Headlines often cast artificial intelligence (AI) as a thief of jobs or a shadow over humanity’s future, yet in some of the world’s poorest communities, it has become a lifeline. In Malawi, AI-powered fetal monitoring is helping reduce one of the world’s highest neonatal death rates. Satellite data and mobile phone records in Togo are speeding up emergency cash transfers to families who would otherwise wait months for aid. In India, a digital platform is giving rural workers fair wages to build datasets in their own languages. Meanwhile, across Africa, solar-powered water pumps with AI-enabled monitoring are keeping clean water and electricity flowing in underserved communities. 

Newborns in Malawi

Malawi has long struggled with one of the world’s highest neonatal mortality rates. Between 2000 and 2015, the rate hovered around 27 deaths per 1,000 live births, far above the global average of 17. Conventional monitoring often missed early signs of distress, especially in overcrowded maternity wards with limited staff.

At Lilongwe’s Area 25 Health Centre, an AI-powered fetal monitoring system now tracks heart rate and oxygen levels continuously. It acts like a second pair of eyes, sounding the alarm before midwives can detect trouble. A six-month before-and-after study found that intrapartum stillbirths and early neonatal deaths dropped sharply once the system was introduced. At this single clinic, stillbirths and neonatal deaths have fallen by more than 82%.

For midwives, AI has become the colleague that never leaves the room; for mothers, it is the difference between heartbreak and hope. In Malawi, AI has stepped into the role of caregiver as a new angel for humanity, watching over the smallest lives.

Novissi Predicting Poverty

Before COVID-19, many poor households in Togo were invisible to social registries. Informal workers lacked paperwork or census records, so cash transfers often took months to arrange and often missed those most in need.

During the pandemic, the government built Novissi, a digital program that used satellite imagery and mobile-phone metadata to predict poverty at the household level. Families then received mobile-money transfers within days. Registration was simple, verification used voter IDs, and payments scaled quickly to hundreds of thousands of people. Independent evaluations found the AI-assisted targeting was both faster and more accurate than older methods. 

Offering Dignity in India

Rural India is home to millions who live on less than $2 a day, with unemployment and underemployment leaving families stuck in poverty. Even when work is available, it is often seasonal farm labor or insecure low-wage jobs.

The social enterprise Karya, backed by Microsoft and the Gates Foundation, is tackling this challenge by using AI to create dignified digital work. Villagers are paid to record speech and text in their own languages, building datasets that train global AI tools. Unlike most digital piecework, Karya guarantees above-minimum wages and shares royalties whenever the data is reused.

For workers, it means food on the table, children staying in school, and recognition that their voices matter. 

Carrying Water and Shining the Light in Africa

Across sub-Saharan Africa, more than 400 million people lack clean water and 600 million live without electricity. Even when solar pumps or mini-grids are installed, they often fail within months, leaving families hauling water long distances or studying by candlelight until repairs are made.

Organizations like Innovation: Africa, now fit solar-powered systems with remote monitoring sensors. These track water flow and electricity output, transmitting data over mobile networks. When a system falters, technicians receive alerts and can repair the problem within 48 hours instead of months. In one Ugandan village, a broken pump that once left families without water for weeks was repaired in two days after the system flagged the failure.

For families, it means reliable water and steady light to study at night, turning fragile systems into dependable lifelines.

– Diane Dunlop

Diane is based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and focuses on Good News and Technology for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons