Winner Profile: How María Fernanda Sierra Perea is closing the AI impact gap for Latin America's nonprofits

María Fernanda Sierra Perea is the Co-founder and COO of Propel, a nonprofit organisation helping Latin America's civil society harness AI to scale the solutions that change lives. She won the She Shapes AI Global Award in the AI + Education category at the 2025/26 She Shapes AI Conference and Global Awards Ceremony, held on 16 April 2026 at the London School of Economics.

Her win was grounded in evidence. Propel has supported over 700 organisations across 27 countries, indirectly reaching 100 million people, nearly 15 percent of Latin America's population. Over 91 percent of participating organisations have adopted AI or digital tools, and 86 percent report measurable productivity gains. In Colombia, one Propel-supported organisation doubled its fundraising and built an AI simulator helping indigenous youth prepare for their first jobs — earning salaries nearly double the local living wage.

The problem María is working to solve is not a technology problem. It is a translation problem and that distinction sits at the heart of everything Propel does. In a region where only 16 percent of nonprofits are digitally mature and less than 0.1 percent ever scale, the organisations doing the most critical social work are the ones most at risk of being left behind by AI.

María grew up in Cartagena, Colombia, where she taught adults to read from the age of thirteen. One of her first students, Marcial, was over sixty. The day he read a bus sign, he said: "Now I can take the right bus. I won't get lost anymore." One basic skill unlocked freedom. That experience shaped her conviction that access to tools, not lack of talent, is what holds people back. Today, AI is the new literacy she is determined to make universal.

On the work of Propel and the conditions required to close the gap between AI usage and AI impact, María shares what she has learned from the ground up.

Visibility for a region that deserves to be in the room

When asked what being recognised as a She Shapes AI Global Award winner means to her, María's answer is immediate and outward-facing.

"This recognition matters to me beyond the personal level. It's visibility for a region and a sector that deserves to be active in this AI conversation."

Latin America, she argues, is home to extraordinary leaders tackling some of the world's most pressing social problems, mental health for youth, quality early education, economic inclusion, and they are doing it with limited resources. Propel has supported over 700 of these organisations across 27 countries (a figure that includes alumni networks and wider ecosystem reach). "Being recognised here feels like this work has become visible. Responsible AI in the social sector is already happening. And I love that Latin America is showing strong in spaces like this."

From usage to impact: the gap that defines the mission

The problem María cannot stop thinking about is not whether AI exists — it is whether it works.

"In our research at Propel, we found that 60 percent of social organisations in Latin America are using AI, but only 6 percent have actually integrated it into how they work every day. That's the gap. That's why we exist — translation."

Getting from usage to impact means connecting AI to a specific mission, to daily workflows, to the decisions a team makes every day. It is not, she insists, a technology problem. The technology is there. What is missing is the bridge.

She describes the story of Tania, a social leader from La Guajira, a desert region in Northern Colombia home to indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities. Tania runs an organisation helping young people find their first jobs without leaving their communities. Working with Propel, she built AI-powered learning labs that simulate real jobs. The result: young people are getting hired locally and earning nearly double the local living wage.

"That's what happens when you really translate AI into impact. That's why the social sector can't afford to wait."

The conversation is ahead of the reality

The biggest gap between how AI is discussed and how it is actually applied? María's response is grounded in what she sees every day.

"People are talking about agentic systems, autonomous workflows and it's really exciting. But the reality I see is very different. Our research found that 88 percent of social organisations in Latin America are still at a beginner or intermediate level of digital maturity. Most are figuring out how to write a useful prompt."

That disconnect creates paralysis. When leaders hear about advanced AI capabilities while their teams are still mastering the basics, the result is not inspiration. It is the feeling of already being behind. Propel's response is practical: get organisations to the point where AI is embedded in their workflows, not opened casually, so they can actually use it.

The organisation has also built structural solutions for structural problems. Only 1 percent of global philanthropic capital reaches Latin America. Finding the right funding opportunity can take weeks of manual research. Propel built a tool that matches organisations to funding opportunities using AI in minutes. "That's what closing the gap with AI looks like in practice. Not just teaching AI, but using AI to solve the specific problems that are holding the social sector back."

Leadership that models, experiments, and bridges

When it comes to leadership, María is clear that the technical is not the point.

"We need leaders who understand how their mission can benefit from AI and where they can multiply it, and who have the judgment to decide where they can accelerate with AI and where they shouldn't."

What Propel has observed is that adoption follows leadership. When a CEO or executive director talks about AI openly, uses it in their own work, the team follows. When it is left to an enthusiastic junior staff member, it stays in a corner.

The leaders getting it right are doing three things: modelling the behaviour themselves; trying AI for real, practical outcomes in their everyday work; and creating safety for their teams to experiment, make mistakes, and learn. "The role of the leader is to be a bridge and to make sure that bridge is practical enough for someone with a packed calendar to cross it and multiply what they already do every day."

What comes next

María's vision for responsible AI is precise: "Responsible AI is AI for impact, and it is AI that includes the communities who know the problem in building the solutions." So succinctly, she captures both what the technology should do and who should be shaping it.

For Propel, the next phase is about deepening the infrastructure that makes this possible, expanding the AI-powered funding matching tool, growing the Propel Fellowship, and continuing to build the open-source toolkits that let organisations beyond the fellowship benefit from what others have built.

For María personally, winning the She Shapes AI Award is a signal she intends to use. Not as an endpoint, but as amplification for the region, for the sector, and for the argument that responsible AI and real-world impact are not in tension. They are the same thing.

Learn more about Propel and their work at wepropel.org.

The 2026/27 She Shapes AI Global Awards Call for Applications opens on 8 October 2026. If you or someone you know is driving positive impact through responsible AI, sign up to our newsletter to stay informed.

She Shapes AI is the global catalyst for women-led, responsible AI innovation. Founded in 2024 by Dr Julia Stamm FRSA. sheshapes.ai