Hidden in spreadsheets spanning thousands of rows—temperature logs, feeding schedules, sensor readings—lie patterns invisible to even the most dedicated human eye.
A spike here. An anomaly there. Warning signs of distress that, once decoded, transform suffering into safety.
This is the new frontier of animal welfare: teaching machines to recognize what humans might miss, thereby sharpening the focus of compassion. And it’s coming to life at the nation’s first national humane organization, American Humane Society.
An internationally recognized beacon of animal protection, American Humane Society cares for over 1.5 billion animals across more than 50 countries. Today, the nearly 150-year-old organization operates several distinct programs to meet critical needs for sanctuary, disaster response, emergency training, cruelty and neglect, and wildlife protection.
Managing this extraordinary breadth of animal welfare services requires a powerful technological approach—one that Chief Technology Officer Karthik Devarajan is pioneering with AI.
“We realized that AI could help detect patterns and reduce manual work,” Devarajan explains during the Box AI-First podcast episode with Box Chief Customer Officer Jon Herstein. “It helped our staff to protect the animals more quickly, faster, and more efficiently.”
Key takeaways:
- American Humane Society implemented Box AI to speed up work and save staff time, allowing teams to focus more on animal welfare
- The organization started small with targeted AI solutions for specific pain points, building trust through demonstrable success before expanding to other programs
- By centralizing data in Box and adding AI capabilities, American Humane Society increased efficiency by 90% across certain processes
- American Humane Society approaches AI as a reinvention of work, rather than a series of projects, for a greater focus on amplifying animal protection movement
Moving beyond theory to impact
For mission-driven organizations like American Humane Society, AI has proven a force multiplier for compassion.
“AI can let us achieve the same level of precision and intelligence previously reserved for the fortune hundreds and the fortune tens,” Devarajan notes. “We are using the same AI that these companies use, not for profit, but for impact.”
This transformation began with a fundamental recognition: the organization’s data had grown beyond human capacity to analyze effectively. Farm audits generate thousands of data points across temperature logs, feeding schedules, and sensor readings. Media productions require complex outreach reporting across multiple stakeholders. Rescue operations produce vast image libraries requiring rapid assessment.
“It’s augmenting and increasing our experts’ ability to protect animals at a larger scale,” Devarajan emphasizes.
Starting small, building trust
American Humane Society’s AI journey reflects a deliberate, trust-building approach that prioritizes demonstrable value. The organization’s strategy echoes Box’s framework for AI-first transformation, which emphasizes starting with foundational use cases before pursuing transformational applications.
“We wanted to ensure that we start with something small, something that everyone agrees is a problem, and something that our staff is doing on a more repeated basis,” Devarajan explains.
The organization’s No Animals Were Harmed™ program — the certification powering the renowned end-credit disclaimer helping ensure audiences of animal welfare in film — proved an ideal starting point. Staff previously spent hours extracting data from certification systems, compiling it into sprawling spreadsheets, and manually synthesizing email threads to create leadership reports. The process was time-consuming, error-prone, and pulled staff away from their core mission.
With Box AI, the workflow transformed dramatically. Reports now flow automatically into designated folders where program heads can prompt the system with queries like: “Give me a summary of what happened with production X for the month of March.” Box AI analyzes the spreadsheet, processes dozens of embedded emails, and delivers standardized summaries in seconds.
Making AI a natural part of work
Rather than treating AI as a series of discrete initiatives, American Humane Society approaches it as an organizational capability—what Devarajan calls building “the Google habit” for AI.
“We didn’t make it as a one project. We were thinking — how can we make this an AI practice for all our staff?”
This philosophy shaped every aspect of implementation. When rolling out Box AI for policy and playbook access, the team created a centralized Box Hub where staff could query documentation using natural language. New employees can ask “How do I submit an expense?” and receive step-by-step guidance with citations to source documents—building trust through transparency.
“Once you have a reference there and it points to a document that’s within your environment, it kind of gives a trust that, okay, it’s not pulling things from air,” Devarajan observes.
Navigating complexity with purpose
The path to AI adoption wasn’t without challenges. Early experiments with large datasets—attempting to analyze 500,000 rows of farm data—quickly revealed the importance of scope management. Integration complexities required manual workarounds, with data flowing from multiple systems before AI analysis could begin.
Yet these challenges reinforced a crucial principle: technology must honor the organization’s 150-year legacy of trust.
“In a startup, you can move fast because you’re starting from zero. At American Humane Society, we can move fast, but we also move with a purpose,” Devarajan reflects. “Every new technology, new idea, new solution that we launch at our organization has to honor the trust and the goodwill that we have built.”
This purposeful approach extends to data governance and security. Rather than banning AI tools over privacy concerns, American Humane Society developed comprehensive policies and training programs. “If there is a risk, create a policy, train your staff and launch AI more organically,” Devarajan advises.
Turning data into compassionate action
The true measure of American Humane Society’s AI success is time regained for mission-critical work.
Farm teams now identify welfare patterns invisible to manual review. Conservation programs access decades of institutional knowledge instantly. Rescue operations analyze field data with unprecedented speed.
“The biggest metric is time saved,” Devarajan confirms. “Our hope is that when staff are spending less time on reports, they spend more time helping and saving animals.”
This transformation required more than technology deployment. Staff evolved from passive users to active participants, learning to structure data for AI effectiveness. Internal champions emerged organically, advocating for new applications within their programs. Town halls featured real staff demonstrating real solutions with real data, not hypothetical features.
“If you’re analyzing welfare data, or if AI is helping us respond faster to a rescue, the goal is still the same,” Devarajan emphasizes. “We are using technology to amplify kindness, and not replace it.”
The future of animal care
Looking ahead, American Humane Society envisions AI-assisted audits that proactively surface welfare insights from inspection photos, checklists, and historical reports. The organization currently operates nine carefully validated AI agents, with plans for deeper automation and integration.
For other organizations considering similar transformations, Devarajan offers hard-won wisdom: “Go very small. Clean and centralize the data. Do a 30 day pilot.”
Most importantly, maintain an unwavering focus on mission alignment. Before implementing any AI capabilities, the organization asks a simple question: Does it help people care better for animals?
“So we are not just doing it for the sake of doing it, but we are doing it with a purpose,” Devarajan concludes. “It’s not just dollars, it’s how technology is helping us to make compassion move faster.”
In an era where AI adoption often prioritizes disruption over purpose, American Humane Society demonstrates a different path, one that amplifies human compassion.
Visit box.org to learn more about how Box supports nonprofits of all sizes globally, and watch the full AI-First podcast episode below.
