For three years, “AI for development” has been a conversation about possibility. Capability demonstrations. Pilot dashboards. Workshop slide decks.
A thousand experiments in a thousand offices, each producing one good output, each one ending with the same question: what would it take to do this at scale, and to do it in a way the sector can actually trust?
There wasn’t really a good answer to that question. Until now.
The conditions for serious AI in international development – workflows that scale, shared infrastructure, good governance with guardrails, accountability that communities can rely on – are within operational reach for the first time.
The technology is mature enough. The standards are emerging. The donor conversations have evolved. The institutions that need to coordinate are, increasingly, seeking each other out.
Please join this September’s ECOSYSTEM Summit in Barcelona to operate AI at scale.
Time to Get Serious
For AI in development, the technology is at a stage to be taken seriously. Structurally.
But for the sector to take proper advantage of the potential of AI and other technologies, this requires funders, frameworks and institutional leadership to be aligned.
Getting serious looks like:
- An NGO that adopts AI workflows with the same change-management discipline it applies to a new financial-controls system.
- A humanitarian organisation that uses AI to support frontline allocation decisions, not just to write the sitrep faster.
- A donor that asks the same questions of every AI tool in its portfolio and funds the institutional capacity to answer them.
- A research community that can deliver evidence at the speed operational decisions actually need.
- A sector that asks whose reality is encoded into its data – because AI that misrepresents the people it serves is not accountable, however well-audited.
Today, each of these is within reach. None of them is universal. Closing the gap between possible and universal is the work ahead.
ECOSYSTEM Summit in Barcelona
Three discussions over three days at the ECOSYSTEM Summit, taking place in Barcelona, from 16-18 September.
Day 1: AI 4 Development
Day 1 of the three-day programme convenes development agencies, donors, multilaterals, NGOs, foundations, researchers, data specialists, and technology partners.
Voices include the Gates Foundation, UNDP/IATI, World Bank, ONE Campaign, Mercy Corps, OpenAI, Google, J-PAL, GIZ Data Lab, CARE, Grand Challenges Canada, WFP, FAO, Digital Green, 60 Decibels, BAO Systems, and AidData — with donor participation from NORAD, FCDO, GIZ, and Sida.
At the core of the AI4D programme is the question for the IATI community and the broader sector about how to realise data’s full potential: how can AI improve development decisions and delivery while reinforcing transparency, accountability, data quality, and local agency?
Day 2: Ownership Economy
Day 2 of the Summit takes up the questions of who owns the data, who owns the model, who owns the upside, and who carries the risk when something breaks. As AI reshapes data, incentives and institutional power, what governance models can keep opportunity broadly distributed?
Engage with specialists from UN DESA, the London School of Economics, Social Economy Europe, Fairbnb, Ecosia and more.
Day 3: Trusted Commerce
Day 3 asks what standards, shared data rails and verification systems are needed for sustainability, procurement and measurable impact? While a single organisation can operate responsibly on its own, a sector cannot do so at scale on the basis of dozens of trustworthy islands that do not interoperate.
Sessions from Earthshot, Bureau Veritas, Bluesign, CommonShare, Traceability Lab and others will demonstrate that building something together isn’t just possible…it’s already happening.
Where Tools and Tribes meets Trust
Join us at ECOSYSTEM – Norrsken House, Barcelona, 16-18 September 2026.
AI4D. Ownership Economy. Trusted Commerce. Creating cross-sector relationships that turn fragmented innovation into something that really works, at scale. And laying the foundation for how to build economic systems that are intelligent, equitable and accountable.
Participants can attend any of the days as a stand-alone day or stay for the full ECOSYSTEM programme. Early bird pricing closes on June 30th.
