Navigating the AI Revolution | The Impact Post
Issue # 52 | Wed, 30 Apr 2025
Dear NuSocia Patrons,
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the social impact space, addressing some of humanity’s most pressing challenges. It is also evolving and democratising rapidly through open-source tools, government support, and mission-driven startups.
However, alongside its promise, AI also presents significant risks and limitations. How are we preparing to navigate both the opportunities and the challenges of this new revolution?
In this edition, we explore the facets of AI such as its use cases in addressing social causes, addressing biases embedded in AI models, integrating AI into evaluation practices, and the Impact of AI on the environment.
Integrating AI into Evaluations: Building a Smarter, Ethical, & More Inclusive Framework of Measurement
Monitoring and Evaluation in the Social Impact Space remain cornerstones of decision-making and strategy for planned programs, policies, or projects. AI integration into every part of the evaluation life cycle has created a revolution for faster, better, and more ethical evaluations.
The NuSocia Translational Research Center (NTRC) explores which AI features and tools could be integrated into M&E and its use cases through this article.
Evolving Beyond the Inherited Bias
AI systems often reflect and amplify existing gender biases embedded in their training data and development teams, leading to unfair outcomes in hiring, healthcare, and beyond. Addressing these challenges requires diverse data, inclusive design, and ethical governance to build AI that promotes equity rather than perpetuates inequality.
The Gender Center of Excellence at NuSocia shares their findings about the challenges of bias in AI, its implications, and how to overcome them through this insight piece.
Transforming Healthcare through AI
AI has popped up everywhere, including in Healthcare. It is ubiquitous in health insurance, imaging, diagnostics, and for the most part improving public health through data analysis and automating existing processes. But what if AI moved beyond existing processes and truly transformed the health service industry by becoming the first point of contact. Transforming the health system by solving for the common first, allowing specialists to focus on the complex.
The NuSocia Public Health Center of Excellence dives into possibilities of AI coming to the forefront in Health Services through this insight piece.
The Hidden Costs of Intelligence: Unpacking the Environmental Footprint of LLMs
Large Language Models (LLMs) are revolutionizing technology, but their impressive capabilities come with hidden environmental costs, including massive energy use, significant carbon emissions, and extensive water consumption for cooling. As AI adoption accelerates, balancing innovation with sustainability is crucial to ensure that progress doesn’t come at the planet’s expense.
The NuSocia’s AI for Impact and Sustainability Centers of Excellence examines the environmental costs of AI and measures to mitigate them through this article.
AI Pulse
AI for Impact
Of the $540 billion poured into AI since 2016, just $2.2 billion has targeted social impact, leaving underserved communities behind. The report calls for co-created solutions—blending grants, cloud credits, open-source models and tax incentives—with intermediaries driving capacity building and public–private partnerships ensuring accountability, equity and sustainable scaling.
Designing AI to be more Human
As AI becomes integrated into multiple facets of life, including social impact work, empathy and humanity in AI development and design is key. This report highlights how new research is bringing this aspect into AI development and what it means for different sectors.
Bringing India’s Health Tech to the Table
In this podcast, Manav Garg, founder and CEO of Eka Software sits down with Nachiket Mor (Founder of Banyan Tree), Shashank ND (Co-founder of Practo), and Viren Shetty (Vice Chairman of Naryana Health) to explore the future of healthcare in India. They dive deep into how AI is set to revolutionize the industry, uncovering the opportunities it brings and the challenges we need to overcome.