AI for Equity

AI can accelerate progress toward a world where everyone, no matter where they are born, has the opportunity to live a healthy, productive life.

But moving from potential to impact isn’t inevitable. It depends on making deliberate choices: prioritizing the needs of people who are often left out and working closely with the institutions that serve them to design tools that truly deliver.

Our work in AI is focused on ensuring these benefits reach people most often left out. We work with governments and public sector partners—alongside health workers, teachers, policymakers, and farmers across low- and middle-income countries, as well as underserved communities in the United States—to build solutions grounded in real-world needs.

A young farmer in his vegetable garden references information on his tablet.

We’re going to do all we can to ensure AI is designed with equity in mind, so that its benefits reach people who are too often left behind.

Mark Suzman, CEO, from the Gates Foundation 2026 Annual Letter 

Accelerating Progress With AI: Focus Areas

AI can help solve some of the world’s toughest challenges—by making limited resources go further and opening new paths to progress.

We focus where it can make the greatest difference: health, education, and agriculture—working with partners to help countries adopt and use AI effectively to support these underserved communities.


Stories from our AI journey

Anthropic forms $200 million partnership with the Gates Foundation

Anthropic forms $200M partnership with the Gates Foundation

Anthropic is an AI safety and research company that’s working to build reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems.

The Conversation article

African languages for AI: the project that’s gathering a huge new dataset

When a language isn’t in the data, its speakers aren’t in the product – and AI cannot be safe, useful, or fair for them.

Expanding access to health care through AI

Horizon1000: Expanding access to health care through AI

Learn about the origins of the foundation and the values that drive our work.

Creating Impact at Scale with AI | Ankur Vora

Creating impact at scale with AI | Ankur Vora

At the #AIForAll event, our President Africa India Office & Chief Strategy Officer, Ankur Vora highlights the power of AI when it’s designed for real-world impact, improving outcomes, protecting livelihoods, and reaching the last mile.

Gates Foundation to fund AI scaling hubs in Africa

Gates Foundation to fund AI scaling hubs in Africa

The Gates Foundation is investing $7.5 million in a new AI scaling hub in Rwanda to boost innovation in health, agriculture, and education.

Donors commit $10M to include African languages in AI models

Donors commit $10M to include African languages in AI models

The Gates Foundation and other donors from the AI for Development Funders Collaborative are pledging $10 million to ensure AI models are more inclusive of African languages. Devex spoke with experts on why that matters.

Announcing $5M in Grand Challenges AI grants to spur local innovation for global good

Nearly 50 projects are receiving up to $100,000 to pursue the use of AI to solve problems in global health and development.

The first principles guiding our work with AI

Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman shares the first principles on artificial intelligence (AI) that will be used to guide the foundation’s use of AI.

Gates Foundation logo

Philanthropic partnership backs country-led research to guide the use of AI in health

The Gates Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, and Wellcome will support locally led evaluations of AI tools that have the potential to improve health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries.