By: Nancy Esteves | Hola Latinos Magazine / The Cover Story Podcast
Jaime Rivas is not your typical tech entrepreneur. As one of FIU’s first MBA graduates in AI integration for business — a concentration so new that only two students enrolled when it launched — he has spent nearly four years at the intersection of artificial intelligence and real-world business operations. Now, the CEO & Founder of OTR Digital helps businesses streamline operations, solve bottlenecks, and save valuable time.
From Experimenter to Expert
Rivas’s journey into AI began around the release of GPT 2.5, when most people were still treating the technology as a curiosity. He went deeper. After more than a year of development and testing, OTR Digital AI launched with a reliable product ready for clients. The results have been immediate and measurable. One client is saving 115 hours per week with a single automated system built around a single core bottleneck. Not 35 systems. One.
The Biggest Misconception
Ask Rivas about AI fear, and he immediately reframes it. “AI is going to create far more jobs than it replaces,” he says — and his own company is proof. The AI consulting role barely existed a few years ago. Today, OTR Digital AI is opening technical positions to people who don’t consider themselves tech-savvy, training them and specializing them by industry. The goal, he is clear, is not to replace people. It is to supercharge them.
What surprises most people is the economic paradox at the heart of AI adoption.
“Increasing the efficiency of something doesn’t mean it gets used less — it actually gets used twice as much. The same goes for jobs. People think AI will take everything away, but they aren’t seeing what it’s creating.”
He points to a broader historical pattern: every major technological shift displaced some roles while generating entirely new industries that didn’t previously exist. AI, he argues, is no different — only faster.
What Every Business Gets Wrong
The most common mistake, according to Rivas, is trying to implement everything at once. AI adoption should be surgical, not sweeping.
“When companies try to implement AI into every aspect of their business all at once, it’s overwhelming — not just for the people installing it, but for the employees using it.”
He works with each client to map their existing processes, unify their tools — often replacing a chaotic stack of 17 platforms with a single integrated system — and identify the one or two places where automation will have the greatest impact.
“It’s not about where you can put AI. It’s about where you should.”
For many businesses in hospitality and professional services, that starting point is an AI receptionist — a system that ensures no lead is ever lost after hours, while being fully compliant with Florida’s disclosure laws requiring AI identification at the point of contact. “You’re not replacing the person answering the phone,” Rivas clarifies. “You’re making sure that when they can’t answer, the business doesn’t lose the lead.” The distinction matters — and so does the result.
Privacy, Regulation, and What’s Coming
On privacy, Rivas is direct and unambiguous.
“If you’re on a basic plan and uploading sensitive information, that data is being used to train the models. That is explicitly stated in the terms.”
His firm hosts everything locally, keeping client data fully contained and compliant with all applicable privacy laws — a point of difference he considers non-negotiable.
“You should never let AI have access to sensitive information unless you know your data is protected.”
On regulation, he sees it already happening — and believes it is overdue. The most powerful models are now being reviewed before public release. Safeguards are tightening across the industry.
“They’re realizing how powerful the models are. Before, it was almost like searching for something online. Now the reasoning has gone to a completely different level.”
The era of using AI as a crutch, he argues, is giving way to something more intentional, more powerful, and more accountable.
How to reach him: @JaimeOTR
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