Felicia Curcuru, Founder and CEO of Binti – Interview Series

Felicia Curcuru is the CEO of Binti. Felicia was first introduced to the world of child welfare many years ago when her sister adopted two children. Years later, Felicia began volunteering as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for foster youth in San Francisco. Through these experiences and years of experience in Silicon Valley, she saw a lot of opportunity where technology could improve the outcomes of families and children. She co-founded Binti and has dedicated herself to that since. Since launching in 2017, Binti has quickly grown to work in over 550 agencies in 36 states + DC serving 49% of child welfare in the US.

Binti is a mission-driven technology company that builds modern software to improve outcomes across the child welfare system by reducing administrative burden and helping agencies focus more time on children and families. Its mobile-friendly platform supports end-to-end workflows such as foster and adoptive parent licensing, family finding, service referrals, and data-driven case management, enabling agencies to license families faster, engage extended family networks more effectively, and coordinate services with greater clarity. Since launching in 2017, Binti has been adopted by hundreds of public and private agencies across the U.S., helping place more children into stable, supportive homes.

You went from advising global institutions at McKinsey to leading product and user experience at FundersClub before founding Binti in 2014. What moment or insight from your earlier career made you realize you needed to build a company dedicated to modernizing the child welfare system? 

I watched my sister navigate the adoption process and saw how emotionally draining and stressful it was for her. As I dug in, I realized there were 400,000 children in the foster care system – half of which will be homeless and half of which will have experience with the criminal justice system. Also, the majority of sexually trafficked youth are current or former foster youth. It just didn’t make sense to me that there was such a need for foster families for children, and yet it was so difficult to become a foster parent. In addition to this, I started volunteering as a Court Appointed Special Advocate and saw the child welfare system through that lens. When I ultimately decided I wanted to start a company, I sat down and made a list of problems I wanted to help solve in the world – and child welfare was at the top of the list. So I started Binti, merging my background in technology and designing user-first products with my passion for ensuring every child found a stable and loving family.

Binti now powers nearly half of all U.S. child welfare operations and works with agencies in 37 states. When you look at the scale of the challenges facing social workers and families, what do you see as the core systemic problem your technology is trying to solve?

When you zoom out, the core systemic issue is that social workers are navigating one of the most emotionally demanding jobs using outdated, paper-heavy systems that slow them down and can lead to burnout. With nearly 400,000 children in foster care and a projected 200,000-worker shortfall by 2030, these legacy systems simply can’t keep up. Most existing systems were built primarily to track data, not to support day-to-day workflows. As a result, they often create extra steps – forcing social workers to duplicate information instead of helping them move cases forward. Over time, these agency-specific, custom-built systems have only become more outdated, with little ongoing maintenance or modernization. Social workers report spending 50% of their time on administrative work, which is not what they signed up to do. Through using Binti’s technology, social workers save 20-40% of administrative time, leading to them being able to dedicate more time to supporting children and families directly and less time on paperwork.

Even with Binti’s impact, the child welfare ecosystem still faces structural friction. What is the biggest bottleneck today—whether technological, policy-driven, or cultural—that slows the adoption of modern, AI-powered tools within government?

One of the biggest challenges I see is that government agencies have been burned by legacy technology vendors who often under-deliver, so there’s a natural hesitation to try new products, as well as cautionary policies in place that unintentionally limit innovation. Agencies have spent millions on technology that never ends up getting launched, is delayed for years, or launches but at a significantly higher price point than initially quoted. Of all government software development contracts over $6 million, only 11% are successful. The average government IT project costs 310% of the originally estimated price. And one study of 400 projects found that only 10% of traditionally-developed code was ever actually deployed – and only 2% was ever used. As a result, it’s understandable for government agencies to be skeptical of technology and for cautionary policies to be put in place.

At Binti, there’s two key ways we’re addressing this. First, we are advocating for policy changes that will make it easier for agencies to procure modular, innovative technology. Second, we’re continuously building that trust through launching on time and on budget, and providing great customer service along the way. We just did our fastest ever statewide launch of a product – 42 days – and we continue to hit new records with our deployments.

Binti reports that its software saves social workers up to 75% of their time. What role does AI play in enabling that efficiency, and how do you balance automation with maintaining human judgment in sensitive family-related decisions?

Yes, Binti AI has been reported to reduce the time required to complete a home study by 50-75%, saving social workers as much as two hours per home study. We think of AI as a tool in our toolbox that empowers social workers to spend less time on mundane, manual tasks and make more informed decisions. However, AI never replaces human judgment at Binti; every output requires human review, all features are designed with bias-mitigation and HIPAA-level safeguards, and the technology is intentionally limited to administrative support rather than decision-making.

So, for example, the AI will complete a first draft of a form based on a home study recording or handwritten notes, but then the social worker goes through and approves each response. Also, our Ask Binti AI features search forms, notes, and case data to quickly surface the critical pieces of information to social workers, but it always cites sources to ensure accuracy. The goal is to reduce the time spent on administrative work and more easily surface information so that social workers can focus on spending time with children and families, which is why they got into social work in the first place.

You recently established a partnership with Anthropic to expand AI capabilities for social good. How is this collaboration shaping the next generation of tools for case management and family licensing?

Our partnership with Anthropic is allowing us to build the kind of tools social workers have needed for decades. By combining Binti’s understanding of child welfare workflows with Anthropic’s safe, advanced AI, we’re creating features that dramatically reduce administrative burdens. We’re using this technology to make it easier to fill out forms using recorded meetings with families as well as search case histories, policies, and family information in seconds rather than hours. We’re already seeing how much this matters: 74% of California counties now use Binti, including San Bernardino, where one caseworker told us she can process reports in half the time.

AI in government is often criticized for being either too risky or too slow to implement. What safeguards, model-governance practices, or design principles guide Binti’s approach to deploying AI in an environment where accuracy and trust are essential?

Binti is unique because it is the first responsible, human-guided AI platform built specifically for child welfare and social services. Binti has a proven track record of successfully implementing innovative technology in this space – and we’re doing the same with Binti AI. Binti AI is here to augment, not replace, social workers. It’s focused on automating the mundane, repetitive administrative burden social workers face every day while also keeping a human-centered approach and having all AI output reviewed by a human. It’s meant to help social workers make more informed decisions – not make decisions for them.

Each feature is HIPAA-compliant, built with bias-mitigation frameworks, and requires human review before submission. Since the data always remains within the agency’s control, Binti is able to protect the privacy and compliance needs of social services. Additionally, all outputs made by the AI must be reviewed by social workers before submission, which ensures that human oversight and professional judgment guide every decision.

As agencies adopt AI-driven workflows, what early patterns or insights are emerging about how social workers interact with these tools? Are there ways AI is changing how they prioritize cases or support families?

We’re finding that social workers are highly receptive to tools that reduce administrative load and surface insights quickly. AI is changing how they interact with information – rather than spending hours reviewing paperwork, they can instantly search across hundreds of pages of forms, case notes, case data, and agency policies. This allows them to assess cases more efficiently, prioritize urgent needs sooner, and make more informed decisions earlier in the process. As a result, social workers are able to shift their time and attention away from documentation and toward more direct, meaningful support for families.

One of the persistent challenges in child welfare is incomplete or inconsistent documentation. How is Binti using AI to improve data quality, reduce errors, or surface insights that weren’t visible before?

Incomplete documentation has real consequences in child welfare, so one of our biggest goals with AI is to help social workers capture information accurately and consistently without adding to their workload. There’s two key ways we’re doing this.

First, the AI-assisted case notes and form completion tool allows workers to reduce mistakes previously made on handwritten, manual, and repetitive paperwork. We’re already hearing from agencies that they are experiencing positive results. For example, reports that once took social workers 3-4 hours now take just 1-2. Another supervisor shared with us that they’ve observed the forms completed with AI are not only faster but more detailed and consistent.

Second, we are making it possible to quickly search hundreds of pages of forms, case notes, case data, and agency policies. Whereas it’s easy to miss information and have things slip through when social workers are manually going through hundreds of pages of notes, our AI feature allows them to quickly get answers and ensure they’re not missing anything – all while having clearly cited sources to ensure accuracy.

With 550 agencies now on the platform, Binti has access to operational data that could identify trends across states. How do you see AI helping uncover system-wide insights that policymakers or agency leaders could use to drive reform?

With more than 550 agencies on the platform, we have a unique view into how child welfare systems operate across states – and where they struggle. Having access to consistent, high-quality data allows us to identify system-wide patterns, such as where outdated processes create delays, where approvals commonly get stuck, and how modern technology is associated with improved outcomes like placement stability and faster permanency.

There’s real value in being able to bring policymakers and agency leaders validated, data-backed evidence rather than anecdotes. That clarity can inform smarter reforms, modernize administrative structures, and make it easier for social workers to do their jobs. Ultimately, my hope is that technology serves as a catalyst for rethinking the child welfare experience – supporting the workforce and helping more children find safe, stable foster and adoptive homes faster.

Looking ahead, what is the most transformative AI capability you believe will reshape child welfare over the next five years—and what needs to happen to ensure that transformation benefits children, families, and front-line workers?

It’s really hard to pick one capability, but we’re excited about using agents to complete more of the administrative tasks that social workers hate doing, so they can focus on social work and not paperwork. We’ve already launched our AI-assisted case notes and form completion feature which has received lots of positive feedback from social workers, because they have an incredible amount of forms and paperwork they have to complete everyday. We really want to double down there and focus on AI capabilities that complete drafts of paperwork for social workers to free up hours every day for them to spend directly with children and families. This not only helps reduce social worker burnout driven by overwhelming administrative work, but also ensures that children and families receive more time, attention, and support from the social workers who support them.

Thank you for the great interview, readers who wish to learn more about how modern technology is transforming child welfare should visit Binti.