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Nonprofits experiment with AI and digital tools for program monitoring and reporting
Summary
Panelists described pilot uses of AI for animal well‑being monitoring, surveillance policy development and grant-management tracking, while cautioning about privacy and policy implications.
Panelists described early-adopter uses of artificial intelligence and digital tools to improve program monitoring, reporting and safety — and emphasized the need for policies and oversight.
Tom Schmidt of the Columbus Zoo said the zoo is working with a company called Owl AI to stream and analyze camera feeds and create continuous animal well‑being monitoring: “We can create, an AI version of animal well-being observation that's not 1 animal once a year. It's every animal all the time.” Schmidt said the approach aims to detect repetitive or stereotypical behaviors and quantify well‑being at scale.
Denise Robinson said Alvis has been finalizing its AI policies because the organization is exploring AI for surveillance around properties and for behavior measurement. Julie Fletcher said Crane Group is considering AI in grant-management platforms to help with tracking and reporting rather than to make program decisions.
Panelists emphasized the need for careful policy, privacy protections and vendor oversight when adopting surveillance and behavioral‑measurement technologies.
Ending: Speakers framed AI as a potential efficiency and monitoring tool with operational benefits, but stressed governance, privacy and ethical safeguards before broad deployment.
