When Flavio Proietti Pantosti entered prison for the first time, he immediately felt a sense of oppression. “Walking down the long, straight hallway, I was overwhelmed by an intense sense of confinement, matched only by the deep sense of relief I got out.” This first encounter as a volunteer in an Italian correctional facility inspired Proietti Pantosti, founder of the social enterprise Leo Assunto, to decide to help prisoners regain control of their lives while incarcerated.
“Leo Assunto provides dedicated support for reintegration into society,” said Proietti Pantosti. “Our goal is to significantly reduce recidivism rates for first-time offenders.” Because the reintegration process is complex and time-consuming, he came up with the idea of setting up an offline, server-based AI tool to help inmates apply for jobs, and an AI agent to automate complex tax documentation for companies offering jobs to inmates. But he and his organization didn’t have the skills or funding to create an AI prototype to bring his concept to life.
That’s where ChangemakerXchange, a global support community for young social entrepreneurs and a long-time partner of SAP, comes in. In 2025, the organization established a program for social entrepreneurs and NGOs to experiment with the capabilities of AI and implement AI tools and capabilities to solve one challenge common to all social enterprises: a lack of supporters combined with a large number of small and sometimes repetitive tasks.
Matthias Scheffelmeier, co-founder of ChangemakerXchange, says young changemakers are tackling some of the most pressing issues of our time, but they are often stretched thin and under-resourced. “We believe that by helping them deploy AI tools carefully and ethically, they can focus on their core expertise and, in turn, expand their impact on the world.” “To address this, the ChangemakerXchange AI program provides customized support, in-person gatherings, and a public toolkit to help young entrepreneurs leverage AI.”
SAP has been supporting social enterprise ChangemakerXchange for more than eight years as its longest-standing corporate partner. In addition to financial support from the company, SAP employees joined local social enterprise groups to share their knowledge about AI and brainstorm how their individual ideas could be realized.
ChangemakerXchange launches Possibilists, a global alliance for youth innovation. Possibilists conducted a global study on the needs and challenges young changemakers face with AI. The study found that while 65% use AI almost every day, 70% lack knowledge about how to proactively manipulate AI tools for their purposes.
ChangemakerXchange’s Possibilist Research on AI
In early 2025, more than 2,000 young change makers aged 14 to 35 from 110 countries were surveyed as part of the 2025 Possibilities Study. The full survey on how they are using AI and their concerns and expectations can be found here.
From environment to politics
The European Group of Entrepreneurs in ChangemakerXchange AI program covers environmental, social and political projects.
One of them, the Romania-based social enterprise Station Europe, aims to make democracy more accessible to young people, especially in rural areas. “We are empowering young people to participate in participatory democracy, embrace creative activity, identify and combat disinformation campaigns, and develop policy recommendations that reflect the needs of their communities,” said Alin Gramesk, President and Co-Founder of Station Europe. To support these goals, the organization launched a collaborative platform in 2024 called “AMPLIFY: Citizens.” This will enable young people to explore new forms of political participation and bring them directly to the heart of policy-making processes. Participants in the hands-on workshop will learn how to process AI clustering and workshop results to develop policy recommendations starting with real-world problems and needs. The result is recommendations for government authorities based on the opinions of thousands of young people.
“AI will help connect policy makers and young people. Within a year, we have condensed over 1,400 papers from over 80 workshops,” Gramescu said. “As we open the platform to more countries, the amount of data we work with increases exponentially.” When asked about the value ChangemakerXchange has added to the organization, he replied: “We knew what we wanted to build to manage this content, but we needed step-by-step technical guidance to make it happen.”
Education as the foundation of progress
It is often said that education is the foundation of progress, and for Alexia von Salomon, concept and learning designer at Education Innovation Lab, this belief motivates her every day.
“For me, education is the foundation of social innovation,” von Salomon said. As a leader in education change, she recognizes that future-relevant skills are not being imparted in German schools, and her ambitions are as high as that of transforming Germany’s education system.
In addition to running workshops in schools, we create learning experiences for teachers and students, including our learning platform Digital Sparks for the Future. To expand its reach, Education Innovation Lab focuses on self-guided learning platforms and trainer sessions for school teachers.
Von Salomon uses AI to co-create and validate new concepts. “This has allowed me to be more creative and think outside the box,” she said. “Using AI for initial testing of how pre-schoolers interact with learning content and tools reduces the iterations needed before actually testing in schools.”
She said that participating in the ChangemakerXchange program not only gave her the opportunity to meet the right people in the technology industry, but also helped her change her perspective on AI and increase her usage of AI tools. Her personal goal is to shape a future where learning is more than just knowledge, it is about empowerment and transformation. “In my view, the important skills for minors in an AI-influenced future will be creativity and critical thinking to take advantage of the opportunities AI offers without suffering potential negative consequences,” she said.
Service to business and society
More than 1,500 social entrepreneurs from over 130 countries are part of ChangemakerXchange’s global community. “True innovation happens when changemakers challenge the status quo and create solutions that benefit both business and society,” Scheffelmeier emphasized. For him, social enterprises are more than just businesses, they are about driving inclusive growth and sustainable impact. “By combining technology and the vision of social innovators, we can scale solutions to address global challenges and build a future where profit and purpose work together,” he said.
