AI-Enabled Consumer Engagement to Advance Family Planning

About this funding opportunity

_Before applying to this Grand Challenges request for proposals (RFP), applicants should familiarize themselves with the supporting documents, including the_ _terms and conditions of the Gates Foundation_ _, the_ _Rules and Guidelines_ _,_ Application Instructions _, and_ _Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)_.

_If you plan to apply to this RFP, we will host a dedicated_ _webinar_ _on August 4, 2026, 7:00-8:00 a.m. US PDT. The session will provide an overview of the RFP and include time for questions. To attend, please_ _register_ _and_ _submit your questions in advance_ _. A recording will be posted on the challenge page following the session for those unable to join live._ Background

Despite significant investment in family planning programs across sub-Saharan Africa, unmet need for contraception remains high. Women and girls face persistent barriers to accessing accurate, personalized information about family planning - barriers that clinic-based counseling alone cannot overcome at the scale and cost required to meaningfully shift contraceptive prevalence. Digital tools have expanded reach, but most existing approaches rely on one-way or rule-based messaging that cannot replicate the kind of responsive, personalized conversation that moves women from awareness to action.

Recent advances in large language models have changed what is possible. Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled consumer engagement tools can now hold nuanced, multi-turn conversations in local languages, respond to individual questions and concerns, and deliver personalized information at very low marginal cost across both public and private sector channels. Platforms with existing distribution - through telecoms, government health systems, community networks, and commercial channels - are beginning to deploy these tools at scale across the region, often serving broad women's health and consumer health needs that could extend to family planning.

What the field lacks is evidence. We do not yet know which AI-enabled engagement approaches work best to drive contraceptive uptake and continuation, which conversation features and content strategies make the difference, or how to evaluate interaction quality in ways that predict real outcomes. Without that understanding, investments in AI-enabled family planning tools cannot be optimized, replicated, or responsibly scaled. This challenge is designed to generate that evidence - and to build the shared analytic foundation the field needs to learn from it. The Challenge

This RFP seeks to answer a core question for the family planning field: can AI-enabled direct-to-consumer engagement improve contraceptive uptake, continuation, and informed method choice at scale - and, if so, which approach works best?

This challenge is designed to generate practical evidence on what high-quality, AI-assisted family planning engagement looks like in the AI era. We are interested in understanding which AI-enabled tools are most effective to engage users and improve contraception uptake and continuation. More specifically, we are interested in understanding which tools and approaches (e.g., content personalization, rapid content scaling, automated customer journeys, etc.) work best for which types of users to directly engage them and improve uptake and which platforms/tools have demonstrated less success for this objective. We do not expect applicants to arrive with platforms already proven for contraception; we welcome consumer engagement approaches with a demonstrated track record in women's health or consumer health more broadly, and ask applicants to deploy, test, and assess how well they work for family planning.

The challenge will focus on women and girls of reproductive age in sub-Saharan Africa. Interventions can be delivered through public sector platforms, private sector channels, or hybrid models.

Applicants must be able to measure the quality and characteristics of the AI-enabled interaction, scale and usage, and the…

Topic areas: Life Sciences and Health, Social Innovation and Community Development.

Funding amount

This grant provides Varies in funding.

Deadline

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis; there is no single fixed deadline.

Who can apply

This opportunity is open to the following applicant types:

• Not specified by the program.

Eligibility

The program did not publish a separate eligibility statement. See the official opportunity page for the full eligibility criteria.

Agency

AI-Enabled Consumer Engagement to Advance Family Planning is administered by Gates Foundation Grand Challenges (Gates GC), listed via Gates Foundation Grand Challenges.