SBIR Phase I: Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered platform for evaluating and developing cultural competence and diversity, equity and inclusion awareness

The broader/commercial impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project focusses on developing culturally-competent, humanlike,m and empathetic artificial intelligence (AI) agents for use within the pre-kindergarten (pre-K)-graduate school educational context. In the broadest sense, cultural competence refers to an organization's or individual's capacity and effectiveness in engaging with individuals from cultural backgrounds different from their own.

The proposed innovation seeks to create a new market for social science-inspired AI agents, with significant roles for two Historically Black College or Universities (HBCUs) in the software development. The project’s impact on social advancement is crucial as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training is a high strategic priority for many organizations but often not part of the work environment.

The success of the training program can lead to more equitable and inclusive workplaces, educational environments, and institutions, ultimately contributing to a more equitable and inclusive society. The project aims to increase user satisfaction and trust in AI technology, driving innovation and generating significant revenue streams by creating US jobs, annual revenue, and exports.

The traditional routes for developing cultural competence through human-led interventions can disrupt the work environment, be difficult to measure without human bias, and may lead to discord within the work environment. This SBIR Phase I project aims to develop culturally competent and empathetic Artificial intelligence (AI) agents to codify and label users' subjective responses to complex diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) issues while maintaining high social trustworthiness.

Through the use of research-based social science frameworks, the project will develop bias-free and DEI-aware AI agents to assess and codify cultural competence among organizational stakeholders. Key objectives include sourcing large scale human-generated data to train AI agents to identify users' subjective responses to complex DEI observations and prompting via evocative vignettes or open-ended survey questions.

Phase I aims to transform a proof-of-concept into a scalable platform with sophisticated AI capabilities for the educational marketplace, leading to more inclusive workplaces and a deeper understanding of pre-Kindergarten-20 environments.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.