Mastercard Small Business AI Chatbot Begins Pilot Test

Guerin said Mastercard chose to work with Creative Labs Ventures because the company is a Black- and Brown-owned small business and co-founder Abran Maldonado is “an OpenAI ambassador with unparalleled expertise in navigating AI and new technologies.” She added that Howard University has been helping to test the chatbot for overall experience and accuracy in responses.

Creators and influencers represent the fastest-growing small business segment, and Mastercard is working with Clara for Creators to provide individuals in the creator economy with anonymized pay equity data and advice on matters like generating business names, navigating copyrights, accessing startup capital or grants, boosting their financial know-how, and understanding hiring strategies and franchise opportunities.

Clara for Creators founder Christen Nino De Guzman is also sharing her insights to help inform Mastercard Small Business AI.

Nino De Guzman launched Clara for Creators in 2022 with the aim of increasing transparency among influencers and making the creator economy more equitable. More than 34,000 creators currently use the platform.

Nino De Guzman pointed to the extreme pay disparity she found in the sector, saying in a statement, “A lot of the creators didn’t know how to price or negotiate their content because it was such a new industry. There’s no minimum wage. There’s no baseline. How do I price my content? How can I get paid faster? You can negotiate. You can ask for more money. These are all things that you should feel empowered to do.”

She added, “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.”