While these improvements were beneficial, the team saw even greater potential. “Using AI for cataloging and summarizing reviews is interesting and helpful, but not transformational,” says Daniel Rabinovich, Mercado Libre's COO. “We needed a solution that could handle intricate, high-stakes tasks autonomously and more efficiently than human operators.”

Enter Verdi, Mercado Libre’s new AI development platform, which allows any developer to build with LLMs. Designed for seamless integration, simplicity, and security, Verdi streamlines the work of Mercado’s 17,000 developers responsible for over 30,000 microservices. 

Though a developer can build any type of application on top of Verdi, one of its first and most significant applications is handling customer service mediation autonomously. Traditionally, resolving disputes between buyers and sellers requires time-consuming human mediation. Verdi changes this by allowing the AI to manage these interactions, even interfacing with external APIs and internal employees when necessary.  

In just a few months, Verdi has started to handle 10% of customer service mediation on one of Mercado’s major sites. This shift will revolutionize how Mercado Libre handles customer service across all of their platforms, with the potential to support the tasks of 9,000 human operators and autonomously manage customer service decisions involving $450 million annually.

“With Verdi, humans become co-pilots to the AI instead of the other way around,” Rabinovich explains. “This platform can autonomously decide on cases, manage complex interactions, and even handle tasks requiring a human touch, informed by security protocols and guardrails built into the platform.”