DataDotOrg

🔥🔥 “You would never send firefighters into a burning building without equipment. So, we cannot send social impact organizations into addressing societal challenges without the data and AI capabilities that define this modern era, the era of AI.” Vice President of Inclusive Innovation and Analytics at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth (and our former Chief Data and Technology Officer!) Uyi Stewart, PhD underscored the critical importance of #AI skilling in today’s workforce at our mainstage panel, “Unleashing Impact: Building the Purpose-Driven Data & AI Workforce,” at the India AI Impact Summit 2026. So, how do we ensure today’s workforce has the AI "equipment" they need? By investing in both supply and demand through initiatives like our #CapacityAcceleratorNetwork. We need to train new practitioners and connect them to the social sector, as well as upskill existing social sector leaders. On the demand side, by providing hands-on fellowships and experiential learning opportunities, we build the capacity of social impact organizations to employ professionals long term. ➡️ Read more in our event recap: https://lnkd.in/emeKcWWJ #IndiaAISummit2026 #IndiaAI #CapacityBuilding #AIforGood #DataForImpact #AIDrivesImpact #InclusiveGrowth #ResponsibleAI Bayo (Olubayo) Adekanmbi PhD, DSN - Data Science Nigeria, EqualyzAI, Perry Hewitt, Priyank Hirani, Pratibha Kurnool, Cognizant, Tithee Mukhopadhyay, J-PAL South Asia, Tavpritesh Sethi MBBS, PhD, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi, NEHA MALHOTRA SINGH, Janaagraha 

What does effective #data and #AI capacity building for real-world impact look like? ✅ It's working on real challenges using hyperlocal data. ✅ It's creating solutions locally to ensure that models actually work—and improve lives. ✅ It's new talent driving meaningful change from within their organizations. ✅ It's being intentional about who is being trained, and how that training happens. ✅ It's about building technology responsibly, and equipping people with the ability to put it to use. Learn more about DataDotOrg's capacity building work and our network of 100+ partners making this happen around the world: https://lnkd.in/eEsZgvHy #IndiaAISummit2026 #IndiaAI #CapacityAcceleratorNetwork #CapacityBuilding #AIforGood #DataForImpact #AIDrivesImpact #DataDrivesImpact #InclusiveGrowth #PeopleProgressPlanet Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, Uyi Stewart, PhD, Smita Jain, Priyank Hirani, Cormekki Whitley, Ph D, CivicDataLab, Gaurav Godhwani, Yash Rawal, Anuja Venkatachalam, ARTPARK, Khushi Baby, Wellcome Trust, Felipe J Colón-González, Perry Hewitt, Shivam Shukla 🏳️⚧️ 🏳️🌈, Shubhi Vijay, India AI Impact Summit 2026, IndiaAI

What does it take to work in global development communications today? Devex spoke with communicators leaders across the sector—including DataDotOrg's Perry Hewitt—about how the field is evolving. The takeaway: the most effective communicators aren't just strong writers. They're blending audience-driven storytelling with data literacy, cultural fluency, and smart use of #AI tools. If you're building a career at the intersection of data and development, this one's worth a read. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gvsE3ERw #AIDrivesImpact #DataDrivesImpact #AIforGood Katrina L., David Gerard Mascarina, Shubhi Vijay, Emma Donelan, Meg Geoghegan, Anjali Ramachandran, Anubha Bhonsle

The AI systems shaping our world weren't built with every language in mind. Of the 2,000+ languages spoken across Africa, only a fraction have the digitized data needed to participate in the AI era. That means entire communities—their knowledge, their stories, their voices—are largely invisible to modern AI systems. That's a problem we can solve together. This Friday, in honor of #InternationalMotherLanguageDay, our partners at DSN - Data Science Nigeria are hosting a virtual event to launch the "Digitisation of Oral Data for NLP of Low-Resource Languages Playbook", a practical, field-tested guide for communities, institutions, and researchers working to preserve and digitize indigenous languages responsibly and at scale. 📅 Friday, 27 February 2026 🕒 4:00 PM GMT +1 🔗 Register: https://lnkd.in/gTMsvrn4 Inclusive AI starts with inclusive data. The languages we digitize today will shape who benefits from AI tomorrow. #AIDrivesImpact #DataDrivesImpact #LanguageInclusion #AIForAfrica Bayo (Olubayo) Adekanmbi PhD, Uyi Stewart, PhD, Vukosi Marivate, Victor Odumuyiwa, Ayomide Fagoroye, Oluwaseun Nifemi, AIE™, Dr. Tsosheletso Chidi (PhD), Emmanuel Davis, Gideon George, Ogbonna Kingsley Victor, Ola-obaado Similoluwa, Paul K Korir, University of Lagos, University of Pretoria

Last week in Delhi, we gathered partners across our capacity building initiatives—from the #CapacityAcceleratorNetwork to Global Innovation Challenges to new products like #Finverse. The room was full of momentum: purpose-driven talent being built, organizational capacity growing, and the kind of hope that comes from seeing this work deliver real impact. See the energy and hear insights from: 🎤 Shamina Singh, Founder and President of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth; Executive Vice President of Sustainability at Mastercard 🎤 Pritika Hingorani, Chief Executive Officer of Artha Global 🎤 Cormekki Whitley, Ph D, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of DataDotOrg 🎤 Perry Hewitt, Chief Strategy Officer of DataDotOrg #IndiaAISummit2026 #IndiaAI #CapacityBuilding #AIforGood #DataForImpact #AIDrivesImpact #DataDrivesImpact #InclusiveGrowth #PeopleProgressPlanet Uyi Stewart, PhD, Smita Jain, Gaurav Godhwani, CivicDataLab, Zeel Mehta, Myna Mahila Foundation, Amrita Monga Kapoor, Swadhaar FinAccess, Dr. Partha Pratim Das (PPD), Priyank Hirani, Shubhi Vijay, Shivam Shukla 🏳️⚧️ 🏳️🌈

India already has compelling Climate × AI use cases across energy planning, heat resilience, and net-zero modeling. But how do we move from pilots to system-level change, design ecosystems that drive adoption, and build the interdisciplinary talent to make it happen?      These are the questions our colleague Priyank Hirani explored while moderating our India AI Impact Summit 2026 mainstage session on data, AI, and India’s energy transformation.   DataDotOrg’s Cormekki Whitley, Ph D set the context for the session, with an overview on our #CapacityAcceleratorNetwork and #Climateverse initiatives, followed by our partners, Karan Shah and Neelanjan Sircar, from Artha Global, and Akhilesh Magal from Climate Dot, who shared novel, local climate solutions. From there, a panel of global experts dove into the enabling conditions—governance, incentives, digital public infrastructure, coordination mechanisms, and talent pipelines—that determine whether innovation translates into measurable climate progress. Here are Priyank’s key takeaways from the discussion:   ⚡️Srinivas Krishnaswamy shared Vasudha Foundation India's experience building the Climate and Energy dashboard with NiTi Aayog, which now has over 500,000 users from 170+ countries and reminded us that a solid data strategy must precede any AI strategy. ⚡️Swetha Ravi Kumar from FSR Global spoke about the India Energy Stack's effort to encode trust by design, inviting all key stakeholders from the private sector, civil society, technology providers, government, and others to participate in the design phase of this DPI, paving a path for sustained ownership. ⚡️Dr Srikanta K. Panigrahi from the Indian Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD), a veteran climate negotiator and policymaker, highlighted the need to ensure equity and just transition as more Climate × AI solutions are adopted to leave no one behind. ⚡️Priya Donti from Massachusetts Institute of Technology explained that interdisciplinary talent (domain expertise + AI literacy) that can act as bridges or translators from data to decision making or dashboards to policies will be key to ensure diffusion across the sector. This is what her team at Climate Change AI is focused on.   At DataDotOrg, we believe that integrating climate and energy data into real decision-making requires building local capacity, advancing organizational AI readiness, and activating cross-sector partnerships. We need to be intentional in designing this ecosystem—and we look forward to catalyzing these conversations into system-level change. #IndiaAISummit2026 #IndiaAI #CapacityBuilding #AIforGood #DataForImpact #AIDrivesImpact #InclusiveGrowth #PeopleProgressPlanet #ResponsibleAI #DCIW2026 #ClimateInnovation Vrinda Sarda, Akash Yadav, Satchit Balsari, CivicDataLab, Janaagraha, Delhi Climate Innovation Week, Perry Hewitt, Shivam Shukla 🏳️⚧️ 🏳️🌈, Shubhi Vijay

We're not done yet. 🌍 There are three more chances to join us this week as we continue an incredible run at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 and Delhi Climate Innovation Week: Friday, February 20 ✨10:30am: Scaling Climate Solutions | #IndiaAI Mainstage,📍Bharat Mandapam ✨3:00pm: Advancing Climate Data & AI | #DelhiClimateInnovationWeek,📍TERI School Of Advanced Studies Saturday, February 21 ✨3:00pm: Building Climate-Ready Talent | #DelhiClimateInnovationWeek, 📍TERI School Of Advanced Studies If you're in Delhi and ready to dive into #data, #AI, and #climateaction, we'd love to see you there: https://data.org/events/ #IndiaAISummit2026 #IndiaAI #CapacityBuilding #AIforGood #DataForImpact #AIDrivesImpact #InclusiveGrowth #PeopleProgressPlanet #ResponsibleAI #DCIW2026 #ClimateInnovation Dr Srikanta K. Panigrahi, Priya Donti, Priyank Hirani, Swetha Ravi Kumar, Srinivas Krishnaswamy, Akhilesh Magal, Karan Shah, Neelanjan Sircar, Cormekki Whitley, Ph D, Perry Hewitt, Shivam Shukla 🏳️⚧️ 🏳️🌈, Shubhi Vijay

Our first moment on the India AI Impact Summit 2026 mainstage! 🎤 Yesterday, DataDotOrg hosted Unleashing Impact: Building the Purpose-Driven Data & AI Workforce to explore the need for and benefit of applying #data and #AI to the world’s most pressing problems.    Capacity building is core to DataDotOrg. Together with a global network of over 100 ecosystem partners, we’ve launched five capacity accelerators across four continents, trained 150,000 people, developed nine digital learning courses, and secured 10 government partnerships to advance our goal of developing one million purpose driven data and AI practitioners.     After an inspiring kickoff by Director of Capacity Priyank Hirani, a funder keynote from Uyi Stewart, PhD Stewart, vice president of inclusive innovation and analytics at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, underscored the possibility and the urgency of this remit. Uyi emphasized the need for social impact organizations to be equipped with tools and training to be successful, and that investing in data and AI capacity saves time, resources, and lives. Chief Strategy Officer Perry Hewitt then moderated a panel with Tavpritesh Sethi MBBS, PhD, NEHA MALHOTRA SINGH, Tithee Mukhopadhyay, Bayo (Olubayo) Adekanmbi PhD, and Pratibha Kurnool. Each offered their lens on building a purpose-driven workforce, and key themes emerged:    ✨ Collaborative, interdisciplinary training approaches work   🌍 Experiential learning and fellows programs create lasting impact   🗣️ Different cultures and languages must be included from the start   🤝 Private sector engagement is essential, with benefits to both sectors    Finally, each panelist shared one thing that makes them hopeful in a data and AI enabled world. Responses ranged from the energy of youth, to the powerful tools for all, to the private sector workforce becoming more purpose-led.    We’ll close with the hopeful note shared by Tithee: convergence. She observed that we aren’t waiting for a crisis like COVID to collaborate. Instead, we now see people from different sectors coming together to solve for the future—what could be more hopeful than that!    We’re grateful to everyone who joined us and to our partners making this work possible. #IndiaAISummit2026 #IndiaAI #CapacityBuilding #AIforGood #DataForImpact #AIDrivesImpact #InclusiveGrowth #PeopleProgressPlanet #ResponsibleAI Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi, J-PAL South Asia, Cognizant, Janaagraha, DSN - Data Science Nigeria, EqualyzAI, Smita Jain, Cormekki Whitley, Ph D, Shubhi Vijay, Shivam Shukla 🏳️⚧️ 🏳️🌈, Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, Annita Mwagiru, APRU, Christina Schönleber, Asian Institute of Digital Finance, Edward Tay（Prof）정 웨이밍, Zulma M. Cucunubá

Data and AI capacity building drives real adoption, real outcomes, and real-world impact. That was the message that emerged from yesterday's Impact Accelerated event. Here’s what DataDotOrg’s Cormekki Whitley, Ph D took away:    At DataDotOrg, we believe data and AI in the hands of purpose-driven people can change lives at scale. During the showcase, we saw how:    ✨Data-driven solutions move from insight to implementation  🛠️ Platforms, research, and tools emerge from sustained investment in people  👥 Fellows become long-term institutional anchors and not temporary support  🧑🏾💻 Purpose-driven talent can grow from non-technical beginnings with the right training and ecosystem     Our role is to convene, connect, and catalyze so local solutions can reach global impact.    We’re grateful to our social impact and academic partners, fellows, and funders who make this work possible. Together, let’s ensure data and AI work for everyone, everywhere.    Progress. Partnerships. Possibility. #IndiaAISummit2026 #IndiaAI #CapacityBuilding #AIforGood #DataForImpact #AIDrivesImpact #InclusiveGrowth #PeopleProgressPlanet #ResponsibleAI Kailash Bhatt, Dr. Partha Pratim Das (PPD), Gaurav Godhwani, Perry Hewitt, Pritika Hingorani, Priyank Hirani, Amrita Monga Kapoor, Varun Kashyap, Zeel Mehta, Yash Rawal, Shamina Singh, Uyi Stewart, PhD, Shivam Shukla 🏳️⚧️ 🏳️🌈, Anuja Venkatachalam, Cormekki Whitley, Ph D, Shubhi Vijay

The team is together and the week is underway! 🎉 Today, DataDotOrg and Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth hosted Impact Accelerated: Data and AI Capacity Building Showcase in Delhi. We convened educators, learners, government leaders, social impact organizations, and philanthropic partners from across DataDotOrg's capacity building network to spotlight the impact of purpose-driven data and AI skilling and what's next to accelerate it at scale. Shamina Singh, Founder & President of Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, closed the event with a call to action that captured the moment: "As so many resources and investments are being poured into AI, a lot less is going into the impact of AI. In this moment, we can tilt the scale in favor of incentivizing a race to the top with AI tools so that inclusion by design becomes inclusion by default." We're grateful to everyone who joined us today. Stay tuned for more insights from the event. #IndiaAISummit2026 #IndiaAI #CapacityBuilding #AIforGood #DataForImpact #AIDrivesImpact #InclusiveGrowth #PeopleProgressPlanet #ResponsibleAI Uyi Stewart, PhD, Smita Jain, Deshni Govender, Sasha Tanghe, Ananya Iyer, Cormekki Whitley, Ph D, Perry Hewitt, Priyank Hirani, Shubhi Vijay, Shivam Shukla 🏳️⚧️ 🏳️🌈, Lindsey Gottschalk