Humanitair-IA trainings
Learn to use artificial intelligence responsibly, safely and effectively, with a team that knows your reality.
Humanitair-IA training is designed by researchers and humanitarian practitioners, for aid and international cooperation organizations. It starts from your real cases, your constraints and your principles.
Training offered
AI 101: Responsible AI Foundations
For you if you are new to generative AI or use it occasionally, without an established method.
- Level: beginner
- Tools: Copilot (with exploration of ChatGPT and other AI generative tools)
- Duration: 6 hours (four 90-minute sessions)
- Participants: 10 to 30
Customized training
For you if you want to train a whole team around your own tools, policies and use cases.
- Level, tools and duration: according to your needs
Our approach
A living lab. Training is not a one-way transfer of knowledge. You bring your experience, we bring research and practice, and the content evolves with your questions.
Evidence-based. Our training draws on our national survey of generative AI use in Canadian humanitarian and international cooperation organizations.
Neither techno-optimism nor doom. We offer a critical, fact-based reading of AI, consistent with humanitarian principles and attentive to power dynamics.
Aligned with standards. Our content is inspired by the Canadian standard CAN-ASC-6.2:2025 on accessible and equitable AI systems and by the sector’s reference frameworks (UNESCO, ICRC, WHO, OCHA, IASC). Feminist, decolonial and localization approaches, along with duty of care and protection, are woven through every session.
Accessible. Our sessions follow Universal Design for Learning principles and our team is fully bilingual.
Our expertise
Humanitair-IA is the laboratory of the Canadian Observatory on Humanitarian Crises and Action (OCCAH), a research centre at ESG UQAM founded in 2010. It brings together researchers, practitioners, students and organizations around a shared goal: the responsible use of AI in humanitarian action and international cooperation.
Our track record
Building on more than ten years of OCCAH expertise in training and advisory services, Humanitair-IA supports humanitarian organizations, NGOs and public institutions in their shift toward AI.
- National survey on the use of generative AI in Canadian humanitarian and international cooperation organizations
- Dozens of training sessions on the responsible use of generative AI for humanitarian and development professionals
- Training for diplomats in international security and risk management, including AI
- Support to an international NGO in integrating generative AI into a reporting workflow
- Training and development of data science tools for an international cooperation NGO
- Organizational risk management assessment, development of practical tools and customized training for a government institution, including the responsible use and governance of AI
- Report on AI-augmented humanitarian monitoring
- Scientific presentations on generative AI and ethics in humanitarian contexts at conferences and study days
The team
Frédérick Plamondon, PhD. Professor of Management at ESG UQAM. His research examines the sociopolitical and ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence, digital governance and the managerial practices surrounding emerging technologies.
Patrick Robitaille. Co-founder and Executive Director of Humanitair-IA, Development Project Manager at Oxfam-Québec. In the humanitarian sector since 2002, with more than 30 deployments and leadership positions with MSF, Médecins du Monde and Save the Children. Teaches management of international cooperation organizations at Université Laval.
Albert Lamontagne. Co-founder and Coordinator of Humanitair-IA and Scientific Coordinator of OCCAH. As AidGPT facilitator, he trains responsible use of generative AI to humanitarian professionals to humanitarian project managers. He also co-founded and coordinates Humanitair-IA and is Scientific Coordinator of OCCAH. His research examines how ethics can be integrated into the use of generative AI in humanitarian organizations.
AI 101: Responsible AI Foundations
Four 90-minute online sessions, offered every two weeks. Each session builds on the previous one, but can also be taken on its own. Between sessions, short exercises let you apply what you have learned to your own work.
Who is it for? Program, operations, administrative, technical and leadership staff who want to build solid foundations.
Session 1: Responsible AI Foundations
In our national survey, ethical risks emerge as the number one barrier to the use of generative AI and the number one type of support requested. So that is where we begin: demystifying AI and understanding its limits.
You will learn:
- what AI is (language models, generative AI, agentic AI) and which tools exist;
- what these tools can and cannot do;
- the types of errors and their consequences for affected populations, partners and staff;
- the issues of data protection, environmental impact and overreliance;
- how to recognize inappropriate or higher-risk uses in humanitarian settings.
Session 2: Prompting Best Practices
An interactive session focused on exercises and your questions.
You will learn:
- how to write effective prompts (role, rules, context, examples, structure);
- how to verify results, control quality and maintain human oversight;
- how to apply these techniques to realistic scenarios drawn from the work of organizations.
- why disclosure and transparency matter for trust within your teams and with your partners;
Session 3: Options and Parameters
To understand what happens under the hood and get more out of your tool.
You will learn:
- how to tell providers, models and reasoning levels apart;
- how to manage tokens, costs and environmental footprint;
- how to use projects, custom instructions and memory;
- what these settings mean for consistency and confidentiality.
Session 4: Agents and Automation
An agent needs three things to be autonomous: capacity, access and time. We explore the power this gives it and the risks that come with it.
You will learn:
- how tools, connectors and scheduled tasks work;
- how to decide which authority to delegate, and which to keep;
- how to put safeguards and human oversight in place;
- how to build a simple agent, in a hands-on workshop.
Write to us to register or book for your team
Customized training
Every organization has its own tools, policies, sensitive data and priorities. We design training adapted to your context:
- an initial assessment to understand your teams’ level and needs;
- content and case studies drawn from your reality;
- a flexible format: a single workshop, a series of sessions or longer-term support;
- themes of your choice, for example drafting an AI policy, integrating AI into a specific workflow or training your leadership team.
Offered in English or French.
Let’s talk about your needs
Want to register your team, organize customized training or simply find out where to start? Write to us.
