A technology entrepreneur who once built convenience-focused startups is turning to artificial intelligence tools for social services, arguing that Silicon Valley should direct more of its expertise towards people facing poverty, family crisis and homelessness.
The entrepreneur’s company now operates in five countries and works with public agencies in the United States, where it says organisations in 12 states have cut administrative workloads by half. Its first US partner was Fairfax County in Virginia.
The stated aim is to reduce paperwork for frontline workers, improve the recording of conversations with families and help ensure vulnerable people receive the support to which they are entitled.
Technology and the social services burden
The case for reform is illustrated by figures from the US Department of Agriculture. In the 2025 financial year, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme provided food support to an average of 42.1 million people each month – 12.3 per cent of the US population.
The department reported a national payment error rate of 10.62 per cent, representing $10.1 billion in improper payments. About 87 per cent of the errors were overpayments, while the remainder involved eligible families receiving less support than they were due.
The department has said these figures reflect errors rather than fraud. The problems have been linked to extensive paperwork, outdated systems, handwritten notes and staff exhaustion.
Similar pressures affect child welfare services. A 2025 federal study found that caseworkers spent an average of 4.3 hours a day on paperwork and documentation – more than half of a standard eight-hour shift.
Annual turnover among US child welfare caseworkers is about 30 per cent. The entrepreneur argues that systems which require staff to spend much of their working day completing forms can contribute to burnout and make it harder for families to receive consistent help.
The technology being developed is intended to support both caseworkers and the people using social services, rather than simply make existing processes faster. The company says the tools can reduce administration while ensuring conversations are documented more thoroughly.
From Silicon Valley convenience to public services
The move followed a visit to San Francisco’s Tenderloin district on Christmas Day. The entrepreneur, who had previously left careers in law and management consultancy before entering the technology sector, encountered an open-air church service amid extreme poverty and homelessness.
At the time, the entrepreneur was running a venture-backed parking start-up and regularly travelled to San Francisco for meetings, fundraising and industry events. The contrast between the city’s wealth and the conditions in the Tenderloin prompted a decision to focus on a different kind of business.
The entrepreneur has argued that the technology industry has devoted enormous resources to making already comfortable lives more convenient, including faster food deliveries and more profitable advertising, while neglecting complex social problems.
After a decade working in social services technology, the entrepreneur is now urging technically skilled workers to apply their expertise to areas that are less commercially attractive but affect people in acute need.
The argument is that the hardest public problems are often hidden in bureaucracy and paperwork, even though better-designed software could help relieve the pressure on staff and improve the support available to vulnerable families.
