Why financial inclusion is now an AI story

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The digital transformation of European micro-businesses

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Scaling AI for inclusive growth

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Building trust in the age of artificial intelligence

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At the recent launch of Global Inclusive Growth Intelligence (GIGI), a new AI research assistant from the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, one question captured what we hope to achieve: “How can AI accelerate inclusive growth? Show me the evidence.” Worldwide, people working to expand economic opportunity face rising needs and tighter resources. Meanwhile, valuable knowledge remains buried in lengthy reports, scattered across websites or difficult to access across language barriers. We have accumulated a great deal of knowledge around these important themes. The challenge is making that learning available to people who can put it to ​further ​use. A decade of learning, and a new question Since its founding in 2014, the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and its partners have built a substantial body of research and practical learning. It spans financial health, small business growth, digital economies, workforce development and technology for good, drawing on experiences across countries, sectors and communities. Much of this learning comes from research partners, practitioners and communities. Together, it helps us understand what makes small firms more resilient, where digital financial services widen opportunity​ (or may be falling short)​, and why technology alone rarely guarantees inclusion. It also ​helps uncover​ why an approach that works in one context may need adapting elsewhere. The challenge is making this accumulated knowledge easier to use. How can someone find the most relevant lesson without already knowing which study to read, who conducted it or what terminology to search for? GIGI offers one response. Developed for the Center by Business Fights Poverty, it is an AI-powered research assistant that helps people explore the Center’s curated research and insights through conversation. Users can ask questions in everyday language, explore follow-ups, receive summaries drawing on relevant material and follow links back to original sources.

From a library of documents to a conversation with evidence Consider a practitioner asking what helps women-owned small businesses adopt digital tools. The answer might draw on evidence about access to finance, confidence, digital skills, business networks and the importance of human support. These insights may sit in different publications produced by different partners over many years. Conventional search helps people find documents, but they still need to locate, compare and interpret the relevant information. A conversational research assistant can bring insights together across sources, while allowing users to examine the underlying evidence themselves. We are particularly excited about GIGI's ability to support conversations in different languages. Researchers, policymakers and community organisations should be able to explore relevant evidence without having to formulate their questions in English. This creates opportunities to share learning across borders and reach people who might otherwise struggle to access it. Of course, language is only one barrier. Connectivity, digital confidence and translation quality also matter. And global evidence still needs to be understood in the light of local circumstances.

Trust is part of the design AI can produce remarkably convincing answers, including when those answers are incomplete or wrong. A well-written summary can overlook an important qualification, confuse contexts or present uncertain findings with too much confidence. That is why we have placed such emphasis on grounding GIGI's responses in the Center’s curated research, with citations that allow users to explore the original sources. People should be able to check where information comes from, understand its context and decide whether it is relevant to their work. Human judgement remains essential. A chatbot cannot replace the knowledge of a local practitioner, the experience of a small business owner or the relationships that underpin successful partnerships. We see AI as a way to help people make better use of expertise and evidence. There is also an opportunity to learn from how people use GIGI. Their questions can reveal emerging interests, areas of uncertainty and gaps in the research. Over time, this feedback can help inform how the knowledge base develops.

Turning learning into action For organisations working on ​driving ​social impact, this raises a wider opportunity. We invest considerable effort in producing ​research and insights​​​, but could do much more to make it accessible and useful, especially for people without dedicated research teams. Beyond GIGI, Business Fights Poverty is applying similar approaches through its own AI-powered website and in work with other partners, including tools that help suppliers of a global consumer goods company access guidance on human rights and living wages, and another company’s sustainability team respond to enquiries from colleagues and external stakeholders. At a time of crisis and constraint, making better use of existing knowledge can help organisations stretch limited resources, improve decisions and focus more attention on the people and communities they serve. GIGI’s launch is a beginning. We look forward to seeing how people use it, what they find valuable and what we can improve. We also hope it encourages others to think about the knowledge they have accumulated and how they might make it more widely available. Ultimately, our ambition is simple: to help more people draw on years of collective learning, across languages and geographies, and use that knowledge to advance inclusive growth.

At the recent launch of Global Inclusive Growth Intelligence (GIGI), a new AI research assistant from the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, one question captured what we hope to achieve: “How can AI accelerate inclusive growth? Show me the evidence.”

From accumulated wealth to shared action