For many businesses, the primary drivers of AI adoption have been the unprecedented efficiency gains of automation, guaranteed improvements in customer experience, or the revolutionary acceleration of R&D and innovation.
Indeed, the AI ‘gold rush’ is undoubtedly upon us, and the majority of the corporate world is still scrambling to avoid being left behind.
But let’s face it, in many sectors, the game has been afoot for several years already. Among these, and perhaps counter-intuitively, is the non-for-profit sector. While NGOs and charities do not share the traditional profit-oriented ideology of commercial organisations, they could nevertheless be among the primary beneficiaries of AI and automation.
Being typically reliant on at least a partially voluntary workforce with highly variable skillsets, and under constant pressure to justify the expenditure of the donations they raise to the public, many non-for-profit organisations are already utilizing AI in a range of ways to more efficiently help the communities that they set out to serve.
According to a 2024 report by GivingTuesday’s Generosity AI Working group, just under 7 out of 10 (68%) of individuals working in a non-for-profit organisation had reportedly used AI, with more than half the respondents using AI for two or more different use-cases. This is not much lower than the rate of AI adoption in the commercial sector, (which could be as much as 72% according to the latest statistics from McKinsey & Co).
However, Richard Levy, reviewing the report in an article for The Non Profit Times, points out that this rate of adoption could be overly optimistic, and not necessarily indicative of the continued use of AI in non-for-profits. In fact, he argues that scepticism towards AI is still fairly high in this sector, with the overall adoption rate of the technology remaining relatively low. In support of this, half of the respondents surveyed expressed concerns about AI related to data security, bias, or copyright infringement.
Furthermore, a recent study from the Charity Commission, a regulator of non-for-profits in England and Wales, found that the rate of AI adoption in the organisations under its jurisdiction was as low as 3% (rising to just 8% for larger charities). This stands in stark contrast to GivingTuesday’s report, potentially illustrating a vast difference between the AI-readiness of non-for-profits operating in England and Wales, and those operating in the U.S., North America, and India, where the respondents to GivingTuesday’s survey were primarily based.
Arguably, this geographical difference could be representative of the stricter legislative approach being taken towards AI in the UK, in contrast to the looser guidelines around the technology in the U.S., North America, and India. However, given that the UK’s new AI Bill is still under development and not yet enforced, it might be more indicative of a cultural difference between these countries, reflecting an underlying conservatism in England and Wales in adopting AI technologies particularly in the non-for-profit and public sectors which are more accountable to the public and associated with humanitarian aid.
Nevertheless, from a holistic and more global standpoint, GivingTuesday’s report still places the non-for-profit sector approximately in the middle of the continuum of AI adoption in organisations across all sectors. This highlights non-for-profits as one of the key sectors which could see significant digital transformation through AI.
Indeed, looking beyond the statistics, the adoption of AI in this sector could be especially transformative in terms of fostering the public’s trust in the technology, demonstrating its vast potential to accelerate and enhance humanitarian endeavours.
In this article, we question the significance of AI’s adoption in the non-for-profit sector, and the impact it could have on public favour towards the technology. But first, to explore the promise of AI in this sector, we consider many of the traditional challenges that non-for-profit organisations face in order to survive, and the extent to which AI can help solve some of them.
Typical challenges faced by non-for-profits
In a world weighed down with more problems than solutions, non-for-profit organisations such as charities and NGOs have their hands full. Not only are their missions typically quite ambitious, but many of these organisations function on sub-optimal resources – not just in terms of finances, but also in terms of human labour and expertise.
Limited funding
Being reliant on donations, grants, and government funds, non-for-profits do not have the same financial stability as commercial businesses which can reinvest their profits into business development. Government funding for charitable endeavours also varies significantly from country to country, and industry to industry – and even where there is funding promised by a government, this can be unreliable with no guarantee of its permanence/follow through.
In the UK, for example, the new Labour government recently retracted £1.3 billion of funding for the tech sector promised by the previous Conservative government. Such changes can be extremely disruptive to technological developments in the public/non-for-profit sector. For example, this cut has resulted in an uncertain future for the Exascale supercomputer which was under development at the University of Edinburgh and was set to become one of the most powerful machines in the world.
That being said, some sectors certainly have deeper pockets to dip into than others. Industries which are more directly involved in basic human welfare typically have more funding sources to draw on because they elicit greater public interest, and are considered more of a priority by governments. For example, in healthcare (especially in the UK where we have the public sector NHS), there are multiple funding programmes which support entrepreneurs (both profit and non-profit oriented) in this industry, as attested by Dr Benyamin Deldar and David Hanbury, Co-CEOs and Founders of DeepMedical.
“The CEP (Clinical Entrepreneur Program) has been unbelievably helpful for us in terms of getting going. It’s actually the largest healthcare accelerator in the world, and has built about 5% of the UK’s life science industry in the five years it’s been up and running. It’s run by the NHS, and is all about upskilling clinicians to go out and not only see the problems but also build companies that can then go and solve them. And it’s not even just for clinicians anymore, it’s also for members of the public. So there are patient entrepreneurs that also use the program to develop solutions based on the problems they encountered during their own health difficulties or those of a loved one.” ~ Dr Benyamin Deldar and David Hanbury, Co-CEOs and Founders of DeepMedical
Furthermore, the limited funding that non-for-profits must survive on can also be a barrier to their adoption of AI technologies, despite the fact that these technologies can often save costs in the long term. While many commercial companies now are setting aside significant portions of their profits to invest in AI, particularly in custom-building or fine tuning LLMs for internal company use, this is an investment that many non-for-profits cannot afford.
However, there remain several applications of AI that are relatively easy to integrate, such as using free Generative AI tools for research and content creation. In support of this, the Charity Commission’s study found that the three most popular uses of AI in charities were drafting web content or communications (58%), drafting internal documents (39%), and research or information gathering (37%).
Additionally, Adam Auctor, CEO of Transparency, a harm reduction organization providing at-home drug testing kits for any recreational substances, points out the relative ease with which organisations can find tech consultants to gain initial guidance in this area.
“I think it’s actually easier than you might think to get into AI and to integrate it, at least in the beginning stages. We’ve had a lot of good luck just seeking out really good consultants to work with and talk to for a few hours. And that’s not really that expensive, to just get somebody who knows what they’re doing to point you in the right direction.” ~ Adam Auctor, CEO of Transparency
Erratic human labour
Another challenge that non-for-profits uniquely face is an erratic workforce. This challenge is related to the limited funding available to them, which leads many charities and NGOs to outsource aspects of their workflows to volunteers. In many ways, this is an efficient solution which is optimally suited to the typically humanitarian and social endeavours of non-for-profits (particularly as voluntary programmes can also be a way that organisations can raise awareness about their mission).
However, given that fixed employment contracts are not usually enforced on volunteers, and many people offer their time and skills on a part-time, temporary, and relatively casual basis, the voluntary workforce does not provide the greatest stability for non-for-profit organisations.
For this reason, most non-for-profits have to invest significant time and resources into outreach programmes to attract and train volunteers. However, this no doubt varies according to public awareness on the particular issue that forms the crux of the organisation’s mission.
For example, Auctor explains that his company is lucky enough to have a mission and a strategy that deeply resonates with people, enabling them to attract volunteers relatively easily.
“So we have been going to music festivals and distributing test kits there, even sometimes doing live testing, for over a decade now. But due to the legal issues with doing that, we often have to sneak in and do it under the radar. And I think that’s ended up being something that actually attracts people, just knowing that how important we think our mission is, that it saves lives, and that we’re willing to break rules and even sometimes laws to get there. People seem to be very excited to get involved in something like that. Also, drug overdoses are the leading cause of death for people between the ages of 18 and 45 right now, and there are over 100,000 people in the U.S. who die every year from drug overdose. So many people have had a friend of family member pass away because of this issue, and a lot of people are very emotionally involved in our mission for that reason as well.” ~ Adam Auctor, CEO of Transparency
Nevertheless, even for organisations such as Transparency, which may not struggle with attracting a voluntary workforce, coordinating and training volunteers remains a significant workload, especially due to the variable skillsets that characterize the voluntary workforce.
Furthermore, for many non-for-profit organisations, a critical challenge can be attracting volunteers of higher and more specialised skillsets, particularly when it comes to tech industry, which is experiencing a skills shortage due to increased demand as increasing numbers of companies integrate AI into their operations.
However, for Auctor, attracting skilled talent has not been a particular challenge, indicating that the skills shortage of the tech industry may not be affecting the non-for-profit sector as much as the commercial sector. Perhaps this is because there are many skilled professionals with extensive experience in tech who are willing to utilize their expertise for humanitarian purposes while being able to remain loyal to the commercial companies where they have built their career.
“We have all kinds of people that approach us online or in person to join up. Anyone from just your normal, everyday college students to doctorate level pharmacists and chemists have been attracted to us by seeing what we do, and also through news articles and publicity. So most of our volunteers are either people who do outreach, talking to people at events and spreading the word about test kits generally, or they’re research professionals and scientists that we don’t have enough funding to afford.” ~ Adam Auctor, CEO of Transparency
Cross-cultural integration challenges
It is a well-established irony that the majority of charities and NGOs are developed in capitalist Western societies, despite the fact that many of these organisations target issues in third world countries where poverty, war, disease, and natural disasters are rife. But of course, it is in the Western world that there are typically more resources on hand to fund and equip them.
In terms of actually carrying out their missions, this geographical and cultural distance can create integration and scalability challenges for organisations operating across multiple regions and cultures.
For example, Auctor, whose company now operates globally despite retaining its primary focus on the U.S., where drug-related deaths are particularly high, points out the complexity of navigating the different laws and insurance policies surrounding drug testing in different countries and across different U.S. states.
“We now operate globally, with research going on in Spain right now. We have also worked in Slovenia and Belgium in the past, and currently ship our testing kits to over 120 countries. And you know, we have shipped to very surprising countries all over the place, even in the Middle East, Qatar, Thailand, and other parts of Asia where there are very restrictive laws over recreational drug use. In the U.S., on a state level, we’ve seen a lot of the laws change when it comes specifically to Fentanyl test kits. At music festivals in many states, test kits and harm reduction services are not allowed despite the fact that they’re being widely distributed by even the federal government. The government gave away 7 million Fentanyl test kits over the last couple of years, but in many places they’re still not allowed because of fears that promoters have over insurance issues and all kinds of other reputational damage. So what we do is only attend events that ban these services that make it an issue for other drug safety organizations to carry out their work, so we basically just go where others can’t. And that’s our main initiative – trying to get these kits into the hands of people all across the world who otherwise wouldn’t have access.” ~ Adam Auctor, CEO of Transparency
Furthermore, even for organisations operating within more liberal regions, there are significant challenges in terms of staying up to date with the latest cultural trends and keeping their mission in line with evolving societal expectations that are being profoundly shaped by the effects of globalisation.
According to Helen Stephenson, who just recently stepped down from her role as Chief Executive at the Charity Commission, the ‘culture wars’ of recent times have had a profound impact on the expectations and pressures that charities face.
Speaking at ICAEW’s annual charity conference back in January 2024, she pointed out how, during her tenure, the sector had undergone an increasing pace of change due to both technological innovation and also changing attitudes and trends such as woke culture, climate anxiety, and heightened awareness over issues such as cultural appropriation and minority group rights.
“In my mind, the so-called culture wars are essentially different levels of comfort with the nature and pace of these changes. These divergences are playing out across society and they impact on many charities very acutely. In part, I think, because they’re so often fuelled by the sense of mission, a desire to right a wrong or serve a certain community, whether that be a community place or interest. There is no way for charities to immunise themselves against change, whether that’s technological, cultural or economic. The question is how best to respond. I believe strongly that the challenge for charities is how to retain a laser-sharp focus on your core purpose, and what you’re ultimately set up to achieve while being open and flexible about the best ways of achieving that aim.” ~ Helen Stephenson, ex-CEO of the Charity Commission, as quoted in a Civil Society article.
The promise of AI in non-for-profits and charities
While it could be argued that AI is a digital asset that non-for-profits typically lack the funds to invest in (especially due to the expense involved in training LLMs), organisations which have invested time and money into integrating AI tools into their operations have reaped significant benefits in many of the other areas discussed above.
To fully dive into the particular benefits of AI that are unique to non-for-profits, we reached out to several experts who are either working in charitable organisations themselves, or in the governance and regulation side of the non-for-profit sector.
They highlighted many of the following key advantages which we explore below.
Prioritizing critical tasks
The efficiency gains of automation are well-attested across the corporate world, with companies across a range of sectors being able to reallocate human labour and other valuable resources to new priorities such as R&D. For charities and non-for-profits, whose resources are typically a lot more stretched, these gains are arguably even more consequential.
Paul Latham, Director of Communication and Policy at the Charity Commission, which regulates charities in England and Wales, maintains that one of the key advantages of AI in the non-for-profit sector is that it enables organisations to focus on higher priority tasks, particularly those which are oriented around human-to-human connection.
“AI has the potential to bring about many benefits, particularly if it can help charities free up valuable time spent on resource-intensive tasks, and so make more hours available for high priority areas.” ~ Paul Latham, Director of Communication and Policy at the Charity Commission
Similarly, Auctor explains how Generative AI (specifically ChatGPT) is helping his company with research into recreational drugs and illegal substances, which has been a particularly time-consuming workload for the company.
“We’ve been working on the research that’s contained in our app for over a decade now, and we probably have well over 10,000 hours, probably closer to 15,000 hours of just straight research wrapped up in that. When I first took on this project, I had imagined it would take maybe a month or two to collect all the information we needed, because we started this back in 2011 when all of these substances were just entering the market. And at this point, there were all these rogue chemists creating a ton of new recreational drugs constantly. It was often multiple times a week, and although the rate of innovation in this area has slowed down, it has not stopped by any means. This means, unfortunately, that the research is pretty much never-ending, and it’s really a research project that could easily get to the point of bankrupting anyone that tried to fully complete it. So I can’t speak highly enough of ChatGPT. I mean, it does have its issues and hallucinations, and you definitely have to double check the references and the citations and all of that, but it has been an enormous help for us in many different ways, particularly in directing our research. I would say it is absolutely a member of our team, and it’s very intelligent.” ~ Adam Auctor, CEO of Transparency
Enhancing outreach strategies
Another particularly valuable use-case for AI in the non-for-profit sector is its enhancement of outreach initiatives. For non-for-profits, having effective outreach strategies is not only important for PR purposes and public image, as it is for all companies, but it is also fundamental to their survival – it is literally the bread and butter for many charities.
Indeed, according to the National Centre for Charitable Statistics, smaller non-for-profits (with annual incomes of approximately under $500,000) can receive up from 70-80% of their income from individual donations, with small organisations typically listing individual donations as their primary source of income, according to research from the Nonprofit Finance Fund. For larger organisations, it is estimated to be typically slightly less, but also greatly variable, with Charity Navigator estimating that donations can account for between 30-90% of their income.
What these statistics highlight in this context is the critical importance of outreach in providing stability for non-for-profits. For this reason, outreach initiatives typically form a core and ongoing component of the workloads for these organisations, and is an area where AI (Generative AI in particular) can really set them apart.
For Dr Martin Burt, Founder and CEO at Fundación Paraguaya, a non-for-profit innovating with technology to eliminate poverty in 60 countries across the globe, digital technology is one of the greatest assets available to charities and NGOs in order to boost their outreach. He argues that the recent proliferation of AI tools at relatively low cost is particularly transformative for non-for-profits, providing fresh hope for fulfilling for age-old ambitions such as ending poverty.
“Being able to learn and implement the latest technology can help reach more people faster. We’ve always considered that technology is one of our closest allies when it comes to our work. We’ve never had this type of technology available so quickly and so cheap, and I truly believe that it may be the final push we need to end poverty all over the world.” ~ Dr Martin Burt, Founder & CEO of Fundación Paraguaya
Additionally, other CEOs in the tech or non-for-profit sector have highlighted the major advantage of using AI chatbots to enable 24/7 customer service operations, which is otherwise particularly unattainable for non-for-profit organisations due to the limited resources they have.
“One of the ways in which AI often really shines is with AI chatbots. AI chatbots can be really helpful tools in providing people with answers 24/7. In the non-for-profit sector, this could be very helpful with outreach. When people go to look up an organization’s website, and they have questions, an AI chatbot can be a useful tool in making sure that those people are always able to get helped right away. Non-profit organizations are often short-staffed or simply not equipped to handle large volumes of calls/inquiries, and sometimes people simply prefer talking to a chatbot rather than calling or emailing.” ~ Edward Tian, CEO of GPTZero, a company providing a free software that helps people to detect AI generated content.
“DMOs (Destination Management Organisations) help the public learn about new destinations and plan trips, but they aren’t set up to provide live support 24/7. With a custom version of [AI powered travel assistant] GuideGeek, potential visitors can have the experience of talking with an expert about the destination any time. DMOs have a treasure trove of information about their destination and the AI prioritizes that data in its responses. This is a prime example of how a nonprofit can use AI to engage a wider audience on behalf of its mission. This line of business has grown rapidly since we launched it last year with about 20 DMOs online with their custom version of GuideGeek so far.” ~ Ross Borden, CEO of Matador Network
Overcoming communicative barriers
Another major area of utility for AI is translation. Indeed, while the accuracy of AI’s translation capabilities can sometimes be questionable, it has the key appeal of providing immediate translation services in many different languages. This is a particularly valuable asset for non-for-profit organisations which operate internationally, and on an as-needed basis.
For example, organisations including Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), the International Federation of the Red Cross, and UNICEF, all operate on internationally in response to natural disasters and humanitarian emergencies. This means that they can be called into any country with very short notice, and may not always have translators on hand who are proficient in the native language, particularly if this is a minority one.
For charities and NGOs operating internationally on this more spontaneous basis (particularly smaller organisations which are likely to have less translation talent to draw on) AI promises be a true game-changer, enabling victims of wars, famines, natural disasters and more to be helped in the way that they need.
To illustrate the difference that AI can make to overcoming communicative barriers in the non-for-profit sector, Heather Morgan Shoemaker, CEO and Founder of AI-powered translation company, Language I/O explains how one of their non-for-profit customers, Rainbow Railroad, has been able to use their AI-powered translation tool to increase their reach and help a more diverse range of individuals facing persecution.
“Rainbow Railroad’s experience demonstrates a powerful application of AI in humanitarian work: overcoming language barriers. Since 2006, this organization has helped over 13,000 LGBTQI+ individuals facing persecution find safety. As their reach expanded, so did the diversity of languages spoken by those seeking help. By implementing Language I/O’s translation solution, Rainbow Railroad expanded support from English and Spanish to include Farsi, Pashto, Russian, and two versions of Arabic. This allowed them to help many who previously might have been left without support due to language constraints. The impact was significant. Rainbow Railroad handled a fivefold increase in requests while maintaining the quality and speed of responses. This means offering help to five times as many people in critical situations. In humanitarian outreach, where time is often crucial, AI-powered translation tools are proving invaluable in the mission to protect vulnerable individuals.” ~ Heather Morgan Shoemaker, CEO and Founder at Language I/O
Nevertheless, there is still a lot of room for improvement in this area, with many minority languages under/misrepresented in AI models. Some initiative is already being taken to mitigate this issue, with Meta’s latest single AI model, NLLB-200, now including over 200 languages, several of which are minority languages not currently served by machine translation software.
However, in relation to the bigger picture of the world’s linguistic diversity, with almost 7,000 languages spoken worldwide, this seems like a drop in the ocean. Thus, while AI-powered translation already has significant utility for non-for-profits operating internationally, helping to mitigate some of the miscommunication and misconception that is prone to arise from cultural differences, more work is still needed in this area to ensure true global equity and truly expand the reach of charities and NGOs.
Rapid cross-referencing for quick and accessible solutions
Last but not least, a key application for AI in the non-for-profit sector is in the now well-established arena of information management.
Arguably, one of the most valuable ways that charities and NGOs can help people is by hooking them up with relevant and accessible information. Indeed, limited access to education and information is a leading cause of many of the issues that these organisations aim to address, including poverty, disease, pollution, domestic violence, the list goes on…
But one of the key challenges that organisations can face in bringing about real, long-term change that addresses the core issues at the heart of many humanitarian struggles, is how to best empower people with not only physical and financial resources, but with information that can often give them unprecedented advantages.
This is an area where AI could bring great advantage, facilitating the efficient management of a wealth of information and data collected from sources all over the web as well as private collections, reflecting centuries of valuable knowledge acquired by humans. This not only has the potential to democratize knowledge on a global level, but it can also foster greater collaboration between organizations and individuals across the world.
For example, accomplished explorer, Bertrand Piccard, who is also Chairman of the sustainability-oriented Solar Impulse Foundation, advocates the benefits of AI for quickly cross-referencing environmental problems with matching solutions on a global scale, based on his vision for both sustainable and profitable climate solutions.
“Solutions exist that are logical more than just ecological, that can create jobs and generate profit while also reducing polluting emissions and preserving natural resources.” ~ Bertrand Piccard, Chairman of Solar Impulse
Speaking at OpenText’s World Europe Event in London back in April 2024, Piccard explained how Solar Impulse has been able create a ‘Solutions Explorer’, an AI-powered custom search engine which enables users to find optimal climate solutions for their specific requirements. The search engine runs on filters including industry, location, goals, and more. This is a prime example of how AI can be used to optimally manage information and ensure that the right information is easily and quickly accessible to the people who could most benefit from it.
Similarly, Auctor explains how his company has been able to provide invaluable information to recreational drug users in a more digestible way through an AI-powered chatbot, and literally save lives just by having this information in a more accessible form.
“When it comes to our app, the main advantage of AI is that it enables people to access all of our research quickly and easily, rather than having to painstakingly go through the giant spreadsheet of our research. The way our testing kits worked back in 2011 when we started is that they would come with just a little wheel on the lid that would have different colours, and you would just match the test results up with the colours. But these colours were relatively arbitrary, subject to individuals’ perceptions, and just overall not accurate enough. And there were also things that you can’t determine simply through colour matching, such as whether the substance bubbles, if there is smoke, whether it dissolves immediately, etc. So we then went from that little wheel to a booklet, and then we started to put videos of our research up online that people could reference. But while this had greater accuracy, it became overwhelming for people to reference all those videos and access the relevant ones. And so the chatbot came in to take that massive amount of information and present it to people through short GIFs, allowing them to access and absorb the information more easily.” ~ Adam Auctor, CEO of Transparency
Above: a graphic showing Transparency’s chatbot, enabling users to easily identify the quality and safety of recreational substances. Courtesy of Adam Auctor, CEO of Transparency.
Furthermore, AI’s information management capabilities can also be harnessed by non-for-profits in order to improve the accuracy of their services and help them with more targeted and personal outreach.
For example, Dr Burt explains how his organisation (Fundación Paraguaya) utilizes AI to provide a solutions bank to help match families in need with the most helpful resources by analyzing and comparing some of their information with data collected from previous service users.
“We have a “Bank of Solutions” that tracks non-sensitive information about previous households who have participated in The Poverty Stoplight and AI can be used to analyze this data when new families are participating in order to find other families with similar circumstances who have already overcome that challenge in order to provide possible solutions more quickly. AI can also help households understand what their strengths and limitations are in given areas by comparing their answers/data with previous households who did or did not overcome specific challenges.” ~ Dr Martin Burt, Founder & CEO of Fundación Paraguaya
Could AI’s adoption in the non-for-profit sector win over public opinion?
In light of our above exploration into how AI can help non-for-profits mitigate many of the challenges they traditionally face and improve the services they provide for people in need, it certainly seems plausible that the technology’s adoption in this sector could swing public opinion in its favour.
In support of this, an AI Journal LinkedIn poll we conducted indicates that the net feeling amongst our respondents was that AI adoption in this sector is indeed helping to foster public trust in the technology, with 32% voting in agreement with this statement versus only 14% who voted in disagreement. Nevertheless, the majority of respondents (49%) voted that the impact of this adoption on public opinion depends on how it is used.
This raises a valid point – the ethical and responsible adoption of AI must be a key consideration not just for the non-for-profit sector, but also for commercial sector if companies wish to uphold a good reputation and retain customers.
That being said, the responsible and strategic adoption of AI is particularly important in the non-for-profit sector, where there are high expectations from the public for upstanding ethical practices and full accountability for the organisation’s operations, and complete transparency over how donations are used.
Crucially, non-for-profits must remember to take into account not only the end-goal of implementing an AI system, but also the implementation strategy that it will require. Indeed, while using the ends to justify the means might work in some aspects of charitable work where the stakes are as high as life or death, the multitude of legal challenges that have faced big tech companies in recent decades indicate that this approach does not work out so well when it comes to AI, and perhaps just technology in general.
Could AI’s adoption in the non-for-profit sector win over public opinion?
In light of our above exploration into how AI can help non-for-profits mitigate many of the challenges they traditionally face and improve the services they provide for people in need, it certainly seems plausible that the technology’s adoption in this sector could swing public opinion in its favour.
In support of this, an AI Journal LinkedIn poll we conducted indicates that the net feeling amongst our respondents was that AI adoption in this sector is indeed helping to foster public trust in the technology, with 32% voting in agreement with this statement versus only 14% who voted in disagreement. Nevertheless, the majority of respondents (49%) voted that the impact of this adoption on public opinion depends on how it is used.
This raises a valid point – the ethical and responsible adoption of AI must be a key consideration for not just the non-for-profit sector, but also for commercial sector if companies wish to uphold a good reputation and retain customers.
That being said, the responsible and strategic adoption of AI is particularly important in the non-for-profit sector, where there are high expectations from the public for upstanding ethical practices and full accountability for the organisation’s operations, and complete transparency over how donations are used.
On the flipside of this consideration, it is perhaps easier to envisage the damage that could be done to public trust in AI if the technology were used to undermine and hinder humanitarian endeavours. For example, last year, Human Rights Watch raised concerns over the use of facial recognition technology at protests and border controls. High-profile use cases such as these, which can have severe consequences on humanitarian plights such as the immigration crisis, and rights for minority groups, demonstrate the damage that the ethically dubious use of AI can have on public opinion, particularly with the great power that social rights activists have on a global scale through social media.
Therefore, it is crucial that non-for-profits take into account not only the end-goal of implementing an AI system, but also the implementation strategy that it will require. Indeed, while using the ends to justify the means might work in some aspects of charitable work where the stakes are as high as life or death, the multitude of legal challenges that have faced big tech companies in recent decades indicate that this approach does not work out so well when it comes to AI, and perhaps just technology in general.
Overall, the impact of AI’s adoption in the non-for-profit sector on public opinion looks very promising. To further evidence this, a survey by Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) found that 37% of respondents across 10 countries thought that the opportunities of AI in this sector outweigh the risks, compared to 35% who thought the opportunities and risks were equal, and just 22% who thought that the risks outweighed the opportunities.
In support of this overall optimism towards the adoption of AI in the non-for-profit sector, Dr Burt points out how more humanitarian use cases for AI could expand the public’s view of what the technology is capable of achieving in the world.
“AI being used to help eliminate multidimensional poverty, or increase access to healthcare and vaccines, or aid in emergency notifications systems would definitely allow the public to see AI in a different light. I know that there are currently several ways that AI is being used for good, but unfortunately a lot of the media that comes out focuses on those that are breaking barriers in machine learning and cognizance, which is very interesting but not the only area that AI is making waves for good.” ~ Dr Martin Burt, Founder & CEO of Fundación Paraguaya
