December 2024

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 dec 2024

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to make an impact in various industries and regions around the world, the question arises regarding their readines to adopt, adapt and manage the change for maximum benefit. About 73% of Indian internet users are already exposed to AI in some form. Some sectors are fast adopters while others are slow. Nonprofit/social sector in India is at an early stage of AI transformation and an informed and intentional approach to building AI can provide nonprofits leverage data-driven decision-making or enhance efficiency through process automation. GivingTuesday's 'AI Readiness Survey Report India 2024' is based on a survey of 251 organizations across six regions and brings about how nonprofits in India are utilising AI, their comfort levels with various AI tools, and the challenges they experience. 55% of the organizations surveyed had used generative AI to write text or create images, while 30% had never used any form of AI. HIGHLIGHTS OF THE REPORT - (1) AI readiness of organizations is weakly dependent on capacity. High-capacity organisations are better positioned to improve their AI readiness and would benefit more from such improvements. (2) Early vs late adoption determines AI usage behaviour. Early adopters tended to be larger organizations with greater resources and infrastructure and are mostly located in urban areas. Late adopters of AI were smaller organizations with fewer staff members and constrained budgets and are located in rural areas. Only 10% of late adopters expressed interest in using AI in the future for applications beyond generative AI, and 40% did not know what they would like to use AI for. Early adopters were more experimental - approximately 60-80% wanted to use AI for features such as virtual assistants, data interpretation, prediction, chatbots, transcription, and more. (3) Indian organizations hold a mix of optimism and apprehension regarding AI. Nonprofits were hopeful that AI can bring efficiency and productivity to their work, but they also fear that it could lead to dependency, skill gaps, and job displacement. Organizations had different hopes and fears based on their area of expertise. Education nonprofits expressed confidence that AI could enhance opportunities through personalised teaching and by automating administrative tasks that overburden staff. Nonprofits working in community development saw AI as an opportunity to optimize resource allocation and identify needs. But they were aware that AI could perpetuate existing regional inequities. (4) Indian organisations were twice as likely than the global sample to have technology or data staff. (5) Compared to the global average, Indian organisations were more comfortable using AI at work - 29% gave it a score of 10 on a scale of 0-10. (6) Indian organisations focused more on the benefits of AI and had fewer concerns about data protection/privacy issues. Therefore, they are more likely to share data without having data-use or sharing agreements in place compared to the global average. The study suggests that nonprofits should first explore AI's relevance and potential use cases for their own organization. It is important to provide targeted support to smaller, resource-constrained nonprofits that wish to adopt AI. Moreover, it is necessary to establish safeguards as the vast majority of those using AI are using technology products managed by others. Understanding the nuances in current AI adoption and knowledge is integral to achieving equitable and beneficial AI adoption for the social sector. Read on...

India Development Review: Are Indian nonprofits ready for AI?
Author: NA

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