AI Is Rewriting Networking — ConcordeApp Proves It

We’ve spent decades writing frameworks. But frameworks without function are furniture for bureaucracy.

That realization struck me between two cities — New York and Washington — during two events that told the same story from different sides of the global table.

At the UN General Assembly’s 80th Anniversary in New York, we hosted The American Exchange: Fire Festival, a collision of culture and capital that asked one question: what happens when AI meets empathy?

Weeks later, at the World Bank–IMF Annual Meetings in Washington, we co-hosted Engineering Redemptive Impact, a Civil Society Policy Forum session that explored how artificial intelligence can move from buzzword to bridge.

Two rooms. Two languages. One truth:
Africa isn’t waiting to join the future — it’s building it.

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Part I: Where Culture Became Capital

The Fire Festival, co-produced by Semaform Foundation, ConcordeApp, and Cliqk, turned influence into infrastructure.

Faith Kaminus, CMO of ConcordeApp, set the tone:
“Influence without integrity is vanity. We’re not here to trend — we’re here to
transform.”

From there, the discussion moved quickly from inspiration to implementation. Dr. Temitope Iluyemi, a Senior Director at a Fortune 500 company, framed Africa’s opportunity bluntly:

“Africa doesn’t need aid — it needs alignment.”

Dr. Letisha Malcolm of The Collaborative grounded the event in empathy:

“AI shouldn’t replace compassion — it should scale it.”

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At ConcordeApp, that’s our thesis. Our AI Event Engine captures human connection data —every handshake, every story, every introduction — and converts it into measurable outcomes. We call it “AI for relationship capital.”

Rohan Gurram, CEO of Cliqk, described it best:
“We’re turning chaos into clarity.”

Alexa Baranov from JPMorgan Chase brought the financial perspective:
“The next generation of capital will be defined by inclusion.”

The festival’s cultural segment closed with artist and cultural advocate Jumabee alongside policymakers and engineers. Their consensus: innovation without humanity is ego.

By the end of the day, one thing was clear — culture is not a side note in development. It’s the operating system.

Chaste Inegbedion, Head of Happiness, ConcordeApp | Head of Failure & Social
Experiments, Semaform Foundation

Part II: Where Empathy Became Engineering

Weeks later, at the World Bank Civil Society Policy Forum, the same question re-emerged — this time in policy language.

I asked Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group:
“If AI can help markets predict risk, can it help civil society predict failure — and prevent it before it happens?”

His response was pragmatic:
“AI can be transformative if used responsibly. The challenge is access and
alignment.”

Our panel, co-organized by Semaform Foundation, YEDIS, The Collaborative, and ConcordeApp, brought together practitioners who are already applying AI to social challenges:

• Dr. Letisha Malcolm – turning compassion into process.
•  Lyzianah Emakoua – localizing AI to fit real communities.
•  Richard Ojuri (M&T Bank) – using AI to rebuild financial trust.
• Winnie Mangeni (PAWA AI) – automating proposal writing for nonprofits.
• Kome Igbogidi (ServiceNow) – embedding AI into enterprise infrastructure

Their insight was unanimous: civil society doesn’t need more pilots — it needs products that scale.

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Rafiu Akinpelu Olaore of YEDIS summarized Africa’s advantage in one line:
“AI isn’t youth tech — it’s development infrastructure.”

The session ended with a commitment to codify collaboration through a communiqué to the World Bank and IMF — proof that empathy and engineering can coexist.

From Fire to Function

From New York’s creative chaos to Washington’s policy corridors, the message was consistent:

AI isn’t the future of development — it’s the format of it.

The greatest barrier to achieving the SDGs isn’t funding — it’s friction. The systems exist; they just need to work together.

That’s where ConcordeApp comes in. Think of it as the OpenAI for networking. We measure the ROI of relationships — not through vanity metrics, but through verified outcomes.In a world chasing hype, our mission is to humanize data and make empathy measurable.

Africa’s innovators aren’t waiting to be invited to the global table.
We’re already redesigning it.

Photo Credit: Kojo Kissi IG: @ thekissikojo