One year after its launch, the AI Skills Coalition has nearly tripled in size, from 25 founding partners to over 70 organizations worldwide. That rapid growth took centre stage at the coalition’s latest Coalition partners meeting, underscoring rising global demand for skills development focused on responsible artificial intelligence (AI).
The AI Skills Coalition was first put together by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2025. Since then, it has continued attracting big tech companies, consultancies, non-governmental organizations, United Nations agencies and learning providers as partners, united by a shared goal: making AI literacy accessible to all.
Partners describe the group’s strong growth as a signal of trust that ITU can provide a neutral platform to scale up positive AI impact.
Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Secretary General of ITU, noted the buzz around AI skills at the latest Davos forum: “AI was firmly in the spotlight, and so was the urgent need for skills. What is increasingly clear is that the AI skills gap is widening. If we do not act quickly and collectively, that gap will only grow.”
To date, the AI Skills Coalition has assembled more than 180 online training courses, contributed by partners from 80 countries, delivered in 13 languages, and reaching 20,000 learners – double the original target for the first year.
Covering everything from grade-school AI literacy to graduate-level learning, and from foundational concepts to AI uses for diplomats, the catalogue is designed as a one-stop shop for AI skilling.
New partners strengthen the ecosystem
The partners meeting also welcomed several new members, including the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), which brings one of the world’s largest AI and computing learning catalogues, and. EqualAI, aimed at helping companies, policymakers, and institutions implement effective AI governance frameworks.
Together, these additions were described as reinforcing a strong foundation for future growth – one where collaboration, rather than duplication, drives large-scale AI uptake globally.
Beyond online learning
While online courses remain central, in-person training is also a core offering. Over the past year, the coalition has delivered hands-on sessions worldwide on AI governance, AI for innovation, AI for negotiations, AI and open source, and AI and human rights.
Key in-person sessions have ranged from capacity-building during ITU Council meetings to teacher and student training in South Africa on responsible AI use, as well as a recent course for diplomats in New York.
Partner impact worldwide
Diverse partners ensure widespread impact on the ground.
AI Academy Asia, for example, has trained more than 2,100 educators, teachers and students through 17 AI programmes, delivering 241 AI capstone projects over the past year, mainly related to social impact initiatives. Alongside the organization’s long-running Girls Code programme in Mongolia, a national AI campaign trained 500 teachers last year and now reaches more than 10,000 students annually.
“We must move faster, amplify proven practices, and expand them at scale so that no one is left behind in the AI era,” Bogdan-Martin said at the recent partners meeting. “Through the AI Skills Coalition, we have a unique opportunity to focus on what works, reflect on the challenges, and to scale solutions that deliver real impact.”
Hands-on learning for youth
During the last UN General Assembly, ITU announced a USD 1 million joint project with Google, Giga, and musician and entrepreneur will.i.am (ITU’s designated AI Skills Coalition Ambassador) to train children in Africa in AI and robotics.
The initiative, with an initial rollout in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, builds on ITU’s Robotics for Good Youth Challenge, active in more than 70 countries.
In regions with limited connectivity, opportunities to learn and thrive in the digital economy are severely limited. For many children, this programme will offer their first chance to access the Internet, as well as build a robot and write lines of AI code.
What’s next
Looking ahead, new partnerships with HP and Coursera aim to further expand the coalition’s reach, putting AI for Good and Robotics for Good courses on a platform with more than 160 million users.
To support continued growth, the coalition’s steering committee has introduced different workstreams that partners and policymakers can prioritize:
- Partnerships, governance and advocacy
- Access and inclusion
- Standards and frameworks
AI skills and education will remain a pillar of ITU’s next AI for Good Global Summit, taking place from 7 to 10 July in Geneva.
Source: https://www.itu.int/hub/2026/02/ai-skills-coalition-growth-exceeding-high-expectations/
