An international movement is picking up steam to democratize Artificial Intelligence (AI) education and shape next generation innovators. Riding on the back of a “perfect storm” of computer-processing power, data storage and collection, and Big Data.
The AI Skills Coalition, led by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), is a bold effort to help close the growing gap in AI skills and to make available opportunities to be part of this transformative field to anyone who wants in, in any country they live in.
AI Skills Coalition: Established in March 2025, the AI Skills Coalition has quickly morphed into a powerful alliance – with members from governments, companies like Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, academic institutions like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – and is expanding rapidly to include UNDP and other international organizations.
The coalition is founded on the belief that as AI plays an ever-greater role in shaping the world, ensuring access to AI education is not just a nice-to-have, but essential for sustainable growth and development.
A major part of the coalition’s strategy is an open online platform it’s rolling out and establishing as a central home for AI learning resources. This platform provides a dynamic training catalogue that includes self-paced courses, webinars, and access to face-to-face and hybrid workshops.
With content ranging from the basics to help you understand that machine learning doesnt need to be intimidating, to advanced topics in natural language processing, computer vision, and generative AI, each course offers students of all experience levels an opportunity to learn how AI can solve a myriad of problems. The work very much emphasizes making basic resources available for free, available for low cost, advanced certification work.
The coalition is especially aiming to target underrepresented communities, such as women, youth, and individuals with disabilities, who usually don’t get as much representation in the tech industry.
Custom tailored for local languages while being available in accessible mediums, the AI Skills Coalition seeks to eliminate barriers and promote diversity in the AI talent pool.
In her address to the coalition’s inaugural meeting, ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin stressed the need to ensure that everyone is connected to AI opportunities, including the billions of people around the world who still lack access to the Internet.
She remarked that the real indicator of progress will be the count of lives and livelihoods re-made by new AI skillsets.
The AI Skills Coalition has a target for giving at least 10,000 people across the world a foundation in AI skills by the end of 2025. The coalition is doing this by engaging partners and bringing stakeholders from across all works of life to share expertise and resources.
Next the AI Skills Coalition will host more interdisciplinary in-person workshops and lift the lid on new projects at the ITU’s AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, Switzerland, this July. The grand final of the Global Robotics for Good Youth Challenge will also take place at this event, inspiring the next generation of roboticists.
The AI Skills Coalition is a key step towards a future where AI innovation is powered by a tech workforce that is diverse and truly reflective of the world in which we live across the globe which is essential to ensuring the transformative benefits of this powerful tool are fully realised for all.
