Generative AI has real potential to make progress on many of humanity’s most pressing challenges. Recent Google research shows that AI is driving progress towards all 17 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

But barriers to tapping into this technology remain. A 2024 Google for Nonprofits survey found that while four in five nonprofits feel that generative AI is applicable to their work, nearly half are not using the technology due to a lack of awareness, training, tools and funding. To help address these barriers, Google.org launched a Generative AI Accelerator in 2024 that supported 21 organizations to build gen AI-powered solutions that collectively aim to serve more than 30 million people by 2028.

Participants in the first Generative AI Accelerator built solutions across sectors, from tackling youth unemployment to advancing a more sustainable future to empowering people facing humanitarian crises. Their work spanned Google.org’s three focus areas: Knowledge, Skills, and Learning; Scientific Advancement; and Resilient Communities. For example:

Knowledge, Skills, and Learning