Integrating Responsible and Human-Centered AI Into Responsible Business and Social Impact Strategy

[Alicia_Schmidt]

AI has the power to accelerate progress on some of society’s most pressing challenges—from climate change to healthcare to education. For CEOs and corporate social impact leaders, the responsibility is clear: integrating human-centered AI into social impact strategies is essential to ensuring technology serves people and communities.

Why Social Impact Leaders Should Lead on Responsible AI

☑️  Equity at the Core: Social impact teams are uniquely positioned to center underrepresented voices in AI development.

☑️  Workforce and Community Resilience: As AI transforms work, companies can use social impact strategies to invest in reskilling, community development, and digital inclusion.

☑️  Trust and Brand Value: Customers and employees expect companies to lead responsibly. Demonstrating social good through AI strengthens credibility.

☑️  Shared Value: Aligning AI with social impact creates benefits that extend to business performance, stakeholder trust, and societal well-being.

Pathways to Integration

1.  Workforce Development: Leave No One Behind

The shift to AI will disrupt jobs, but it also creates opportunities for inclusive growth if managed well. Companies can:

• Reskill and upskill employees for AI-enabled roles, especially frontline and entry-level workers.
  
  
• Partner with education and nonprofits to expand access to digital literacy and STEM pathways in underserved communities.
  
  
• Create inclusive hiring pipelines that bring underrepresented groups into the AI workforce.
  
  

This ensures employees and communities thrive in the age of AI—an essential part of a company’s social license to operate.

2.  AI for Social Good

AI can be a multiplier for impact programs when applied responsibly.

Salesforce Accelerator—Agents for Impact is a program that provides funding, technology, and expert support to nonprofits to help them use Salesforce AI agents to scale their operations and impact. The initiative focuses on helping organizations tackle challenges like staff burnout and operational inefficiencies by giving them the tools to build and deploy AI agents that can autonomously handle tasks such as managing donor relationships, streamlining service delivery, and analyzing complex data. The Salesforce's Agents for Impact Accelerator equips nonprofits with funding, cutting-edge technology, and pro bono expertise to confidently create customized AI agent solutions.

This is AI for Good in action.

• Good360 is routing disaster recovery donations 3x faster with Agentforce, so they can help disaster survivors faster. 
  
  
• College Possible is serving 4x more students with Agentforce, helping them get into college and succeed. 
  
  
• Groundswell is using Agentforce to help 30,000 households save money while advancing energy equality.

Zoom is putting AI to work for everyone through Zoom AI for Good, a $10 million, three-year initiative designed to make AI education, skills, and tools accessible to students, workers, and nonprofits.

From classrooms to communities, the program empowers people to engage with AI responsibly and meaningfully:

• Educating the Next Generation – Partnering with Code.org, Zoom is helping students explore AI through hands-on courses that build literacy, critical thinking, and future-ready skills.
  
  

• Preparing the Workforce – By supporting reskilling and upskilling programs, Zoom is helping workers navigate AI-driven changes in the job market and thrive in new opportunities.
  
  

• Equipping Nonprofits – With grants and technical support to organizations like data.org, nonprofits gain the tools to scale their impact, streamline operations, and apply AI to pressing social challenges.

The goal is clear: democratize AI access, expand opportunity, and ensure technology benefits people and communities everywhere. Zoom AI for Good is where innovation meets purpose—helping communities harness AI for real-world impact.

• Climate: Predict energy needs, reduce emissions, and improve resource distribution.
  
  
• Health: Enhance diagnostics, expand access in low-resource settings, and analyze public health data.
  
  
• Education: Personalize learning and improve accessibility for learners with disabilities.
  
  
• Equity: Use AI to identify systemic inequities and design more inclusive interventions.
  
  

Impact practitioners can lead the way by piloting responsible AI applications in partnership with nonprofits, governments, and communities.

3. Community-Centered Design

Responsible AI should be co-created with the communities it affects. In practice:

• Engage community stakeholders in testing and feedback loops.
  
  
• Use participatory approaches to ensure AI reflects lived experiences.
  
  
• Share open frameworks and lessons learned so others can build responsibly.
  
  

4. Transparency and Storytelling

Social impact leaders can help humanize AI by:

• Publishing AI use cases tied directly to impact outcomes. Like this video from the Salesforce AI Agents for Impact Accelerator.
  
  

• Sharing stories of how AI supports communities and workers, not just efficiencies.
  
  
• Demonstrating progress through impact reporting that includes responsible AI alongside ESG metrics.
  
  

A Call to Action for CEOs and Social Impact Leaders

The integration of responsible AI into social impact strategy is not optional—it is a leadership imperative. Companies that act now can:

• Build more inclusive economies by investing in workforce development.
  
  
• Amplify climate, health, and education outcomes with responsible AI applications.
  
  
• Strengthen community trust and resilience by ensuring transparency and equity.
  
  

Just as sustainability became a defining pillar of corporate responsibility in the last decade, responsible, human-centered AI will define the next. The social impact community is uniquely positioned to guide this transformation, ensuring that technology drives not only innovation but also inclusion, opportunity, and shared progress.