Getting to scale: Responsible AI systems to improve maternal and newborn health in Africa
Artificial intelligence has significant potential to improve maternal health outcomes, yet there is limited evidence on how AI-enabled solutions can be successfully scaled within public health systems, particularly in the Global South. While many innovations demonstrate promise through pilot projects, far fewer achieve sustainable, system-wide adoption at national scale.
This project seeks to address that evidence gap by studying the scaling journey of Jacaranda Health’s PROMPTS (PROmoting Mothers during Pregnancy Through SMS) platform. PROMPTS combines AI and digital technologies to provide pregnant women with timely, personalized health information and support, helping them make informed decisions about their care while strengthening their connections to health services and providers. Since its launch in 2016 across just three public health facilities in Kenya, the platform has expanded to reach nearly 3 million women through thousands of public health facilities and has begun adapting its model for implementation in other countries.
Building on this success, the project will document and analyze the factors, partnerships, policies, and implementation strategies that enabled PROMPTS to scale in Kenya. It will also examine ongoing scaling efforts in Tanzania and Ghana, where the platform is being adapted to different health system contexts and is expected to reach an additional 2 million women.
By comparing scaling pathways across countries and stages of implementation, the research will generate practical insights into how governments, health practitioners, and development partners can design, evaluate, and scale responsible AI-enabled maternal health interventions. The project will produce case studies, policy and operational briefs, implementation roadmaps, toolkits, peer-reviewed publications, and human-interest stories that can inform future efforts to move beyond isolated pilots toward sustainable, integrated health system solutions.
