Cloudera and Mercy Corps Announce Autonomous AI Solution 'VERA' for Humanitarian Aid

Cloudera Inc. (headquartered in Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO Yuji Yamagai), a company delivering AI to data everywhere, today announced the launch of Verified Evidence & Research Assistant (VERA), an autonomous AI solution developed in partnership with Mercy Corps, a global humanitarian and international development organization. VERA is designed to transform how humanitarian teams collect information, conduct crisis analysis, and deliver timely insights to communities in need.

VERA emerged from approximately two and a half years of collaboration between Cloudera and Mercy Corps. What began as an initiative to explore the potential of enterprise AI in humanitarian operations has evolved into a production-grade autonomous AI workflow. Built on Cloudera AI Studios on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and leveraging Anthropic’s Claude models, VERA delivers secure and scalable AI capabilities, enabling Mercy Corps to rapidly analyze vast humanitarian datasets and convert them into actionable insights for decision-making. Claude supports responsible and effective operations by properly understanding and processing system prompts within the humanitarian context. VERA automates research tasks, collects and integrates information from diverse and distributed sources, and generates context-specific analyses, empowering humanitarian teams to make faster and more accurate decisions.

Unlike generic AI applications, VERA was co-developed through a comprehensive business analysis process led by Cloudera’s Professional Services & Training team and Mercy Corps’ domain experts. Close collaboration with user communities throughout development ensured the solution reflects real-world challenges faced in humanitarian settings and delivers practical, context-aware outputs.

VERA is already being used in:

- Agricultural and food security analysis in Sudan - Security reporting related to elections in Colombia - Monitoring disease outbreaks and supporting crisis reporting in Central and East Africa

VERA has already delivered tangible results, including:

- Up to 90% reduction in time to produce security reports for Mercy Corps teams in Colombia - Reduction in secondary research and desk research time for Sudan reports from 5–6 days to 2–3 days - Estimated cost savings of approximately $2,000 per security report in Colombia and $1,500 per analysis report in Sudan - Enabling high-quality, timely analysis and reporting in resource-constrained environments where it was previously difficult

Jim Bisordi, Senior Vice President of Professional Services at Cloudera, stated: "Humanitarian organizations are expected to deliver more impact amid increasingly complex global crises, all while operating under tight resource constraints. VERA demonstrates that autonomous AI has moved beyond proof-of-concept to deliver measurable real-world impact. Our collaboration with Mercy Corps shows what’s possible when advanced AI technology, deep domain expertise, and a shared mission to improve conditions for vulnerable communities come together. As leader of Professional Services & Training, I emphasize that our focus must always be on outcomes—ensuring technology adoption translates into tangible results that advance our clients’ missions and business goals."

Josh DeWald, Vice President of Technical Support, Evidence & Program Quality at Mercy Corps, said: "We see VERA as a critical future tool for conducting research and secondary data analysis. Tasks that once required significant manual effort can now be completed in a fraction of the time, allowing our teams to dedicate more time to interpreting and validating results. For example, in Sudan, we can now deliver food security analysis results to field teams faster, improving the quality of support provided to communities facing food shortages."

Yuji Yamagai, Regional Vice President and President & CEO of Cloudera, added: "As the use of autonomous AI, including AI agents, expands, establishing trustworthy data foundations and robust governance is more critical than ever for safe and efficient AI deployment. Our collaboration with Mercy Corps demonstrates how autonomous AI can contribute to solving real-world social challenges when grounded in reliable data and proper governance. It also underscores the necessity of a scalable and reliable data platform for AI in production environments. As Japanese enterprises transition from AI experimentation to operational deployment, it is crucial to operate AI safely and efficiently while remaining adaptable to evolving business landscapes and regulations. Cloudera will continue to support customers in maintaining control over their AI initiatives and achieving sustainable AI adoption through our open, flexible hybrid data platform."

This project also exemplifies Cloudera’s broader commitment to leveraging technology for social impact. In addition to sponsorship, Cloudera is participating as an implementation partner, providing AI expertise and technical resources to support Mercy Corps in scaling innovative humanitarian initiatives through ongoing collaboration.

As Mercy Corps further integrates VERA into its research and reporting workflows, both organizations anticipate further improvements in operational efficiency and report quality, as well as faster access to critical information for decision-makers operating in some of the world’s most challenging environments.

For more information on Cloudera AI Studios and Cloudera’s social impact initiatives, visit www.cloudera.com.

About Cloudera Cloudera is a trusted hybrid data and AI platform provider for global enterprises, delivering AI to data wherever it resides. Leveraging proven open-source foundations, Cloudera offers a consistent cloud experience that integrates public cloud, data centers, and edge environments. As a pioneer in big data, Cloudera empowers organizations to fully leverage all forms of data, apply AI, and maintain control. This enables integrated security, governance, and data management across the entire data lifecycle.