Harnessing the Power of AI to Advance Social Progress

8-11 July 2025 – Geneva: The AI for Good Summit, held from 8-11 July hosted by ITU, brought together over 11,000 participants from 169 countries to explore how AI can drive real-world solutions to global challenges. This year’s Summit showcased the power of collective innovation, proving that when we come together, AI can truly serve humanity.

One key outcome of the Summit was the launch of the AI for Good Innovate for Impact Report. This report features AI solutions across sectors such as healthcare, education, digital inclusion, and climate resilience using 160 use cases submitted from 32 countries. The initiative fosters collaboration across industry, academia, government, civil society, and UN entities, promoting inclusive and responsible AI deployment. Covering eleven key domains, the report highlights regional innovation, lessons learned, and real-world applications, offering a comprehensive view of AI’s impact and a strategic outlook for future work.

Among the numerous cases featured in the report, the following four stand out as powerful examples of AI solutions advancing social progress across key domains:

Healthcare & Aging:

AI Senior Care Contents: Ensuring Joy and Cognitive Enhancement for Seniors (South Korea)

• Aims to address emotional and physical challenges faced by seniors in super-aged societies due to social isolation, limited access to digital services, and lack of caregiving support.
• Delivers personalized AI wellness and cognitive content (music, memory games, exercise) to older persons via avatars in senior centers.
• Offers real-time conversational AI companions with health monitoring, integrated with smartwatches for fall detection and alerts.
• Deployed 36+ senior centers in Korea with pilots in Japan; co-developed with universities and public health agencies.

Gender Equality & Digital Literacy:

UN Women AI School (Thailand)

• Aims to ensure women and feminist leaders are equipped with the knowledge, skills, resources and enabling environments to actively shape the development and use of AI.
• Provides participants with hands-on AI training to build tools for advocacy, policymaking, and humanitarian work.
• Offers customized tracks for the public, policymakers, and UN staff, including custom GPTs and no-code tools.
• Trained 1000+ participants in 2024; aims to reach 1200 more in 2025.

Education in Crisis Contexts:

AI-Powered Offline Learning for Higher Education in Crisis Zones (Palestine)

• Addresses the disruption of higher education due to war-induced infrastructure damage and the lack of power, internet, and devices.
• Deploys AI servers that host full learning platforms offline, accessible via local Wi-Fi mesh networks.
• Enables uninterrupted, personalized learning in regions with power outages, internet shutdowns, and conflict disruption.
• Features AI tutors, auto-grading, and localized content for 5000+ students; planning to scale to 20,000.

Accessibility & Digital Inclusion:

Bridging the Digital Gap: AI Sign Language Interpretation Solution (China)

• Addresses the severe shortage of certified sign language interpreters in China and communication inequality for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.
• Uses digital avatars and advanced AI to deliver real-time, bidirectional sign language translation across platforms.
• Trained on 10M+ natural sign samples, achieving 98% speech recognition accuracy and 98.5% in sign-language fidelity.
• Deployed in hospitals, banks, classrooms, and the 2022 Winter Olympics; supports live streams, kiosks, and WeChat.

These use cases underscore the potential of AI in advancing key social progress challenges faced globally. While many technical, governance, and infrastructural gaps may still exist, these examples demonstrate that meaningful, people-centered innovation is already underway. By addressing underrepresented needs, from aging populations to educational access in conflict zones, these AI solutions show how technology can be harnessed to promote inclusion and equity.

Access the full report here.