Cloudera & Mercy Corps launch AI tool for aid work

Cloudera has expanded its partnership with Mercy Corps and launched an artificial intelligence tool for humanitarian response. The tool is already being used for crisis analysis and reporting across several regions.

Called Verified Evidence & Research Assistant, or VERA, the system was developed to help humanitarian teams gather information, analyse crises, and produce localised assessments more quickly. It automates research and pulls together information from a range of sources for Mercy Corps staff.

The project marks the latest stage of a collaboration that has run for nearly two and a half years. What began as an exploration of how AI could support humanitarian operations has now moved into live deployment of automated workflows, according to the companies.

VERA is built with Cloudera AI Studios on Amazon Web Services and uses Anthropic's Claude models. It is designed to support research and analysis in settings where aid organisations face pressure on both funding and staff time.

Recent use cases include agricultural and food security analysis in Sudan, election security reporting in Colombia, and support for disease outbreak monitoring and crisis reporting in Central and East Africa. The examples point to a focus on operational work in which staff must review large volumes of material and turn it into reports under tight deadlines.

Cloudera and Mercy Corps said the tool has delivered measurable reductions in research time and reporting costs. In Colombia, Mercy Corps recorded time savings of up to 90% in producing security reports. In Sudan, the time needed for secondary research and desk analysis fell from five or six days to two or three.

The organisations also estimated the value of those efficiency gains. Each Colombia security report could save roughly USD $2,000, and each Sudan analysis report about USD $1,500, they said.

Mercy Corps said the system also lets teams produce analysis that would otherwise be difficult to complete under current constraints. That includes broader reporting coverage and faster turnaround when field teams need updated information.

How it was built

The tool was co-developed through a business analysis process involving Cloudera's Professional Services & Training team and subject matter experts at Mercy Corps. Users were involved throughout development so the outputs reflected field conditions and practical reporting needs, the companies said.

The approach appears intended to distinguish the project from general-purpose AI products. Rather than offering a broad chatbot, the partners built a system around specific humanitarian research tasks, with an emphasis on context-aware outputs and review by human teams.

Cloudera's regional leadership linked the work to broader pressures facing emergency and resilience planning. "Australians understand firsthand the growing impact of climate-fuelled disasters, from prolonged droughts and El Niño-driven heatwaves to devastating bushfires and floods. As these events become more frequent and complex, organisations need faster ways to turn growing volumes of data into actionable insights. Our extended partnership with Mercy Corps demonstrates how agentic AI can automate research, uncover critical insights and support more informed decision-making in times of crisis. While this collaboration is focused on humanitarian response, it also highlights the broader opportunity for trusted AI to support governments, NGOs and emergency services in strengthening resilience and better support communities across Australia and the region," said Keir Garrett, Managing Director, Cloudera Australia and New Zealand.

Measured results

The companies framed the rollout as an example of AI moving from pilot projects to operational use in the aid sector. Humanitarian agencies face rising demand as funding and resource pressures intensify, creating an incentive to reduce time spent on manual desk research and repetitive reporting work.

Cloudera highlighted the role of its services team in turning the system into a working deployment. "Humanitarian organisations are being asked to do more with less while responding to increasingly complex global crises," said Jim Bisordi, Senior Vice President of Professional Services, Cloudera. "With VERA, we are demonstrating how agentic AI can move beyond experimentation to deliver measurable, real-world impact. This work with Mercy Corps shows what is possible when advanced AI capabilities are paired with deep domain expertise and a shared commitment to improving outcomes for vulnerable communities. As the leader of Professional Services & Training, it's critical that we bring our outcome-focused delivery methodology to every engagement, ensuring we are not just implementing technology, but helping organisations achieve meaningful, measurable business and mission outcomes."

For Mercy Corps, the benefit is not only speed but also the ability to redeploy staff time to review and interpret findings. "We see VERA as an important future tool for conducting research and secondary data reviews," said Josh DeWald, Vice President of Technical Support, Evidence and Program Quality, Mercy Corps. "Tasks that once required extensive manual effort can now be completed in a fraction of the time, while our teams focus on interpreting and validating outputs. In Sudan, for example, getting food security analysis into our teams' hands sooner contributes to an improved response for communities facing food insecurity."