Liam Nicoll leads the Innovation and AI team at the International Rescue Committee‘s Signpost project, building emerging technologies including AI to provide information and digital aid to people in crisis. In addition to responding to crises in Afghanistan, Ukraine, and elsewhere with digital tools, Liam focuses on the signpostai.org initiative, derisking AI for humanitarian use cases. Liam and his team have developed agentic AI systems for humanitarian chat and voice communications, predictive flood alert systems, and digital enrollment systems to place people in housing. Liam manages relationships with technology partners such as Google, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI. He has scaled responsible technology products in the world’s most austere environments, leading the technology team for UN SDG Action and EU Humanitarian Innovation Prize-winning Signpost to bring humanitarian information to 115+ million people across 30 countries.
Formerly, Liam worked as a humanitarian aid worker and digital strategist, developing AI-powered products for humanitarian supply chain; shipping medical supplies across Africa and the Middle East; creating strategies to counter trafficking with emerging technology for the Jordanian Ministry of Justice; and mapping stakeholder networks for peacebuilding in Iraq. Liam is a former Fulbright Researcher in Jordan and a graduate of Bowdoin College.