For United Nations, AI Is Magical Tool For Faster Disaster Relief

John Marinos was skeptical when he received an email at his United Nations office in Bangkok that a team from SAP was developing an AI-based reporting tool to help this organization better manage humanitarian aid. One year later he's convinced. The aptly named 4W-Wizard has turned thousands of lines of non-standard, confusing and misspelled information from numerous agencies on the ground into clean data that the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) can use for streamlined disaster relief management. AI-based tool helps support UN's vision of a seamless system across the humanitarian universe of support.Getty Images "Since 90 percent of our challenges involve people-oriented problems, I never believed technology would help us to sort this out," said Marinos, information management officer at UN OCHA. "We've struggled with manual-based reporting that took hours to clean up before it was usable. The 4W-Wizard helps provide fast visibility into which organizations are providing what kind of help where and when. In less than an hour, we can immediately see where the gaps are and what's needed next."