Embodying change: Transforming power, culture and well-being for people in aid podcast

65. Reclaiming humanity in the age of AI with Silva Ferretti

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AI is already reshaping humanitarian work, evaluation, and decision-making, whether we’re ready or not.


The real question isn’t whether to use AI, but how.


In this episode of Embodying Change, host Melissa Pitotti is joined by evaluator and systems thinker Silva Ferretti for a wide-ranging, deeply human conversation about what’s at stake as AI accelerates across the humanitarian sector.


Silva challenges the idea that evaluation is about compliance and box-ticking, and reframes it as a space for learning, truth-telling, and transformation. She explains why “best practices” often fail in complex contexts, how power quietly shapes what gets summarized and what gets ignored, and why AI is not neutral (especially when used uncritically).


You’ll also hear how Silva uses AI in participatory ways: to conduct interviews, surface patterns, validate findings with communities, and even co-create a song that captures her thinking about AI ethics and fluency.

This is not a tools episode. It’s a conversation about principles, power, trust, and reclaiming humanity with AI as both the risk and the opportunity.


And if you stay until the very end, you’ll hear the full song Silva co-created with AI, bringing the conversation into a different register entirely.

Today’s guest: Silva Ferretti


Silva Ferretti
is a humanitarian evaluator with a background in architecture and planning, known for her work on learning-oriented, complexity-aware evaluation.

Rather than treating evaluation as a compliance exercise, Silva focuses on sensemaking, power, relationships, and context, and on creating space for people to talk honestly about what isn’t working, not just what looks good on paper.

She is also an early and thoughtful adopter of AI in evaluation, experimenting with its use for pattern recognition, rapid synthesis, participatory validation, and creative communication, while remaining deeply attentive to ethics, bias and human agency.

Silva regularly shares reflections and provocations on LinkedIn and collaborates with peers through initiatives such as the International Evaluation Academy.

You’ll learn

  • The 5 Levels of AI Fluency for Values-Led Professionals, from “just try it” to collective ethical use
  • What Silva means when she says she’s “not a rebel,” just aligned with humanitarian principles
  • Why “best practices” often fail in complex systems (and what works better)
  • A simple, memorable distinction between complicated systems (like rockets) and complex systems (like human relationships)
  • Why AI is not neutral, and how it can quietly amplify power and bias
  • A practical method you can borrow immediately: record → transcribe → summarize → validate together
  • The uncomfortable question facing the sector: are we becoming a logistics and reporting machine, or a principled humanitarian practice?

Bonus: You’ll hear how Silva used AI to run 60+ interviews in just days, why the first analysis echoed the manager’s worldview, and how re-running the analysis helped surface the voices (and tensions) that were missing.

Resources & links

  • Connect with Silva Ferretti on LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/sferretti/ 
  • Silva’s article: AI in Evaluation (International Evaluation Academy Week) https://aea365.org/blog/ai-in-evaluation-by-silva-ferretti/
  • Silva’s song: It starts with trying (Silva’s lyrics, AI-made music) https://peertube.uno/w/6QopXJaTkgGZERs4DTmzJU
  • Concepts referenced: Appreciative Inquiry, complexity vs. complication, humanitarian principles, participatory evaluation

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