You’ve built the AI. Now make it work in the real world

The Local & Inclusive AI Cohort will help you

• Adapt or integrate your solution to local languages and community needs
• Strengthen human oversight and feedback loops
• Test its effectiveness with intended users, building a practical pathway to sustained adoption and scale

About the cohort

Through the Local & Inclusive AI cohort, CivicDataLab, along with Gram Vaani as knowledge partner, will support 6-8 NGOs working in domains like health, agriculture and public services. The programme combines technical mentorship, exploration of the open-source multilingual ecosystem, community testing, and peer learning across five months, followed by light-touch implementation support post completion.

The focus is on improving an existing AI application or a credible pilot. Participating NGOs will own implementation, supported by mentors who help them make practical design, integration and evaluation choices.

Cohort focus areas

• Localisation
• Community Testing & Evaluation
• Human Oversight & Ground Truthing
• Feedback & Continuous Improvement
• Adoption & Scale

Programme structure

15 November–31 March

1. 1

   Assess and define

   Begin by assessing your existing solution, data, language resources, technical infrastructure and organisational readiness. During the two-day kick-off, identify priority users and workflows, pinpoint a focused localisation opportunity, and establish clear metrics to measure success.

2. 2

   Design, build and integrate

   Develop an implementation roadmap and shortlist 2–3 language models suited to your use case, and use human evaluation to select the best fit based on cost, performance and deployment needs. During months 2–4, advance your localisation journey through tailored language modules and AI evaluation support, complemented by expert mentorship, technical clinics, and peer learning.

3. 3

   Test, learn, and improve

   Learn to test your solution with beneficiaries and frontline teams, using voice-based interactions where relevant to enable community participation in feedback and evaluation. Assess language and dialect fit, accuracy, usability, safety and workflow fit, then use community feedback, human review and documented edge cases to improve the solution.

4. 4

   Showcase and plan adoption

   Demonstrate the adapted solution and document what you have learned. Develop a plan for piloting with 50–100 end users, alongside a five-month roadmap for ownership, maintenance, monitoring, costs and expansion.

5. 5

   Continue implementation

   Three light-touch group check-ins will help participants sustain implementation progress, address emerging challenges, and explore opportunities to scale their solutions.

Pilot-ready

Programme approach

The programme follows a learn, build, test, iterate and share approach. CivicDataLab will lead cohort management, readiness assessment, technical mentorship and participatory evaluation exercises. Gram Vaani will contribute expertise in voice-first design, community engagement, contextualisation, human oversight and feedback processes.

Participants will work on their own products throughout the cohort. Support will include co-design sessions, implementation rubrics, technical troubleshooting, demonstrations and peer learning, tailored to each NGO’s use case and starting point.

What you will leave with

• A baseline readiness assessment and a focused localisation roadmap
• A local-language prototype integrated into your existing solution
• A testing and benchmarking plan, with evidence on language performance, accuracy, usability, safety and workflow fit
• A clear pathway to pilot with 50–100 end users, informed by initial user testing
• An internal owner and a five-month technical, maintenance, cost and sustainability roadmap
• Reusable documentation, implementation patterns and appropriate open-source resources

Success will be assessed against each NGO’s agreed use case, including user value, technical performance, field adoption, internal capacity and sustainability. The end-of-cohort goal is pilot readiness; reaching 50–100 users is not a guaranteed programme outcome.

Who should apply

We invite applications from NGOs working in health, agriculture, and public services that can demonstrate the following:

• An AI application in production or active development, or a credible AI pilot, with a clear opportunity to improve localisation
• An active programme and access to beneficiaries or frontline teams for user research, testing and evaluation
• A meaningful localisation need involving language, dialect, contextual content, voice interaction or human escalation
• A Tech Lead or Product Owner who can lead implementation, supported by a backup counterpart and organisational leadership
• The capacity to allocate staff time, maintain the adapted solution and act on user feedback
• Willingness to share appropriate code, documentation, benchmarks and learning as open-source resources

Applications will be assessed for AI maturity, the value and feasibility of the proposed localisation, data and language readiness, team bandwidth, access to users and capacity to sustain implementation. Operational budget and technology investment will also inform the assessment.

Apply

By submitting this form, you consent to CivicDataLab, Gram Vaani and Tech4Dev collecting and using the information you provide to assess your application for the Local & Inclusive AI Cohort and to contact you about it, including if you are selected. To withdraw your consent at any time, to exercise your rights under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, or to make a complaint, please email us at dpg@civicdatalab.in.