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Getting 4 Billion New Internet Users Online: Deploying Conversational AI at the BoP
Do you remember JARVIS, the computerized personal assistant who helps Tony Stark manage his complex super hero affairs in the Iron Man movies? With the rise of conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) like Google Home or Amazon Echo, or the smartphone-based Viv, Siri, Cortana, etc., similar JARVIS-like services may be available in the not-so-distant future. But wouldn’t it be better if this technology actually helped increase equality of global mobile access and information, in addition to just ordering take out?
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- Technology
- Tags
- fintech
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Handle With Care: How to Maximize the Value of Microinsurance for Emerging Consumers
Intuitively, microinsurance is well-suited to managing some of the financial risks faced by emerging consumers. Yet insurance penetration in emerging economies is very low. Should insurance not be playing a substantially bigger risk management role for people at the base of the pyramid?
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- Uncategorized
- Tags
- microfinance, research
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NexThought Monday: Starting a Nonprofit? Consider a Public Benefit Corp Instead
After five years of running a nonprofit organization, I was completely burnt out on fundraising. Now, after over two years of running HandUp, a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC), I can compare the two models. If you have the right model for scale, with a clear market, and have tested your idea, I highly recommend taking the PBC route.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Roundup: A $100 Million Idea, Reproductive Rights Redux and an Inverting Poverty Pyramid
In this week's Roundup, we look at MacArthur Foundation's $100 million grant to “a single proposal designed to help solve a critical problem affecting people, places or the planet," the impact Zika is having on family planning and more evidence the "Bottom Billions" are moving up.
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- Uncategorized
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The Podcast: When Life Hits You In the Head With a Brick …
Max Chinnah, CEO and co-founder of Terraoak Inc., is from Nigeria, where his grandmother died from complications related to breathing air polluted by cookstoves. He's convinced his Genesys Cooker can improve the lives of millions around the world.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise
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With Few Resources, Cuba’s Resourceful Entrepreneurs Find a Way
There are some 500,000 entrepreneurs today in Cuba, up from 150,000 in 2010. President Raúl Castro has called the huge state sector “bloated” and has declared private business a key part of Cuba’s new economic model. In May, the communist government passed legislation allowing small businesses to become legal entities, thus making the private sector official. Previously, entrepreneurs were classified as “self-employed.” But when we visited there in May we found that, despite resource constraints, entrepreneurship is booming in Cuba.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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With Another Pandemic Looming, Let’s Change Perspective
We cannot prevent the emergence of new viruses, according to Dr. Melvin Sanicas, a Global Health Fellow and program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, but we can take measures to prevent small epidemics from becoming big ones, including investing in infrastructures for preparedness.
- Categories
- Health Care
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Unlocking Empowerment for Poor Customers: Three Tips for Financial Services Providers
We expect financial services to bring several things to the lives of poor people: more options on how to manage their circumstances and opportunities, a sense of confidence and control over their future - a sense of empowerment, in other words. Here are three ways that financial institutions can nurture empowerment among low-income customers through their actions and offerings.
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- Uncategorized
