Blomeyer & Sanz team members recently participated in a webinar on “AI in Evaluation: What Is at Stake for Emerging Evaluators?”, which explored how artificial intelligence is reshaping evaluation practice in Francophone Africa.
The webinar presented new evidence on the rapid uptake of AI tools among emerging evaluators, alongside persistent capacity gaps. According to one panellist study conducted in Africa, 55% of respondents already use AI in their work, while 75% have never received formal training and report having no mechanism to correct AI‑generated errors. These results highlight a sector navigating efficiency gains while facing ethical and methodological challenges.
Speakers examined key risks, including algorithmic bias, loss of contextualisation, technological dependence and data confidentiality concerns, further compounded by digital inequality and linguistic barriers.
Despite these challenges, the discussions emphasised AI’s potential to streamline analytical tasks and support evaluators in focusing on strategic, contextual dimensions of their work. Human judgement, however, remains essential for interpreting cultural norms, power dynamics and community perspectives, and for verifying accuracy of AI‑generated data and methods.
The session concluded with a call to strengthen competencies, audit AI outputs, establish ethical safeguards and build a new generation of evaluators equipped to use AI critically and responsibly.
