Humans in the Loop is an award-winning social enterprise promoting the inclusion of conflict-affected and displaced people in the digital labor market. Founded in 2017 in Bulgaria, we have provided paid online employment opportunities to more than 1000 people across the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Africa and have further upskilled 500 of them in digital skills and English. We operate in some of the most challenging regions of the world, including Syria, Afghanistan, DRC, and Ukraine, and we partner with local NGOs in order to reach the underserved, with a special focus on women who comprise 53% of our workforce.

The work that we provide is easy and accessible and fuels one of the most exciting industries: Artificial Intelligence. Our workers learn how to annotate data for AI systems, including computer vision and chatbots, and how to provide much-needed human insight. To date, we have provided diverse human input to more than 100 AI companies, and have developed proprietary trainings on data annotation, bias in AI, cybersecurity, etc., which help to promote our workers' data and AI literacy. To date, we have distributed more than 1.2 million EUR in earnings to our workers.

https://humansintheloop.org

• Afghanistan
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Iraq
• Lebanon
• Republic of Moldova
• Portugal
• Syrian Arab Republic
• Türkiye (Republic of)
• Ukraine
• Yemen

• Women
• Refugees and internally displaced people

We have been operational for 5 years and we are currently in the scale-up phase where we have a proven model and we want to scale it globally. We plan to expand our existing model for partnering with NGOs on the ground in more geographies. So far we have mostly been focused on the Middle East and Europe and have made our first pilot in the DRC in 2022. In 2023 we will be launching new pilots in different African countries, such as Uganda and Kenya. We are also currently undertaking our latest pilot in Moldova to support Ukrainian refugees. By 2024, our goal is to have 12 partner locations.

Through our proprietary training platform and self-paced recorded trainings, we are able to easily involve many users around the world in our trainings and paid work projects. In this way, we want to bring digital skills and AI education to a wide group of vulnerable people around the world.

The sustainability of Humans in the Loop is evident in its ability to provide paid online employment opportunities, upskilling initiatives, and contributing to the AI industry. By engaging in activities that fuel the growth of Artificial Intelligence, the enterprise ensures a sustainable impact on both economic and technological fronts. The distribution of more than 1.2 million EUR in earnings to workers further emphasizes the project's sustainability.

Humans in the Loop significantly contributes to the WSIS community by addressing the socio-economic inclusion of conflict-affected and displaced individuals in the digital labor market. It aligns with the WSIS goal of promoting accessible and inclusive information and communication technologies.