How AI Is Helping Humanitarian Teams Make Faster Decisions

In a humanitarian crisis, waiting for perfect information isn't an option. Every decision must be made with incomplete data and limited resources in a situation that can change by the hour.

For organizations like Mercy Corps, AI is helping teams make sense of that uncertainty. By bringing together information from conflict reports, local media, humanitarian data, and environmental sources, AI can surface the context decision-makers need while leaving human judgment firmly in their hands.

In this episode of The AI Forecast, Paul Muller is joined by Josh DeWald, Vice President of Technical Support, Evidence and Program Quality at Mercy Corps, and Rob Dickens, AI Technical Lead at Cloudera. Together, they explore how VERA, an agentic AI platform co-developed by Cloudera and Mercy Corps, is helping humanitarian teams gather information faster and make better-informed decisions. 

Inside their discussion:

• How AI supports humanitarian decision-making during fast-moving crises
• Why data collection is so difficult in conflict-affected regions
• How agentic AI combines structured and unstructured information
• The importance of human oversight in AI-assisted decisions
• Protecting data privacy and reducing bias in humanitarian AI
• Lessons enterprise organizations can learn from operating in information-poor environments
• How AI is improving organizational learning across humanitarian programs

The conversation explores what responsible AI looks like when decisions carry humanitarian consequences. Whether you're leading enterprise AI initiatives or working in mission-driven organizations, this episode offers valuable insights into building AI systems that help people make better decisions when the stakes are highest.

Stay in touch with Josh and Rob:

Josh DeWald on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-dewald-10a6178b/?skipRedirect=true

Rob Dickens on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-dickens-73a91340/?skipRedirect=true&originalSubdomain=uk

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