Pre-Conference Workshop A6
A6 - The Judgement Reset: AI, Accountability and Institutional Agency for UN and International Organisations
Date Wednesday, 2 Dec Time – Status: places available
Participation is free of charge for representatives of United Nations entities and intergovernmental organisations. Applicants from other organisations are welcome to apply; places are subject to approval and, if accepted, a participation fee of €95 will apply.
A pre-conference workshop for United Nations and international organisation learning leaders.
As AI increasingly performs analysis, drafting and synthesis at institutional scale, can organisations retain agency over the decisions for which they remain accountable? Convened by the United Nations System Staff College as part of OEB’s “Sovereign Learning” strand, this workshop treats institutional judgement as a leadership capability that must be deliberately developed, rather than a quality that can simply be assumed.
Every AI adoption decision is also a delegation decision: something is kept in human hands, something is augmented and something is handed over. Too often, these choices accumulate through individual workflows rather than being made deliberately at institutional level. Participants will examine the “keep, augment or delegate” decision through two connected lenses: the integrity of the institutional mandate and the wider costs associated with automated systems, including their environmental footprint and the potential erosion of human judgement.
The workshop brings together learning leaders from the UN system, international organisations and European institutions. Although they operate under different forms of accountability, from mandate oversight to binding regulation, they face a common challenge: how to make AI adoption decisions that can be explained, reconstructed and defended.
UNSSC’s system-wide learning mandate makes it uniquely placed to convene this discussion. The workshop will also draw on the UN Learning Managers Forum, a community of more than 350 learning professionals from across the UN system.
Participants will contribute to a first shared decision standard for determining what should be kept, augmented or delegated. They will also identify a practical commitment to take back to their own organisation and establish connections through which the work can continue. The outcomes will inform related sessions during OEB and further discussion within the UN Learning Managers Forum.
Provisional Agenda:
- Institutional judgement in an age of AI
- Applying the “keep, augment or delegate” framework
- Accountability, procurement and environmental footprint
- Developing a shared decision standard
- Organisational commitments and next step
Target Audience: Heads of Learning and Development, organisational learning and talent leaders, senior leadership development professionals, and policy and governance leaders from the United Nations system, international organisations and European institutions.
Target Audience Sectors: United Nations system, international organisations, European institutions, intergovernmental organisations and the public sector.
Prerequisite Knowledge: Participants should have responsibility for organisational learning, leadership development, talent, governance or institutional capability. No technical AI expertise is required.
Expected Outcomes:
Participants will:
- Understand institutional AI adoption as a series of decisions about what should be kept, augmented or delegated;
- Apply the framework against mandate integrity, accountability and environmental footprint;
- Compare approaches across United Nations, international organisation and European institutional contexts;
- Contribute to a first shared decision standard;
- Identify a practical commitment to implement within their own organisation;
- Establish peer connections through which the work can continue.