“I was spending four hours a day just processing data,” Benavides recalls, describing repetitive work that took up most of his time and left little room for more valuable tasks like analysis. “That’s not what you expect when you hear the word ‘analyst.’”

A core goal for Dos Pinos is to increase productivity by equipping staff with AI tools that expand their capabilities and allow them to focus on higher-value and more strategic work, says Carlos Sandí, head of IT strategy and digital transformation.

“We’re not rolling out AI just because it’s trendy,” he adds. “AI is a tool for transformation, but the real driver is empowering the collaborative people to innovate.”

The results are already visible, the cooperative says.

Since the packaging agent was implemented, inconsistencies in the design stage have decreased by more than 50%, Dos Pinos says, helping reduce the average time to market by roughly 10 days. “In production terms, 10 days is a huge amount of time,” Sandí says. “Cutting that from the cycle makes us far more operationally agile.”

Dos Pinos has rolled out Copilot to more than 1,000 employees in an initial phase, with plans to expand across the entire organization throughout 2026.

“What we’ve learned is that this doesn’t have to be complex,” says Argenis Matarrita, head of AI. “With good prompts and the right information, you can build something useful very quickly.” His team is now working on new agents to optimize delivery processes and systematize information from manufacturing facilities.

Scaling adoption across the organization

To drive and sustain adoption, Dos Pinos has created an internal “AI ambassadors” program: a group of 15 employees and counting, who act as champions within their departments and help train colleagues on AI fundamentals.

Benavides is one of them.

When he first joined the sales team, his days were dominated by repetitive manual work: downloading revenue data, filtering spreadsheets and emailing Microsoft Excel reports to clients one by one. Delivering up to 21 daily reports to more than 100 internal users took about four hours each morning.

After attending an internal AI workshop, he turned to Copilot for guidance on automating report distribution through Power BI Service. “I knew nothing about AI. I told Copilot, ‘I don’t know this tool—guide me step by step.’ And it worked,” Benavides says. “The workload eased up a lot.”

He now focuses on data analysis and building indicators, as well as developing new Power BI dashboards, thanks to the time freed up from data processing. He also supports other teams in expanding Copilot adoption.

Rodríguez had a similar experience when building the packaging agent.

Using Copilot Studio, he defined the task in about 250 words, with clear instructions for how the agent should evaluate information. The tool does not make changes automatically; instead, it provides a detailed analysis for designers to act on.

“This isn’t about replacing our designer,” he says. “It’s about removing the most mechanical, error-prone part of the job so she can focus on design quality.”

On a recent project, a designer on Rodríguez’s team used the agent to review an updated powdered milk package, uploading both the technical specifications and the proposed artwork. The agent produced a detailed comparison, identifying discrepancies and recommending corrections based on internal parameters—from incorrect figures to formatting inconsistencies.

For Rodríguez, the most meaningful impact goes beyond efficiency. Where his team once felt stressed and concerned about elusive errors, they now work with greater confidence.

“Work flows better,” he says. “It’s given me a lot of peace of mind. Now we can focus on the creative side with confidence.”

Juan Montes writes about how AI and digital innovation are reshaping industries and decision making across Latin America and Canada. His reporting spans stories from multinational companies deploying AI agents for executives to public school teachers adopting technology in classrooms. Born in Madrid, he worked as a journalist in Spain and Guatemala and was a foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. You can contact him on LinkedIn.

Top image: Dos Pinos has about 6,000 employees and operations spanning dairy goods production, processing, packaging and agroindustrial services. Photo by Dos Pinos.