Dignified data work that makes AI more inclusive.
Karya creates training data and evaluation systems for artificial intelligence while opening paid digital work to underserved communities. Its smartphone-based platform enables rural workers to record speech, translate text, label images, evaluate models, and contribute knowledge in languages and contexts often missing from mainstream datasets.
The organization combines commercial data services with an impact-first model that prioritizes worker compensation, ethical collection, and broader participation in the AI economy. Karya was founded in India and has also reported deployments or pilots elsewhere in the Global South.
Karya connects demand for culturally and linguistically representative AI data with workers who have historically had limited access to digital employment. Revenue from data collection and evaluation funds wages, while its platform, training, and multilingual interfaces reduce barriers to participation. This can generate income while improving representation in AI systems.
Most published evidence currently measures workers engaged, wages distributed, languages supported, and tasks completed rather than long-term changes in poverty, household resilience, or career mobility. Reported wage comparisons also depend on the local benchmark and do not establish that work is continuous or sufficient as a primary livelihood.
Karya's 2025 year-end report says its workforce grew from just over 50,000 to 130,000 during 2025 and that cumulative direct wages exceeded US$3.2 million. The same report describes deployments in Kenya and Ethiopia and pilots in South Africa and Bangladesh. Fast Forward reported in 2026 that Karya workers had built foundational datasets for more than 70 Indian languages.
These are organization-reported reach and production measures, not independently established livelihood outcomes.
Dignified digital work
Creates paid data and model-evaluation assignments that rural workers can complete through multilingual smartphone tools.
More representative AI
Builds datasets and evaluations grounded in Indian languages, accents, domains, and cultural contexts.
Worker-centered economics
Prioritizes fair compensation and says proceeds from dataset resale are returned to participating communities.
Reusable infrastructure
Offers a platform that partners can adapt to deploy ethical data projects in additional communities and countries.
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