Innovation is everywhere, if you know where to look.

And at data.org, our global search to support and scale innovative uses of data and AI has yielded extraordinary results. 

Our four global innovation challenges since 2020 have spotlighted small organizations with big ideas, as well as established organizations with a hunger to experiment with data and AI in new ways. In December 2024, we introduced the Artificial Intelligence to Accelerate Inclusion (AI2AI) Challenge awardees, in partnership with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. 

Halfway through their grant period, the five organizations already have exciting results to share, having served more than 23,000 people and counting around the world. Collectively, the organizations have also secured $1.4 million in additional funding to continue scaling their data and AI work and deepening their impact. 

With months still left before the grant period ends, the number of people reached and lives impacted will continue to grow, as will the potential for these solutions to be replicated in other regions and contexts. Here are five key findings at the grant midway point that other social impact organizations may consider in their own work:

1. AI is a tool to reach underserved and overlooked populations.
   Through field engagement and state-level partnerships in India, Buzzworthy has introduced beekeepers to tools that offer tailored hive management guidance, enhancing the predictability and stability of income from beekeeping as a vital form of income diversification for smallholder farmers.
   
2. AI is improving efficiency, accuracy, and decision-making for both organizations and their beneficiaries.
   In pilot locations, survey data from International Rescue Committee (IRC) is showing as much as a 66% efficiency gain once SignpostAI was integrated into local teams’ daily work of providing critical information to those affected by humanitarian challenges.
   
3. Awardees are transforming internal data practices and fostering responsible data sharing for broader impact.
   Beyond direct financial inclusion tools for micro-, small- and medium enterprise entrepreneurs, Quipu has begun offering scoring tools and data insights to partner financial institutions in Colombia. These partners are now able to evaluate applicants with little or no credit history by integrating alternative data sources, such as SMS or mobile usage, into their decision-making processes.
   
4. Adoption of AI solutions is driving continuous learning and increased confidence among frontline workers.
   Interviews with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health’s health extension workers (HEWs) in the IDinsight and Last Mile Health project found that engagement with the AI-powered call center significantly enhanced their confidence in performing their job well. This professional development has been particularly evident over time, with HEWs increasingly demonstrating the ability to manage cases independently, apply knowledge from previous consultations, and make informed decisions even in complex scenarios.
   
5. Now more than ever, organizations must demonstrate trustworthiness to their end beneficiaries.
   Link Health is building trust with communities in Boston and Houston to ensure they are able to access public benefits. In contexts where personal information is particularly sensitive, Link Health is highlighting their responsible data security practices to the communities they serve. 

Accelerating Together 

Through the challenge, we’ve identified and supported bold leaders who are driving innovation and progress locally—and showing what’s possible to social impact practitioners around the globe. 

As a connector, convener, and catalyst, data.org is committed to sharing best practices and helping social impact leaders learn from one another. Our awardees are taking advantage of meaningful opportunities to connect through data.org and Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth-led events, workshops, and introductions. There’s still much to learn through the duration of the AI2AI Challenge, and we’ll continue to lift up interesting insights and practical approaches.

Field building doesn’t happen in isolation—it happens in community. And together, our community will continue to accelerate social impact using data and AI.

The post 5 Key Learnings from Our AI2AI Challenge Awardees appeared first on data.org.

Can you tell us about yourself and about your work at the intersection of tech and health?

I’m an ER physician and the founder of Link Health, which is focused on helping eligible patients enroll in cash assistance benefit programs. At Link Health, we’ve unlocked a way to have artificial intelligence help do that for thousands of Americans. 

If you’ve worked in—or even been in—an emergency department, you understand that our healthcare system is not functioning. You can only do so much work as an emergency physician until you begin to think, “There’s gotta be a better way to do this. There’s a better approach than just jumping in the river and trying to save the drowning person.” Eventually, somebody has to go upstream and figure out why all of these people are drowning in the first place. 

My work is really focused on solving this problem; throughout my career, it has taken multiple shapes. For example, it’s been helping people who are in healthcare waiting rooms be able to vote. Through our initiative, Vot-ER, we help people register to vote while they’re waiting to be seen. We believe that through the power of the vote, they can create a healthier and more robust healthcare system.

And that work also includes what we’re doing here with people and technology at Link Health. We’re trying to figure out how to use someone’s time in the waiting room to get them connected to the cash assistance benefit programs that they are already eligible for. The data on who is eligible is all there, but we need to make people aware and get them connected. Through that program, we’re proud to have helped over 3,300 patients enroll in vital federal benefit programs, ranging from rental and cash assistance to contributions toward a child’s 529 college savings account. Altogether, that’s more than $4.4 million in financial support distributed over the past two years. And we’re just getting started.

Were there any unexpected blockers or pivots in your career journey?

I came to medicine from a low-income community. I had never been on the clinical side of a healthcare setting, so I quite frankly didn’t know what I was getting myself into. By the time I was in my third year at Harvard Medical School (HMS), which is when you do your clinical rotations, I felt very disappointed. I think I would use the word “heartbroken” about the way that the healthcare system works.

There were things that I witnessed as an idealistic 23- and 24-year-old that broke my heart, and many of them had to do with the way that we treated patients who were either low-income or uninsured. So I had a decision to make: do I stay in this field and continue committing the harm, or do I head in a different direction? And that’s when I left HMS for two years.

During that time, I went to the Harvard Kennedy School of Government to learn how government works. I don’t think I actually learned how government works; instead, I found more questions to ask. After that, I worked in politics for the Governor of Vermont, and that was an eye-opening experience in learning how to get things done. And then I came back and did my residency at Massachusetts General Hospital; I was committed to medicine, but to doing it a different way. This career detour improved my work as a physician and a changemaker.

You spoke of coming to medicine from a low-income community. How has that been an advantage or a disadvantage in your career?

I think that the great gift of those who live on the margins of society is that they learn how to survive on the margins of society. If you are then put at the center of society, where it’s a resource-rich environment, you can see clearly what those resources can bring. 

You learn on the margins that you have to practice survival-based efficiency, where every decision has to be made with the knowledge that you may not get this chance again. So when you move to a place where there are more resources, it’s like Disney World. You learn to spot the opportunities quickly. I think it’s a real advantage.

Were you able to identify the kind of changes and solutions you felt were needed when you returned to medicine? 

As a 20-something-year-old in medical school, I definitely didn’t understand what the solutions were. I just knew how bad the problem was. I know that there is a really wide health/wealth gap for Medicaid patients that I see here in Massachusetts. With an average income of $22,000 a year for Medicaid enrollees, how are we expecting these patients to be healthy? People are wrestling with the skyrocketing prices for groceries and with putting gas in their tanks. 

I don’t promise to know what the solutions are now–just what some of them could be. 

My experience working at the White House taught me that there is some money available: federal and state programs that many low-income patients are eligible for but aren’t accessing. And that planted the idea for Link Health as one possible solution.

We don’t necessarily have to overhaul the whole system–although one could argue that probably some part of that is necessary. But we can optimize what we have today, using new technologies and existing dollars.

Our first iteration of Link Health required throwing a lot of humans at the work. And we still have a workforce: today, we have almost a hundred certified patient navigators whom we’ve trained to go out in those waiting rooms and enroll people in these programs. But the reality is that we’re never not going to scale our impact like that. That’s why the work that we are doing with the AI2AI Challenge award from data.org and the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth is so important. If we can leverage artificial intelligence using large language models, we can more effectively blanket clinical spaces with an invitation to check if you are eligible for these programs, and then help you with the process of enrolling. We are learning that a great deal can be done with a very well-written algorithm. With this technology, we don’t need to rely on human intervention alone, but can focus on the places where humans in the loop are critical in aiding patients with their applications. 

Your medical degree and your data and AI vision clearly inform your contribution to social impact. Which other skills have offered the greatest return in your work — which abilities have really supercharged your career pathway?

The thing that comes to mind right away is one specific thing I learned during my time at the Kennedy School: the adaptive leadership framework. I have no disclosures here; this framework simply changed my leadership perception and practice. Interestingly, it’s taught by a physician, actually a psychiatrist. 

Here’s how I understand it: in medicine, you have all these houses of medicine, these different specialties. There are different ways to be a physician: an ear, nose, and throat doctor; a dermatologist; a rheumatologist, and each of these has their specific practices and ways in which they are a doctor. It took me going to the Kennedy School to realize that leadership is like that, too: there are lots of ways to exercise leadership.

The adaptive leadership framework holds that leadership is not a position: it’s a verb. Leading is an exercise, and in a well-run organization, every person in that organization is empowered to try to do the work of pushing the organization towards solving its real challenges–and not shying away from the reality of the challenges. The framework also taught me how to think politically about coalitions and build partnerships that are mutually beneficial to do the work that the community needs.

What advice do you have for someone who is new to the data and AI for social impact field? 

The things that I would share right up front: you have to fall in love with the problem that you’re solving, not the solution that you are creating. You need to deeply understand the contours of the problem and why it exists before you settle on a solution. 

For example, when you try to address a problem, you have to make sure you understand the secondary consequences of that solution. Who stands to lose from you addressing or fixing this problem? The system is currently benefiting from the way the problem exists. You need to understand why that is.

It helps to have an understanding of community organizing. That’s the framework that I’m speaking to you from. As a community organizer, you’re not saying this is the solution that we need to move forward with. Instead, it’s more like orchestration. The piece of advice that I would share about tackling a problem is shifting from a mindset of “I have the solution, and I need to persuade people to go with it.”

The second piece of advice that I would share is this: you need to be using artificial intelligence yesterday. If you are not, you will be subsumed. It is an incredibly important resource, and I’ll leave it at that. Concretely, we do this through traditional skilling, but we also have watch parties for an hour every other week. For example, I’ll do a session where I am sharing my screen and showing you how I use ChatGPT’s new operator program, or giving an example of how deep research works. It can be as little as 10 or 15 minutes of an example, but it sparks learning and conversation. And then you can unlock the creativity of the team; people will give you ideas on ways to use this tool to maximize your productivity far and beyond what you could come up with alone. I really like the gelling that happens when we share and compare notes.

What’s your don’t-miss read?

The Politico Pulse daily newsletter is very, very good. It’s into the appropriate amount of detail on healthcare legislation.

The post Pathways to Impact: Dr. Alister Martin appeared first on data.org.

Bidart: Respecting our traditions, our cultures, and our way of communication

Nicoll: Eliminating barriers to information

Shukla: Absolute synchrony between agriculture, apiculture, food security – all led by empowered women

Ravinutula: Highest quality primary care and health access in developing countries

Ruxin: A reflection of the people that are designing it and the information that it’s fed

AI is everywhere. In the news. In our social media algorithms. At home and work.  

But who has access to it? How is it being used? And for the benefit of whom?

We tackled those questions with five powerful social sector leaders from around the world at “Shaping the Future of Inclusive Growth,” a webinar to celebrate the awardees of the Artificial Intelligence to Accelerate Inclusion Challenge. The AI2AI Challenge is data.org’s fourth global innovation challenge, made possible with support from the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. 

Here are three rules for designing and deploying AI with intention:

1. Lead with Local
   Leading with the local context is a pillar of our work at data.org, and was a clear priority in the AI2AI solutions. IDInsight depends on political buy-in and local expertise, scaling an AI-powered call center with more than 40,000 health extension workers providing real-time medical guidance on complex cases. BEEKIND, an initiative of Buzzworthy Ventures, includes humans in the loop for their AI app that troubleshoots beekeeping issues and optimizes hive placements.

2. Build Trust
   The International Rescue Committee interacts with users at the worst moment of their lives. Their AI tool, Signpost, provides lifesaving information to displaced people across  30 languages, supporting 400 trained people in providing personalized answers in plain language, and with recognizable branding specific to each of the 30 countries in which they operate. Link Health cuts through stigmatizing, overly complex, and duplicative benefit enrollment processes to increase access to critical federal aid benefits – $80 billion of which go unclaimed in the U.S. each year.
   
3. Think Outside the (Data) Box
   Strong AI tools rely on strong data. Eighty percent of businesses are informal or unbanked in Latin America, meaning they lack the information banks typically rely on to award loans. Women entrepreneurs are especially at risk of financial exclusion. Quipu set out to collect and analyze other meaningful inputs, like videos of the businesses.
   

Watch the webinar

These compelling takeaways from social impact leaders around the world reinforce why data.org seeks to source, support, and help scale innovative approaches that use data and AI to tackle some of the most intractable problems we face. Our global innovation challenges consistently identify groundbreaking solutions like these, making use of AI with a responsible lens and allowing us, as a platform for partnerships to democratize data, to begin to apply and grow those solutions to more people, in more places, across more sectors.

The post 3 Rules to Accelerate AI Inclusion and Impact appeared first on data.org.

“Our work in data science has laid the foundation for us to take advantage of the opportunity to develop AI responsibly, equitably, and for the benefit of all,” said Shamina Singh, founder and president of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. “This cohort of AI2AI Challenge awardees are bringing forward innovative tools, solutions, and approaches that will drive inclusive growth and redefine how we use AI for social impact across countries and industries for the coming years.” 

Selected from a pool of more than 500 applicants across 82 countries, AI2AI Challenge awardees are tackling the climate crisis, small business development, financial inclusion, and gender equity through existing AI solutions that have a demonstrated record of success and are ready to scale with additional funding and technical assistance.  

“The power of AI to drive impact is tremendous and must be harnessed to ensure its benefits extend to all segments of society,” said Danil Mikhailov, executive director of data.org. “In the data and AI race to be first and move fast, we must thoughtfully strive for inclusive growth that leverages data and AI to tackle the world’s most pressing problems.” 

The Challenge received regional support from Dasra in India and Capital One in the United States to help expand the geographic diversity of the awardee pool and provide additional expertise at the intersection of responsible AI and financial inclusion. 

As data.org’s fourth global innovation challenge, the AI2AI Challenge advances the organization’s commitment to train one million purpose-driven data practitioners by 2032. Each awardee has committed to sharing or open-sourcing their work so other organizations can replicate and scale their solutions. 

THE AWARDEES: 

Quipu – Colombia 

Quipu leverages AI to offer the technical infrastructure to bridge the financial inclusion gap for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Their approach integrates comprehensive onboarding for MSMEs, a robust scoring model analyzing non-traditional data, and intelligent disbursement and credit collection. The AI-driven credit alternative scoring model utilizes machine learning algorithms to analyze a diverse array of alternative data points, such as mobile transaction histories, social media interactions, SMS, and payment patterns. This approach allows for a comprehensive and accurate assessment of creditworthiness, particularly for those businesses typically excluded from traditional financial systems. 

IDinsight – Ethiopia 

Partnering with Last Mile Health and Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health, IDinsight focuses on an AI-powered call center that 40,000+ Health Extension Workers (HEWs) can contact for real-time medical guidance on complex cases. IDinsight’s AI solution will include a case management system and a question-answering service based on comprehensive Ministry of Health (MoH) guidelines that will provide real-time support to call center agents who will further relay critical information to HEWs via phone. Call center agents, as a result, will learn new AI skills, leading to more efficient and effective work processes, and new career pathways.  

International Rescue Committee – Global 

Signpost is an International Rescue Committee (IRC) program that provides critical information to displaced people impacted by conflict, disasters, poverty, and violence.   Their AI-powered humanitarian infrastructure offers lifesaving access to information and resources through frontline help centers, digital channels, and social media. The Signpost platform allows IRC and local partner NGOs to create AI agents to deliver support at scale while removing language and geographic barriers. With pilots of this AI solution underway, IRC aims to expand its platform to selected low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). 

Buzzworthy Ventures – India  

Buzzworthy’s BEEKIND is an AI-driven mobile application to revolutionize the beekeeping ecosystem in India by addressing the significant challenges India’s 400,000 small-scale beekeepers face, from hindering crop productivity to livelihood sustainability. BEEKIND empowers small-scale beekeepers, particularly women, small landholders, landless farmers, and tribal populations in rural and marginalized communities, to enhance their economic potential and resilience. Their AI platform also provides real-time insights and predictive analytics, helping beekeepers adapt to changing climate conditions and improve hive management. 

Link Health – United States 

The Link Health initiative leverages AI to tackle the challenge of underutilized federal assistance programs. The platform enables more eligible individuals to receive financial assistance to alleviate poverty, reduce financial stress, and improve well-being. With healthcare settings as the access point to reach low-income and marginalized communities, Link Health aims to unlock $10 million in state and federal benefits through an AI-powered enrollment platform and chatbot. Through these efforts, the Link Health AI implementation addresses immediate economic needs, fosters long-term financial stability, and accelerates inclusive growth.  

About the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth

The Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth advances equitable and sustainable economic growth and financial inclusion around the world. The Center leverages the company’s core assets and competencies, including data insights, expertise, and technology, while administering the philanthropic Mastercard Impact Fund, to produce independent research, scale global programs, and empower a community of thinkers, leaders, and doers on the front lines of inclusive growth. For more information and to receive its latest insights, follow the Center on  LinkedIn,  Instagram, and subscribe to its newsletter.  

About data.org

data.org is accelerating the power of data and AI to solve some of the world’s biggest problems. By hosting innovation challenges to surface and scale groundbreaking ideas, and elevating use cases of the most effective tools and strategies, we are building the field of data for social impact. By 2032, we will train one million purpose-driven data practitioners, ensuring there is capacity to drive meaningful, equitable impact.

Media Contacts

data.org:
Emma Donelan, Director of Marketing and Communications 
emma@data.org 

The post Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and data.org Announce AI2AI Challenge Awardees  appeared first on data.org.

The AI2AI Challenge will focus on inclusive growth, ensuring that the benefits of this rapidly advancing data technology extend to all segments of society. Organizations will be considered for their innovative AI solutions that have demonstrated success and are ready to scale with additional funding and technical assistance.

“Five years ago, we made an early bet on the power of data to advance social impact. Those early investments laid a foundation for the growing field of Impact Data Science and have contributed to the demand for similar interventions for AI. Today, we are proud to be working with data.org to incentivize safe and trustworthy AI applications that empower communities and people. This challenge will shine a light on scalable solutions that help realize the promise and potential for AI to benefit society,” said Shamina Singh, Founder & President of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

“In the age of AI, working collaboratively across disciplines to tackle challenges like inclusive growth and climate has never been more urgent,” said Danil Mikhailov, executive director of data.org. “This is data.org’s fourth global challenge—and second with Mastercard’s Center for Inclusive Growth—to source, support, and scale breakthrough solutions, with more than 2,000 applications worldwide submitted to date. With each challenge, we not only grow our network of peers and partners, but we also learn more about how to most effectively build capacity, empower local communities, and ultimately build the field of data and AI for social impact.”

Challenge applicants can learn more and apply on the data.org website. The deadline for submissions is July 18, 2024, at 11:00 pm UTC, after which time a panel of distinguished, expert judges bringing experience in AI at the frontier of social impact and industry, will review submissions, with winners announced by early 2025. Confirmed judges include:

• Vilas Dhar, President, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation
• Raghu Dharmaraju, CEO, ARTPARK
• Ivana Feldfeber, Co-Founder and Executive Director, DataGenéro
• Angela Oduor Lungati, Executive Director, Ushahidi
• Anna Makanju, VP of Global Affairs, OpenAI
• Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor, Institute for Advanced Study
• Neera Nundy, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Dasra
• Navrina Singh, Founder and CEO, Credo AI
• Uyi Stewart, Chief Data and Technology Officer, data.org
• Greg Ulrich, Chief AI and Data Officer, Mastercard

Challenge awardees will receive grant funding to develop and scale their solutions, access to technical expertise and mentorship from Mastercard and data.org teams, and opportunities with select Mastercard’s resources and programs, such as Start Path, to further support their approaches. Additional support for the Challenge will come from Dasra, a strategic philanthropy foundation based in India.

The challenge was first announced by Singh at the Global Inclusive Growth Summit on April 18, 2024. Today, the Artificial Intelligence to Accelerate Inclusion Challenge launches during the Accelerate: Data for Social Impact Conference, hosted by data.org in partnership with the Harvard Data Science Initiative.

About the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth

The Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth advances equitable and sustainable economic growth and financial inclusion around the world. The Center leverages the company’s core assets and competencies, including data insights, expertise, and technology, while administering the philanthropic Mastercard Impact Fund, to produce independent research, scale global programs, and empower a community of thinkers, leaders, and doers on the front lines of inclusive growth. For more information and to receive its latest insights, follow the Center on LinkedIn, Instagram and subscribe to its newsletter.  

About data.org

data.org is accelerating the power of data and AI to solve some of our greatest global challenges. Launched in 2020 by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and The Rockefeller Foundation, data.org is building the field of data for social impact and expanding access to the tools, talent, and emerging technologies needed to create sustainable and equitable change.    

A global organization, data.org convenes and coordinates across sectors to support and advance visionary—yet practical—solutions to drive impact, through data.

Media Contacts

Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth:
Jessica Jeng-Mitchell
Jessica.Jeng-Mitchell@mastercard.com  

data.org:
Emma Marty 
emma@data.org 

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