119 - How to: Simple AI Tools for Unlocking Voices and Perspectives through Outcome Harvesting

Abstract Information: Do you see the words “AI” and “monitoring and evaluation” used in the same sentence and feel a mix of dread and excitement at the same time? Are you equally cautious and curious about AI tools for M&E practices? In this session, The Convive Collective and Laudes Foundation will share how they’ve partnered to use simple AI tools in a very effective way for outcome harvesting. These tools have made it possible to truly glean wisdom from partner reporting in a way Convive and Laudes have not experienced or witnessed to date. In this way, these AI tools, used in an extremely safe and conscientious way, amplify and lift up the voices and learnings of grant partners. Without the AI tool, these voices and their lessons, insights, and ideas from a diverse range of partner voices would still be sitting on a digital shelf within Salesforce, gathering dust. This session will involve a highly practical, step-by-step overview of how the Convive-Laudes joint partnership used simple, affordable AI tools to catalogue a treasure trove of outcomes from partner reports stored away in Salesforce over the years. From there, the presenters will share how they created a participatory learning experience to discuss the significance of these stories of change in the larger context and learn together with teams and partners about what progress was made through their work together and why. The session will conclude with an overview of Convive's and Laudes’s plans for continuing to use AI tools in more sophisticated ways to support real-time reflection and learning from an ongoing outcome harvesting process. Our hope is that you will leave this session feeling more excited (as opposed to fearful or anxious) about AI tools for M&E and that you have clear and practical information for how to test the approach with your team and clients.