NEW YORK – data.org today announced the six awardees of the Activate AI Challenge, data.org’s fifth innovation challenge. The program was supported by funding from Zoom Cares and called for collaborative AI solutions that unlock economic opportunity for all. Selected from 500 applications across 76 countries, the awardee organizations come from Hong Kong, Mongolia, Peru, the Philippines, Togo, and the United Kingdom.
The organizations will receive funding to develop and scale their responsible AI solutions, as well as technical assistance and mentorship from the data.org and the Zoom Cares team.
“At Zoom, we don’t think AI should be reserved for the few who already have access or expertise. If it’s going to shape how we work and connect, it has to work for everyone,” said Kimberly Storin, chief marketing officer at Zoom. “That means expanding not just the tools, but the understanding and confidence to use them. What inspires me about the Activate AI awardees is that they’re not talking about access in theory, they’re doing the hard, real work to make it happen in their communities. That’s the kind of progress we want to be part of.”
Joining an impressive cohort of past challenge winners, the Activate AI Challenge awardees are tackling the digital divide, financial inclusion, language digitization, and workforce resilience through AI solutions that are ready to scale with additional funding and technical assistance.
“data.org is leading the social sector in the AI revolution. Working with expert partners like Zoom Cares, we are scaling innovative AI solutions and enabling social impact leaders to unlock their potential for the communities that need it most,” said Perry Hewitt, Chief Strategy Officer at data.org. “With exponential advancements in AI, we’re excited to see how our Activate AI awardees can drive impact locally and accelerate scale globally, reaching more lives than ever thought possible before.”
As data.org’s fifth global innovation challenge since 2020, the Activate AI Challenge advances the organization’s commitment to train one million purpose-driven data practitioners by 2032.
MEET THE ACTIVATE AI CHALLENGE AWARDEES:
CodeYourFuture (CYF) | United Kingdom
CodeYourFuture addresses the systemic digital divide that prevents refugees, asylum seekers, and individuals from low-income backgrounds from accessing professional tech careers. With demand exceeding 5,000 applicants annually, CYF is harnessing AI to scale impact without sacrificing the human mentorship that makes their model work. Through three AI-powered tools—an AI concierge to guide users to the right programs, an improved internal management system to curate learning paths, and an AI review engine to provide immediate, actionable feedback on code—CYF is reducing the cost per learner and freeing volunteers from repetitive tasks. This allows skilled tech professionals to redirect 30 percent of their time from manual tasks to high-value mentoring, pair programming, and coaching.
Connected Women | The Philippines
Connected Women is integrating its human-centered digital training model with the AI-powered Store Insighting Project (SIP), to strengthen women-led sari-sari stores—a type of local convenience store—across the Philippines. Using machine learning, SIP analyzes store transaction histories and generates personalized recommendations on inventory management, product mix, pricing, and demand patterns. Connected Women pairs these AI insights with digital literacy sessions and hands-on coaching, ensuring store owners can understand, trust, and act on the recommendations in their daily operations. This human-in-the-loop approach positions AI as decision support rather than automation, offering a scalable model for inclusive AI adoption among the women micro-entrepreneurs most at risk of being left behind in the Philippines’ digital transformation.
IDENTI | Peru
IDENTI is a voice-first financial access layer designed to bring smallholder farmers into the formal financial system without requiring smartphones, high digital literacy, or reliable connectivity. Using AI voice authentication, IDENTI enables low-friction farmer onboarding and identity verification through interactive voice response (IVR) or assisted agents. Its AI-driven scoring model combines satellite imagery, crop production history, and commodity prices to assess repayment capacity. Based on this score, IDENTI instantly disburses right-sized financial products as stablecoin credit, with built-in incentives that nudge farmers toward climate-resilient inputs, aligning financial access with long-term agricultural resilience.
Migrasia | Hong Kong
Migrasia’s PoBot is an AI-powered worker protection and guidance system designed to support Filipino and Indonesian migrant workers employed in domestic work and manufacturing across more than 50 jurisdictions. By combining automation with human oversight, PoBot empowers workers to make informed decisions, safely report abuse, and remain economically active. Through natural, culturally appropriate conversations in workers’ native languages, PoBot strengthens workforce resilience and ensures that vulnerable workers are not left behind during periods of labor market and climate-related disruption.
Nest Center for Journalism Innovation and Development | Mongolia
The Nest Center is turning Mongolia’s “data desert” into an AI-resilient economic opportunity. As a low-resource language spoken by only 3.5 million people, Mongolian is poorly served by global AI models—leaving the country vulnerable to inaccurate information and exclusion from the AI economy. The Nest Center is digitizing 30 years of trusted newspaper archives to create a high-quality dataset that feeds local LLMs, ensuring AI tools speak Mongolian accurately without distorting the country’s modern democratic history. Simultaneously, they’re training 150 journalists to move from “AI-agnostic” to “AI-advanced,” to remain competitive in the digital economy. Looking further ahead, they’re bringing AI awareness and critical thinking into classrooms—building the next generation of Mongolians who can shape, scrutinize, and participate in an AI-driven world.
Umbaji | Togo
Umbaji’s voice-enabled AI agent, Yodi, works in African local languages, enabling financial institutions, telecommunications companies, and cooperatives to interact with customers via phone, WhatsApp, and SMS. Using advanced AI models, Yodi provides natural conversations in over 12 West African languages—interactions that were previously impossible to automate at scale. Today, Yodi is advancing financial and climate resilience by delivering real-time financial advisory, commodity market prices, climate alerts, and early warnings directly in users’ native languages.
About data.org
data.org is accelerating the power of data and AI to solve some of the world’s biggest problems. Through our global innovation challenges that surface and scale breakthrough ideas, and by elevating the most effective tools and strategies, we are catalyzing the use of data and AI for social impact. By 2032, we will train a workforce of one million purpose-driven data practitioners to help improve the quality of life for people everywhere.
Media Contact
Emma Donelan, Director of Marketing and Communications
emma@data.org