AI for the common good, not only for capital

Technological advantage rarely reaches the smallest organizations first

When people talk about artificial intelligence, the same promises tend to come up: produce faster, automate more, lower costs and increase margins.

There is some truth in all of this. AI can save a great deal of time, and it already gives a serious advantage to companies that know how to use it well.

What bothers us is that this advantage first benefits the organizations that need it least. Those that already have the budgets, teams and expertise can move even faster. Meanwhile, many nonprofit and community-led projects remain stuck because they lack resources.

At Horde, we would rather approach the problem from the other direction.

If technology lets us complete some work faster and at a lower cost, why should those gains be reserved for the most profitable projects? Why could they not also help a nonprofit, a neighborhood collective, a cultural initiative or a citizen-led project?

Not every useful project is profitable

We have grown used to judging a project by how much money it can make. In many situations, that makes sense. A business needs customers, must pay its team and has to build a viable model.

But that measure of value does not work everywhere.

A nonprofit that brings people together in a neighborhood creates value. So does a collective preserving local history, a project that makes public services easier to access or an initiative that gives underrepresented people a voice.

These organizations may not be trying to sell anything. They still need a website, an identity, communication tools or a platform that works properly.

That is often where the difficulty begins.

The ambition is there, but the budget is not. A small team has to choose between a very limited website, a makeshift solution or postponing the project altogether. Not because the idea lacks value, but because that value does not easily turn into revenue.

A project can matter without having a market. That should not automatically exclude it from good digital tools.

How can AI help a nonprofit?

AI for nonprofits is often presented as a way to write more social posts or answer emails faster. Those are valid uses, but they only tell a small part of the story.

In our work, AI can help us explore an idea, structure content and accelerate parts of development. It also allows us to test several directions without spending days on each one.

That saved time can make a real difference.

Building a nonprofit website no longer has to stop at a few generic pages. With a limited budget, it becomes possible to go further: design an interactive tool, organize resources more clearly, make content accessible or build a working first version of a platform. The result can be used, shown to partners and tested in the real world.

Of course, AI does not create a good project by itself. It does not meet the people involved. It does not instinctively understand a collective’s history or the realities of a community. Nor can it decide what deserves to be built.

That work remains ours, together with the people behind the project.

At Horde, saved time does not become a hidden margin

We should be honest about one thing. An agency can use AI to work much faster, charge exactly the same price as before and keep the entire difference.

That is not necessarily dishonest. The price of a project is never just a record of hours spent at a screen. It also pays for experience, judgment and responsibility for the outcome.

But at Horde, we do not want every productivity gain to become extra margin by default.

If a stage that used to take several days can now be completed faster, we want the project to benefit too. That might mean a more accessible price. It might allow us to include a feature that would otherwise be dropped, or spend more time on work that AI cannot do properly.

The idea is straightforward: we do not want to charge the same price for work completed in a fraction of the time while keeping all the benefit for ourselves.

We would rather share that advantage.

Doing more with a small budget, without pretending

“Doing more with less” is a phrase worth treating with caution. It is sometimes used to demand unrealistic results from teams that are already short on time and resources.

That is not what we are promising.

A substantial project still takes work. We need to listen, understand the need and make decisions. We still have to develop, test and correct. Artificial intelligence removes none of those responsibilities.

It does let us move the boundary a little.

A budget that might once have paid for a design mockup can now lead to a usable first version. A project that would have settled for a basic website can offer a richer experience. A nonprofit can test an idea before committing time to another funding round.

These are not abstract savings. They can be the difference between an idea that stays in a folder and a project that starts to live. Our custom digital projects show what attention to real-world use can produce.

Using AI does not mean putting it everywhere

We do not believe every project needs artificial intelligence.

Sometimes a simple solution is the right one. In other cases, AI creates too much risk for sensitive data or simply does not fit the organization’s values. Then we should know when not to use it.

Putting technology at the service of a project starts by listening to what the project needs. It does not start by imposing the latest tool.

This care matters even more when working with nonprofits and communities. Data can be sensitive. The people involved should understand the tools being used and remain in control of the project.

The goal is not to replace human work. It is to remove some of the friction and leave more room for that work.

Sharing technological advantage with other projects

AI is already changing how companies design services, communicate and develop digital tools.

The question that interests us is who will truly benefit.

If the gains remain concentrated among organizations that already have the most resources, technology will mostly reinforce existing gaps. If some of those gains reduce the cost of creating good digital products, other kinds of projects can benefit too.

That is the scale at which Horde wants to act.

We do not claim that we can solve unequal access to technology. We can choose how we work, which projects we support and how we distribute the time we save.

We can decide that a productivity gain does not always have to become extra margin. It can become a more accessible budget or an ambition that is finally within reach.

Because a project should not have to be designed for profit to deserve good design.

Are you working on a nonprofit, cultural or community-led project? Tell us about the idea and the budget you actually have. We will give you an honest view of what we can build together.

Further reading

• Digital and AI Alliance for nonprofits
• Le Labo de l’ESS on the social economy and artificial intelligence