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Nonprofits are integrating AI faster than the private sector, with 58% of nonprofits using AI with their communications platform as a service (CPaaS) solution, compared to 47% of business to consumer (B2C) businesses in the private sector, according to new data from tech firm Twilio. 

But, while 83% of respondents at nonprofits believe they are transparent about how they use AI, only 38% of end users feel that nonprofits are transparent, the data shows.

The new research shows that 90% of organizations surveyed in the nonprofit, education, and healthcare sectors are leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) for one or more engagement and marketing use cases, including constituent engagement, contact center, survey platform, customer analytics, and more. 

Further, 68% of nonprofit respondents to a survey are using AI to analyze end user data to understand their needs and pain points, compared to 64% of B2C brands. Strong digital engagement is critical to success, according to 87% of respondents at nonprofits, to better reach, enroll, and serve new users, and they are turning to AI to accelerate and improve these efforts, according to data in the report.

“Building strong relationships with stakeholders is core to nonprofits’ ability to achieve their missions, and AI is helping them scale these engagements,” Erin Reilly, chief social impact officer & general manager of the Social Impact Business at Twilio said via a statement. “As nonprofit organizations continue to innovate with AI, listening to what their end users want and sharing how they are using technology transparently will be important to building trust. Those that can balance personalization and transparency with AI-driven digital engagement will have the ability to further their impact and scale their missions.”

Data in the report shows that most nonprofits are aware of the need for better personalization, as 71% of respondents said personalized communications is a top priority in 2024, with AI boosting efforts. 

Across sectors, organizations are seeing success implementing AI. Examples include:

* In the healthcare sector, where patient satisfaction has a large impact on revenue, nonprofits are primarily leaning on AI to accelerate patient response times and improve patient satisfaction scores. As a result of implementing AI, 50% of respondents at healthcare organizations report better experiences for their patients.

* The education sector uses AI to connect with students across messaging platforms. Respondents from education organizations report their top AI benefits include faster response times (47%), better data-driven decision making (41%), and improved student retention (40%).

* Leaders at nonprofits from traditional focus areas such as community improvement, housing, or humanitarian aid report that their top benefits of AI in user engagement are better data-driven decision making (42%), faster response times (40%), improved participant retention (38%) and improved participant satisfaction (38%).

* Just more than half of public sector organizations where AI is used for constituent engagement reported greater constituent satisfaction (51%), better decision making (51%), and faster response times (50%).

The use transparency gap with nonprofits and recipients reflects a similar gap between for-profit companies and their customers, where 94% say they’re transparent with customers around how AI uses their data, while only 37% of customers agree. This presents an opportunity for nonprofits to improve as they increasingly adopt AI into their customer engagement. Nonprofits that clearly communicate with end users about how and why they’re using data will build trust and can drive better outcomes for their stakeholders, whether it be patients, students, constituents or beyond.

To keep pace with AI innovation and end user demands, nonprofits are becoming a new destination for developer jobs with 88% of respondents at nonprofits are planning to hire one or more developers in 2024. On average, managers are planning to hire six developers this year. Additionally, managers at roughly three out of four organizations plan to seek a moderate to large amount of outside technology support.  

As nonprofit organizations continue to find new ways to provide value and relevance to their end users, AI is becoming a cornerstone technology that has the ability to create better experiences, stronger loyalty and help nonprofits achieve their missions.

Twilio.org conducted this research between March 21 and April 11, 2024, gathering survey responses from 1,440 nonprofit employees and 1,500 end users in the United States and the United Kingdom. The survey targeted full-time employees of nonprofit organizations with 50 or more employees who served as a manager or above in education, healthcare, public industry sectors, or classic nonprofits and have used one or more digital channels to communicate with their end users. It also collected responses from end users who are at least 18 years of age, have accessed services from a relevant nonprofit in the past 12 months, and have used one or more digital communications channels to communicate with that organization Additional methodology details are available in the full report here.

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Source From Non Profit Times