advantage of Generative AI in business, with a special focus on the use of Microsoft Copilot.

One month into the program, Copilot for Pilots graduated its first class of 30 business leaders.

"Microsoft is the undisputed leader in artificial intelligence," said Alexandra Solano, Director of the Center for Digital Evolution and academic leader of the Digital Transformation Hub.

"That's why we looked for a partner with whom we could co-create a very high-value program," Solano added.

Ivonne Mejía, Commercial Solutions Director at Microsoft Mexico, said that the program is the result of the commitment of both institutions to drive organizations through technological innovation and empowering people and companies to achieve more.

Tec training organizations on AI

The first class of Copilot for Pilots included 30 leaders from various companies, such as Grupo Bimbo, El Palacio de Hierro, Sigma Alimentos, Oxxo, Izzi, and the Federal Judicial Council.

"The program follows the guidelines laid out by the Digital Route in the Tec's 2025 Strategic Plan, which pays attention to AI and its ability to drive projects," said Felipe Ortiz, Coordinator of the Center for Digital Evolution.

According to Ortiz, the participants were selected from a call for applications based on their role and leadership in their organizations, as well as belonging to companies familiar with the range of services offered by Microsoft.

"We sought to reach these decision-makers in order to guide them through all the possibilities that these new AI tools offer. (And) this, slowly but surely, begins to cascade in the organizations and gives us more success stories," Solano added.

"The profile of these participants is not easy. They aren't undergraduates or master's degree students; they're the heads of their respective companies and that's why the 4 hours we had with them face-to-face once a week had to count," the director stressed.

However, course graduates said they valued the constantly updated content and receiving cutting-edge materials, as well as the practical cases studied and the support on developing business cases for their organizations.

"These leaders really rose to the occasion, in which the biggest challenge is up-to-date technology," Solano said.

"In one week, in a couple of hours, the scheme can completely change and what we learned in the last class has to be forgotten and we have to start from scratch," said Alexandra.

The entrepreneurs also expressed their interest in replicating the course with further participants from their organizations to create a Generative AI learning community with other companies.

"The program follows the guidelines laid out by the Digital Route in the Tec's 2025 Strategic Plan, which pays attention to AI and its ability to drive projects." - Felipe Ortiz

Generative AI for leaders, from individuals to companies

According to Solano, the program's central goal was to enable business leaders to understand and apply generative artificial intelligence to revolutionize their internal business processes.

This was achieved by providing them with the tools and knowledge necessary to make informed decisions and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations, as well as anticipate future trends and behaviors.

"The program partly covered the area of personal productivity, i.e., how my Copilot accompanies me from the moment I get up, helping me read emails, then make a presentation, and schedule Teams meetings," Solano explained.

"But then, we delved into business productivity, how to go hand-in-hand with this type of technology on the decision-making process, material analysis, foresight, etc.", she added.

Together with Microsoft architects, the Tec team also sought to incorporate topics ranging from basic to advanced AI applications, as well as data strategies and predictive analytics.

Solano highlighted that the program's design included a theoretical-practical approach that was based on a business case applied to the company or organization to which the participants belong.

Adapting to new tools, integrating AI into existing processes in their organizations, and managing organizational change to enable the implementation of new technologies were some of the additional challenges that course graduates faced.

The first generation

Having welcomed 30 Copilot for Pilots graduates this year, both Solano and Ortiz shared that the team is now ready for a second edition.

The director indicated that the next version of the program is planned to be carried out with participants from other organizations of the same caliber but expanding to leaders from Latin America.

The idea of the new edition is to expand coverage and generate a greater number of business cases in the organizations to which the participants belong, which reflect the practical application of Generative AI in Latin America.

Solano also stresses that the learning and feedback from the first generation is invaluable material for not just this project but for similar programs that the institution has in the future.

"One of the participants said, 'We were actually walking around with all this technology, but coming here made us realize that we can always do better,'"Alexandra recalled.

"We hope that the results of this first edition will come in the medium term, to see how they'll use these guides that were given to them to strengthen their organizations and for them to come up with something new, a super crazy success story that started in our classroom," she said.

Each one of this program's graduates received a graduation certificate that is given to students pursuing EGADE Executive Education programs.

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