With the global AI training dataset market poised for exponential growth over the next decade, social entrepreneur Manu Chopra saw an opportunity to channel some of that wealth to the rural poor. His nonprofit Karya pays villagers, many of them women, $5 an hour or more—roughly 20 times minimum wage—to be recorded speaking in their own language, which can be used by AI apps to understand and generate speech. About 70% of fees paid by its clients, which include the Indian government, U.S. tech giant Google and Indian ride-sharing company Ola, goes to the workers while Karya retains the rest to cover operating costs. Roughly 120 Indian dialects have been recorded so far and Karya says it has expanded into Kenya and Ethiopia. Chopra, CEO, cofounded Karya in 2021 with Vivek Seshadri, chief technology officer, and Safiya Husain, chief impact officer.

Chopra’s Karya is one example of how AI is being used by this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia: Social Impact listees to create a positive change in their communities.

“To build a future of AI that is diverse and inclusive, we need to employ diverse and underrepresented populations.”

The nonprofit has also received grants for research, including $2 million from the Gates Foundation to collect recorded speech from 30,000 rural women to capture their language, syntax and patterns of speech with the aim of combating gender bias in AI. Karya, which in Sanskrit means work that gives one dignity, says its goal is to provide support to half a million disadvantaged people over the next five years. Chopra, who has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Stanford University, notes: “To build a future of AI that is diverse and inclusive, we need to employ diverse and underrepresented populations.”

Also in India, 26-year-old Arghya Bhattacharya has an ambitious mission: he wants to reduce the case backlogs in the country’s clogged courts using AI. Together with Utkarsh Saxena (over 30), they cofounded Adalat AI, which is developing software that can transcribe depositions and take dictation in court. The non-profit says its product has been trained to understand legal jargon and local Indian languages, which helps ensure accuracy. Adalat AI says the software is being used in 3,000 courts across eight Indian states.

In addition to AI, social entrepreneurs on this year’s list are innovating using various other technologies to create apps and devices to help those with physical and developmental disabilities access therapy and improve their quality of life.

Pravin Kumar, 26, founded in 2020 Dextroware Devices, a startup that developed Mouseware, a device worn on the head to control computers and smartphones, for use by people with upper limb disabilities. The startup completed the incubator program at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and in 2023 Mouseware was India's winning entry for the James Dyson design awards.

In Hong Kong, Turzo Bose and Lamia Sreya Rahman cofounded Vidi Labs to help the visually impaired move independently using wearable cameras and "seeing" AI. Their company has developed Seekr, a device packed with depth sensors and scene and text recognition technologies to describe surroundings to the wearer. In 2025, Seekr won a CES Innovation Award in the Accessibility & AgeTech category.

Also addressing challenges faced by the visually-impaired, Hunny Bhagchandani founded Ahmedabad-based Torchit, a company producing accessibility products. Torchit's flagship product is Saarthi, a cane that "reads" the environment and sends vibrations to warn of potential obstacles. The company’s Jyoti AI, smart spectacles interpret text in multiple languages.

For neurodivergent people including those with autism, ADHD and dyslexia–who make up an estimated 15% to 20% of the global population–Holly Fowler launched the Wable app, a social network to help them connect. Through Wable they can hook up with potential friends or set up dates; it even has a job board that recommends inclusive workplaces. Available in Australia and New Zealand, Wable plans to expand to the U.S., U.K. and Canada.

Growing up with dyslexia herself, another listee, Prathyusha Potharaju cofounded Grailmaker Innovations to help kids with developmental disabilities access therapy in a more affordable and convenient way. The four-year-old company created Vision Nanny, a low-cost, interactive AI-powered learning software as an at-home therapy tool for children with Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI). Recently, Potharaju and her team developed Spacefelt, an app that was developed with support from Hyderabad's LV Prasad Eye Institute, to allows the visually impaired navigate their surroundings.

The list this year also highlights activists who are championing various social causes including women’s rights, education and gender equality.

An Afghan refugee in Pakistan, Helai Masudi is cofounder of Speak For Change, a volunteer-led platform which offers educational resources such as entrepreneurship webinars and writing workshops to young women in Afghanistan being denied access to schools by the Taliban. Masudi originally used Telegram groups to offer free online courses, which were expanded into a series profiling inspiring Afghan refugees, who have successful careers. Masudi,also helped coordinate disaster aid after the 2023 earthquake in the Herat Province, was one of the recipients of the Diana Award in 2024.

In Nepal, transgender woman Rukshana Kapali is a champion of gender equality, having filed over 50 lawsuits against the government for greater legal recognition of transgender identity. The activist won one case last year, when the Supreme Court ruled that she can be identified legally as a woman, not as a third gender, without having to submit medical verification. Through her nonprofit Queer Youth Group, Kapali provides legal assistance to people fighting for their gender rights.

Read our complete Social Impact list here – and be sure to check out our full Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2025 coverage here.