
New AI platform helps tribes find funding sources, apply for needed grants, loans
New AI platform helps tribes find funding sources, apply for needed grants, loans
Show Caption
Hide Caption
How to use ChatGPT, AI as a dating coach
Unsure of how to craft the perfect text or tackle a tough topic? Artificial Intelligence might be able to help.
Problem Solved
Bazile Panek knows he helped do some good when he sees a tribal representative's sigh of relief after using a new software platform that employs artificial intelligence to find funding opportunities.
'This is going to do great things for Indian Country,' he said.
Panek is the tribal liaison for the company behind the startup AI platform called Syncurrent.
A member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, Panek saw firsthand the need for services and investment on the reservation in far northern Wisconsin where he was born and raised.
Syncurrent uses AI to quickly gather data from hundreds, even thousands, of websites to find the exact grant, loan or other funding opportunity from federal, state and philanthropic sources that is needed for particular projects and provides information about what's needed to apply.
More artificial intelligence: Want more out of AI? Here are 10 savvy prompts to try out
What used to take hours or days by hand now can take minutes with Syncurrent.
'I hear from so many people who spend more time trying to find grants than actually doing their jobs,' Panek said.
Syncurrent was recently tested by officials for the White Earth Ojibwe Nation in Minnesota.
'The platform's simplicity has allowed us to identify and collaborate on critical funding to meet our community's needs,' said Eugene Sommers, an official for the tribe.
More than a trillion dollars in funding opportunities are available to tribal, local and state governments every year from the federal government, but navigating the process to apply for the funds can be overwhelmingly complex, especially for small staffs.
Syncurrent is the brainchild of technology expert Dhruv Patel and Matthew Jaquez.
The platform's basic plan is free for governments to use; its premium plan is $49 per month per department.
Panek is a longtime colleague of Patel and had urged him to consider the needs of tribal nations early in the development of Syncurrent.
The company recently announced a partnership with the U.S. Department of Interior and the nonprofit Native CDFI Network to make Syncurrent premium free for all tribal nations for 10 years.
'Supporting Tribal Nations is and always will be a main priority for Syncurrent,' said Patel in a statement. 'Through our efforts, we're taking a group of people that have always been pushed to the back of the line and moving them all the way to the front.'
In 2024, Congress approved $32.6 billion in funding to benefit tribal communities, but much of that money may not be reaching them, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
For example, the USDA invested about $6.6 billion to support rural development between 2017 and 2021, but only about $138 million went to tribal communities.
The government department's report blames the red tape and paperwork in finding and applying for funding as a major part of the problem.
'Tribal Nations have long faced systemic barriers to accessing capital and securing their fair share of federal, state, and philanthropic dollars,' said Pete Upton, CEO of Native CDFI Network, in a statement. "Syncurrent's AI technology will enable tribal governments to identify and secure critical funding much more quickly, efficiently, and effectively, empowering them to build stronger, healthier, and more prosperous communities."
Syncurrent can currently be accessed for free by tribal governments through its website, Syncurrent.com.
Frank Vaisvilas is a former Report for America corps member who covers Native American issues in Wisconsin based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact him at fvaisvilas@gannett.com or 815-260-2262. Follow him on Twitter at @vaisvilas_frank.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Level AI Launches Naviant: The Future of AI Virtual Agents for Customer Experience
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., June 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Level AI, a leader in customer experience AI, today announced the launch of Naviant, a next-generation AI virtual agent built to deliver truly human-like conversations and transform how organizations engage with customers. Naviant addresses a growing challenge: balancing human empathy with the efficiency of automation. Level AI has long powered industry-leading Customer Experience Intelligence and Augmentation, including Voice of the Customer (VoC), Automated QA, Screen Monitoring, and Agent Assist. With Naviant, Level AI extends its proven closed-loop CX system to AI virtual agents, ensuring consistent quality and continuous improvement across hybrid contact centers with human and AI virtual agents. "Naviant isn't just another chatbot—it's an AI virtual agent purpose-built to drive operational excellence and empathetic conversations," said Ashish Nagar, CEO of Level AI. "Level AI's core until now is deeply understanding human agent conversations, uncovering quality and CX improvement opportunities. With Naviant, we apply the same intelligence to build human-like AI agents that continuously improve through quality monitoring and continuous improvement feedback loop." Key Differentiators: AgentIQ for Actionable Automation: Naviant goes beyond simple dialogues to take real actions—like modifying orders, updating CRM records, and resolving tickets—driving over 50% better customer resolution rates. DialogIQ for Human-like Conversations: Naviant understands tone, sentiment, and context in real time, delivering emotionally aware and natural conversations that feel personal and on-brand. EnlightIQ for Continuous CX Excellence: Level AI reviews 100% of virtual agent interactions, surfacing quality insights and identifying coaching opportunities—ensuring continuous learning and higher CSAT. Fast Deployment & Customization: Naviant is quick to deploy with intuitive setup and out-of-the-box integrations—no complex coding needed. Enterprise-Ready & Secure: Multilingual support, omnichannel readiness, and robust security ensure Naviant scales globally while meeting strict compliance standards. Solving Today's CX Challenges Customer experience leaders consistently cite slow deployment, robotic conversations, and limited visibility into AI virtual agent quality as critical issues. Naviant addresses these head-on by unifying automation, analytics, and QA in a single loop—delivering high-quality, adaptable AI interactions that match your brand's tone and values. Ben Huber, a leader at Topcon shared, "We made more progress with Level AI in four weeks than we had in six months with another vendor. The experience has been stellar, and the feedback from our users has been incredible." About Level AI Level AI helps leading brands like Affirm, Penske, Vista, and Carta transform their contact centers with AI-native solutions. To see Naviant in action, request a personalized demo at Media Contact: Colm Shalvey colm@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Level AI Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
At WWDC 2025, Apple introduces an AI-powered Shortcuts app
At WWDC 2025, Apple showed off a new AI-powered Shortcuts app. The company says Shortcuts can now tap into Apple Intelligence directly, and developers will be able to access Apple's on-device large language model (LLM). With Shortcuts, users will be able to access the AI models either on device or with Private Compute to generate responses that feed into the rest of their shortcut. For instance, a student could create a shortcut that uses AI to compare their audio transcription of their class lecture to their notes, then add key points they missed. They can also tap into ChatGPT to provide further responses that feed into their shortcut's input. Users will be able to tap into intelligent actions, which are a new type of shortcut that's enabled by Apple Intelligence. For instance, there are dedicated actions like those for summarizing text with AI (Apple Intelligence's Writing Tools) or creating images with Image Playground. Apple says the new features are available for testing starting Monday. The AI-assisted Shortcuts app follows the company's announcement last year of an AI-enhanced upgrade to its virtual assistant Siri, offering more personalized features and support. However, Apple then pushed back the launch, saying it would take longer to deliver than anticipated. At WWDC 2025, the company continued to make AI promises, including the introduction of an updated version of its Shortcuts app for scripting and automation. These AI changes could make Shortcuts easier to use for the less technically inclined, who have likely avoided using the app that has so far been more a part of a power user's toolkit. For example, popular shortcuts today can help you do things like make custom memes or GIFs, create meeting notes, track time spent on certain activities, create playlists, save PDFs, find out where a photo was taken, set location-based reminders, speed dial a friend, combine screenshots, shorten URLs, download files, save items to read later, and more. The update could also work as something of a stop-gap for Apple's delays to fully upgrade Siri with AI capabilities, as leveraging AI-assisted automation could make using the iPhone at least feel more efficient. (If you're willing to put in the work around shortcut creation, that is.) This article originally appeared on TechCrunch at Sign in to access your portfolio

Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Apple brings Apple Intelligence to the iPhone screen
Apple said it's bringing Visual Intelligence, its AI-powered image analysis tech, to the iPhone screen in iOS 26. Visual Intelligence will now make it easier and faster to do more with the content on your iPhone, Apple says, and it works automatically with any app. For example, if you open a social media app and see a gray jacket, you can use Visual Intelligence — which can be accessed by pressing the same button you use to take a screenshot — to do an image search for the jacket in Google Search and other apps you use frequently. Visual Intelligence on the iPhone's screen offers other shortcut options, like quickly adding an event to your calendar, based on context. It can extract the date, time, and location and pre-populate them in a calendar entry. There's also an option to upload a screenshot to ChatGPT for analysis and additional information. Apple's head of software engineering, Craig Federighi, said that developers can integrate Apple Intelligence into their apps. "For developers, you can use app intents to integrate search capabilities from your apps into this experience," Federighi said onstage at WWDC 2025. "We're also making it possible for you to search visually across your most-used apps using Visual Intelligence with the iPhone camera." This article originally appeared on TechCrunch at Sign in to access your portfolio