More Humanitarian Organizations Will Harness AI’s Potential

For many of the people served by the humanitarian sector, 2024 has been the worst of times. The most recent UN estimates of those forced to flee violence and disaster is a record of 120 million, a figure that has doubled in the past decade. The broader figure of those in humanitarian need, 300 million people, has been swelled by increasingly violent conflict and growing impacts of the climate crisis. Progress in meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals has also been either stagnating or declining in more than half of the fragile countries. A child born in those countries has a tenfold greater chance of being in poverty than one born in a stable state.

The unprecedented numbers show the need for a new humanitarian surge: a technological one, harnessing the power of the digital and AI. For years we’ve (rightly) debated the risks and benefits of AI and waited for the promise of “AI for Good” to arrive. In 2025, across the aid, development, and humanitarian sector, that moment may finally be at hand.

When properly leveraged, AI can open up new frontiers in humanitarian action—in scale, speed, reach, personalization, and cost savings. My organization, International Rescue Committee (IRC), and our in-house research and innovation lab, Airbel, are exploring applications of AI in our humanitarian programming. We’re seeing solutions emerging in three critical areas—information, education, and climate—each bolstered by promising public-private partnerships and collaboration.

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