Impact Numbers

Two data sources are starting to paint a picture of Maia's early impact on entrepreneurs.

ILO Colombia Study: Behavior Change in Coffee Country

The International Labour Organization conducted an independent pre-post survey of coffee farmers in Colombia's Huila region—a baseline and follow-up two months later. The results were:

Business practices:
  - Farmers keeping financial records: 56% → 78%
  - Formalized businesses: 2% → 17%
  - 55% of users reported directly implementing changes based on MAIA interactions

Agricultural practices:
  - Harvesting only mature beans: 80% → 85%
  - Minimizing waste/residues: 72% → 87%
  - Proper fertilizer application: 88% → 91%
  - Using climate-appropriate seeds: 83% → 87%

The formalization jump—from 2% to 17%—is particularly notable. Formalization is notoriously hard to move. One farmer shared: "MAIA helped me formalize my coffee brand and create the company with all the legal requirements."

What users valued most was having expert guidance available on demand. As one producer put it: "It's like having the agronomist right there on your phone." Another noted: "I used to mix fertilizers and composts together. Now I learned there are products that shouldn't be combined—MAIA explained that to me."

Peru User Surveys: Self-Reported ROI

Separately, we recently began surveying MAIA users in Peru and Panama at months 2 and 3 about changes in their business finances. The questions are simple: have your costs gone down due to Maia? Have your sales gone up due to Maia? Users choose between no change, up to S/150/month (~10% of average MSME profits), or more than S/150/month.

From the first 165 responses: Cost Reduction (Month 2): 44% reported lower costs, Sales Increase (Month 3): 58% reported higher sales. 

These numbers are a floor. At months 2-3, MAIA's coaching relationship is just beginning. User profiles are still taking shape, and most haven't
completed full coaching cycles. The progression from 44% (month 2) to 58% (month 3) illustrates momentum building over time. But still just using these early results, the average user reports S/47/month in cost savings and S/60/month in sales gains (at the bin midpoints). At a ballpark program cost of $1/user/month, that's a 12-17x ROI.

According to https://voxdev.org/voxdevlit/training-entrepreneurs, standard entrepreneurship training programs (typically 5-7 days in a classroom at ~$177/participant) produce around 5% sales gains and 10% profit improvement. The most effective "personal initiative" programs cost ~$750/participant and achieve 30% profit gains over two years. MAIA is showing comparable behavior change at a fraction of the cost: $12/year versus $177-750 for traditional training—and delivered continuously rather than as a one-time event, meaning its impact should rise over time while the impact of one-time training fades.

What We're Learning

The ILO study surfaced an important insight: "MAIA facilitates progressive adoption of digital technologies in rural areas, especially when combined with technical support and contextualized content." Users valued personalized, locally-relevant guidance. This is what enabled adoption of an advanced AI tool by users with very low tech comfort.

These are early numbers. The surveys are self-reported, sample sizes are modest, and respondents still in the first months of the coaching relationship. But the direction is clear: users are changing behavior, and they're attributing it to MAIA.

We'll keep measuring and sharing what we learn.