AI Wild Card Winner
About Rhiana
Rhiana Spring is a human rights lawyer who taught herself to code and launched her first tech business at seventeen. After a decade on the frontlines of international law with the UN and the Swiss Foreign Ministry across four continents, she founded Spring ACT and built Sophia: an anonymous, multilingual, free AI companion supporting survivors of domestic violence. Sophia has been awarded the United Nations' AI for Good Award and the Swiss Future Prize by the President of Switzerland. Rhiana was named Europe's Best Impact Entrepreneur by the European Investment Bank.
The focus of her work
Sophia provides survivors of domestic violence with legal information, locally mapped support services, and an encrypted Digital Safe where they can securely store documentation of abuse without leaving any digital trace. It operates 24 hours a day, requires no app download, functions in low-connectivity environments, and leaves no trace on users' devices. All content is co-designed with domestic violence experts and survivors to ensure accuracy, cultural relevance and a survivor-centred tone. Conversations are anonymous, untraceable and never stored.
Impact
43,000+ conversations held with users from 172 countries across 6 continents
96 languages supported
Zero digital trace left on users' devices
UN AI for Good Award and Swiss Future Prize by the President of Switzerland
65+ articles of press coverage worldwide including Forbes, Bloomberg and El País
Team of 7 core staff, 6 nationalities and 100+ volunteers from 40+ countries; survivors of domestic violence form a core part of the team at every level
Responsible AI in practice
Responsible AI at Spring ACT is foundational, not incidental. All conversations are anonymous and untraceable. The Digital Safe uses end-to-end encryption hosted on Swiss servers; no data is used to train large language models, preventing unintended leakage or misuse. Sophia is designed with trauma-informed conversational principles, avoiding triggering language and adapting responses to user risk levels, with rapid exit functions allowing users to instantly end interactions. The team's diversity, including survivors at every level of the organisation, is directly reflected in the AI's design and its cultural responsiveness.
Vision for the future
A future where technology becomes a universal enabler of safety and justice, not a privilege. Support that reaches people before fear does, available in any language, in any country, without leaving a trace.
The 2026/27 She Shapes AI Global Awards Call for Applications opens on 8 October 2026. If you or someone you know is driving positive impact through AI, we want to hear from you. Visit sheshapes.ai/awards to learn more and sign up to our newsletter to stay informed.
