When an opportunity came up, via the Prosus Talent Exchange Program to spend a month in Brazil to work with iFood on an AI governance project, I said yes immediately. If only the visa process had been as quick! After two weeks of refreshing the appointment site every few hours, I finally got the go-ahead, and the next day I was on a flight to Sao Paulo, and the day after it was onwards to Rio for a conference!
It was my first time in South America. I didn’t speak Portuguese. I’d never met most of the team in person. But that’s exactly what made it interesting.
Learning to work differently
I work in the privacy team at Prosus, supporting the AI governance function. The project in Brazil was part of our larger AI governance work - making sure innovation moves fast and responsibly. It meant collaborating with colleagues across time zones, helping translate global privacy principles into the local context, and doing it in a way that didn’t slow anyone down.
It wasn’t about being the expert in the room. Everyone was figuring things out together - from engineers to lawyers to product leads. I liked that. You had to think fast, make calls, and adapt. Nobody was holding your hand, and that was the best part.
Working on site meant starting from scratch - setting things up, defining goals, finding compromises when timelines collided. It can feel intimidating at first, but I enjoyed it. When you have to build your own structure, you learn faster. You become resourceful by necessity.
“You have to figure out what you’re going to achieve, and how to get there — that’s what made it fun.”
This kind of work is still new for everyone. Privacy has been around for a while, but legal work for AI is only just taking shape. That makes it collaborative by default.
Nobody has all the answers, so everyone shares what they know. It’s more about building something that works than following a rulebook.
Culture shock, in the best way
Outside work, everything was new. Ordering food, taking a taxi, even reading street signs - all in Portuguese. After a few awkward attempts using Google Translate voice mode, I gave up and just tried to speak it myself. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked.
The team were incredibly welcoming. They took me out, showed me around, and made sure I got the full Rio and São Paulo experience - including a football match that was as chaotic and electric as you’d expect.
What stood out most was how laid-back yet focused people were. Lunch was sacred - the whole office out together between 12 and 2 - but when it was time to work, the energy flipped instantly. It reminded me that great results don’t always come from the same rhythm.
A connected ecosystem
What surprised me most was how seamless it felt to move between teams, countries, and projects. The laws may differ slightly, but the core ideas are the same - and so are the goals. Seeing how my work in Amsterdam could directly help colleagues in Brazil made the whole ecosystem feel real.
At Prosus, that connection isn’t limited to one project. My phone starts buzzing early with messages from India, and it’s still buzzing at night when Brazil wakes up. It’s not stressful - it’s just what happens when your work genuinely spans the world. Few places give you that perspective.
“We all have different pieces of the same puzzle. The challenging part is putting them together.”
That’s the part that stays with me: how shared expertise moves faster than borders, and how much you learn when you’re the one building the bridge. I’d like even more of that - to keep sharing what I’ve learned and learning from others in return.
My month in Brazil was more than just a work trip. It was a reminder of what Prosus does best: connecting people, solving problems, joining the puzzle pieces together. Here, you get the freedom to figure things out, the space to grow, and the reach to make your work matter far beyond your own team.
