UN AI Smart Mission Planner's goal is to optimize humanitarians' mission planning and travel resources, to cut down on planning time, accelerate emergency response and optimize utilization of travel resources across the entire UN network and humanitarian communities.
Securing transportation and accommodation in a city is a straightforward task, but it becomes significantly complex and challenging when attempting to do so in remote, isolated deep field areas. The UN Booking Hub, managed by WFP to serve all UN organizations, brings together important services, but its complicated manual system for assigning resources makes it less efficient and productive.
The UN Booking Hub, run by WFP, is a worldwide resource that acts as a single platform for multiple UN agencies. It streamlines critical travel and lodging services, including guesthouses, UN aircraft, and UN soft and armed vehicles. This tool is dedicated to ensuring the safe movement of international humanitarian groups when they are on emergency missions. Thanks to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the UN AI Smart Planner aims to increase resource sharing and utilization and hence reduce waste, while recommending humanitarians the shortest routes of their missions.
The UN Booking Hub has realized efficiency gains of over US$5 million in 2023 for WFP and US$11 million for all UN agencies using the platform. In total, the UN Booking Hub facilitated travels for over 2.5 million humanitarian staff. By adding AI features to the existing UN Booking Hub platform, the team aims to increase its efficiency gains from US$11 million to US$20 million.
