Not every useful application of artificial intelligence needs a business model.
Singapore is investing heavily in AI. Government agencies publish strategies, companies draw up roadmaps and startups chase commercial opportunities. I keep wondering what this technology could do for organisations that aren’t trying to turn a profit.
Smaller charities and community groups operate with limited budgets and overstretched teams. Much of their time goes into organising information, coordinating volunteers and routine administration. If AI could save them even a few hours each week, that time could be better spent on the people they serve.
I’ve been thinking about an idea I call AI for Social Good. It needn’t begin as another institution. People with technical experience could devote a little of their spare time to helping nonprofits solve practical problems.
Working in technology has shown me how much small teams can now accomplish with AI tools. Whether those tools are useful to nonprofits is another question. The only way to find out is to talk to the people doing the work. But the prospect of turning a task that takes days into one that takes an afternoon seems worth exploring.
Better.sg and AI Singapore are already active in this space. There is little value in duplicating their efforts. But surely some small, persistent problems still fall through the cracks.
Not every problem needs AI. A poorly chosen tool can create more work through maintenance, training and errors than it saves. The test is straightforward: does it actually make someone’s job easier?
I have little interest in starting with a registered organisation, a committee or a fundraising campaign. I’d rather find one nonprofit, understand one concrete problem and try to solve it. If the experiment fails, that is worth knowing too.
Perhaps it remains a spare-time experiment. That would be fine.
For all the grand promises made about AI, helping a few people do their jobs a little better seems a worthwhile place to start.