Highlights from a Webinar Co-Hosted by Play Verto and SOCAP Global
In an era where AI dominates the discourse, what role do humans still play in impact measurement? A critical one. Play Verto and SOCAP co-hosted a powerful webinar conversation on the limits of artificial intelligence and the irreplaceable value of human insight, gamification, and lived experience in generating meaningful, measurable data.
The webinar, “The Intersection of AI and Humanity in Impact Measurement: Gamify for Good,” explored how tech and humanity intersect — and why funders, educators, and practitioners alike must rethink how they gather and act on data. The conversation centered around the role of humans and AI in impact data collection, management, and measurement. The panelists addressed trust and authenticity across data collections, change management for AI adoption, the role of engagement in building relationships for stakeholder-centered data collection, and the need for humans to interpret and act on the data that is collected.
The panelists agreed that quality data gathered from the people whose realities are impacted is critical to meaningful impact measurement. “We have always focused on data collection through humans for humans, because we really value that the survey is more of a conversation, a human conversation that doesn’t feel like a survey,” said Carla Grados Villamar, Latin America Co-Head, 60 Decibels.
“We’re trying to engage people to share their lived experience in the hope that we can do something with it,” said Michael Sani, Chief Exploration Officer at Play Verto. We can influence decisions. We can make that data available to the impact space for them to shape programs or try to advocate for policy.”
The best role for AI? “We need people to think about how AI might augment rather than automate, and how to ensure that humans remain at the center of what we’re doing and who we’re serving,” said Laura Maher, Chief of Staff and Director of External Engagement, Siegel Family Endowment, who moderated the conversation. “We need both relationships and data to make the kinds of change that we want to make at scale.”
“Some funders have done a disservice to the sector, partly because they have made this whole sector just prove the impact, prove the impact, prove the impact,” said Unmesh Sheth, CEO at Sopact. “But, fundamentally, that’s not the goal we should be having. The goal should be, ‘How can I improve the impact?’ And that can only happen if you’re continuously learning and improving the data. And AI is an amazing tool for that.”
Importance of Stakeholder Voice in Data Collection
To understand the true impact of an investment or project, the panelists discussed the necessity of accurate and meaningful stakeholder engagement as part of quality data collection and shared the different ways they approach centering human experience to improve data quality.
“The root of our approach really is around playful experiences, because we believe that if you can engage someone in a fun and creative way, you build a connection. And once you have that connection, you get a more heartfelt response and, therefore, better quality data,” said Sani. He emphasized the importance of ensuring that people sharing their experiences understand the goals and intended uses of the data collected, and provide a feedback loop of what the outcomes of the data collection were to those who participated.
Gamification, for example, played a valuable role in how Play Verto influenced national education policy in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). “We could engage young people en masse and then bring their voices into places where they’re not often heard. But this way, they get to actively shape one of the biggest things that’s going to affect them for the next five to ten years.”
Grados Villamar said that the key to actioning what was uncovered by data collection is best done by “actually listening to the voices, understanding what’s going on, and then going back and implementing changes that are life-changing.” She added that two challenges of human data collection are scale and expense, especially for impact measurement in communities of harder-to-reach or older populations with less tech familiarity.
“So we started testing conversational AI data collection. We found that it is indeed more scalable and keeps the quality of the data when, on the other end, the user, the one experiencing the impact, is open to digital conversations,” Villamar said.
Sheth also focuses on quality data-collection practices. “We have clients focusing on getting more near-time or real-time feedback. … But the key thing in this is that data is the foundation. And we want to make sure that the sector is prepared for high-quality data collection practices.” This includes setting up teams with the right tools to measure and manage the data.
Where AI in Impact Measurement Can Add the Most Value — and Where Humans Are Most Needed
The panelists agreed that AI’s speed at which it can run analyses, organize and clean up data, and open up new opportunities to compare and review collected data is incredibly valuable to the field. But humans’ role is critical in quality data collection, including relationship-building and the way the analyses are interpreted and used to take action.
For Villamar, it’s about best-fit uses. “We keep human conversations when we’re talking to the hardest-to-reach people, and we are piloting more and more AI-based data collection when it’s more of an urban population,” he said.”AI can make analyses run way faster, with quantitative and qualitative data. We need humans to interpret that analysis.”
Santos added that the design and setup journey for data collection and gamification is where Play Verto relies on humans. “AI can’t collect data and AI can’t act on insights. It’s really crucial that you’re reaching the voice of lived experience and bringing that data into the AI to analyze. But we’re trying to do this to change systems, to tackle root causes of why things exist in the first place, and AI can’t do that alone.”
Sheth shared that AI significantly changes the game in data centralization and keeping data clean. “This is the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If you design and collect the data in a more effective way, AI can be your friend, an amazing friend in fact. But you have to remove your biases about AI and continue to learn and leverage the tools in a proper manner.”
The expert voices featured:
- Laura Maher, Chief of Staff and Director of External Engagement, Siegel Family Endowment (moderator)
- Michael Sani, Chief Exploration Officer, Play Verto
- Unmesh Sheth, CEO, Sopact
- Carla Grados Villamar, Latin America Co-Head, 60 Decibels
Watch the full conversation:
