Neural Network

AI for Good Impact Awards

Celebrating AI excellence for innovative solutions solving global challenges
Applications closed

The AI for Good Impact Awards Programme celebrates exceptional achievements in the field of AI, recognizing innovative and impactful AI solutions that contribute to global progress.

These awards honor outstanding contributions in three key categories: AI for People, AI for Planet, and AI for Prosperity. These categories recognize AI-driven initiatives that drive progress across key areas, including well-being, education, equality, environmental sustainability, economic growth, and innovation.

Applications are open to individual contributors, SMEs, large corporations, non-profit organizations, academic and research institutions, and government bodies.

Each category includes a General Award and a Pro Bono Collaboration Award, recognizing both individual and organizational contributions, as well as AI-powered partnerships between tech companies and changemakers. As part of this inaugural edition, the Pro Bono Collaboration Award will highlight projects where AI-driven partnerships address global challenges, celebrating impact-driven partnerships fueled by purpose, not profit.

By spotlighting transformative AI applications, the awards offer global recognition for impactful solutions that contribute to a better future for all. Winners will be honored at the AI for Good Awards Ceremony, held on 9 July 2025 during the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva.

Organized by

In partnership with

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tech-rescue

The AI for Good Impact Awards Programme celebrates exceptional achievements in the field of AI, recognizing innovative and impactful AI solutions that contribute to global progress.

These awards honor outstanding contributions in three key categories: AI for People, AI for Planet, and AI for Prosperity. These categories recognize AI-driven initiatives that drive progress across key areas, including well-being, education, equality, environmental sustainability, economic growth, and innovation.

Applications are open to individual contributors, SMEs, large corporations, non-profit organizations, academic and research institutions, and government bodies.

Each category includes a Main Award and a Pro-Bono Collaboration Award, recognizing both individual and organizational contributions, as well as AI-powered partnerships between tech companies and changemakers. As part of this inaugural edition, the Pro-Bono Collaboration Award will highlight projects where AI-driven partnerships address global challenges, celebrating impact-driven partnerships fueled by purpose, not profit.

By spotlighting transformative AI applications, the awards offer global recognition for impactful solutions that contribute to a more sustainable and equitable future. Winners will be honored at the AI for Good Awards Ceremony, held on 9 July 2025 during the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva.

Organized by

In partnership with

Awards categories

Discover the diverse categories honoring innovation and impact across various sectors.

AI for People

Recognizes AI-driven solutions that improve human well-being, advance education, promote equality, and enhance public health. From healthcare innovations and inclusive learning tools to AI applications that support marginalized communities, this category honors technologies that create meaningful, positive change in people’s lives. Internal developments, commercial and pro bono collaborations are welcome in this category.

AI for Planet

Honors AI solutions that drive environmental sustainability and protect natural ecosystems. From AI-powered modeling and renewable energy optimization to conservation efforts and resource management, this category recognizes innovations that contribute to a healthier planet for future generations. Internal developments, commercial and pro bono collaborations are welcome in this category.

AI for Prosperity

Celebrates AI initiatives that foster economic growth, industry innovation, and social progress. Recognizing technologies that enhance access to opportunities, improve infrastructure, and support sustainable development, this category highlights AI’s role in building resilient economies and promoting inclusive prosperity worldwide. Internal developments, commercial and pro bono collaborations are welcome in this category.

Judging criteria
  • Innovation
    The solution introduces unique or innovative AI applications, technologies, or approaches to address key challenges
  • Impact
    The solution delivers measurable societal, environmental, or economic benefits with clear positive outcomes
  • Sustainability
    The solution ensures long-term viability, scalability, and efficient resource use
  • Contribution to Global Challenges
    The solution clearly aligns with the selected category and contribute to its objectives
  • Ethical Considerations
    The solution adheres to ethical AI principles, including transparency, respect for privacy, and clear accountability in its design and deployment

Awards Timeline

  • March
    Awards launch

    Call for applications

    13 March

  • May
    Submission phase

    Submission deadline

    15 May

  • May - June
    Evaluation phase

    Screening & shortlisting phase

    16 May - 5 June

  • June
    Finalists announcement

    Finalists announced

    9 June

    Presentation of the finalists to the public & final judging

    9 - 30 June

  • July
    Winners announcement

    Awards ceremony during the AI for Good Global Summit.

    Finalists invited to attend the ceremony as winners will be announced on 9 July.

Applications closed
General Awards Panel
Bilel Jamoussi
Deputy Director of TSB & Chief, Study Groups & Policy Department (SPD)
,
International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
<p class="ai-optimize-6 ai-optimize-introduction">Dr Bilel Jamoussi, a distinguished engineer and diplomat, is the Deputy Director of ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau and Chief, Study Groups & Policy Department (SPD) in Geneva, Switzerland.</p> <p class="ai-optimize-7">His primary mission is to establish the international standards essential for ensuring global telecommunications and ICT interoperability, promote universal, meaningful connectivity and champion sustainable digital transformation.</p> <p class="ai-optimize-8">Key achievements under his tenure have been important new standards, ensuring increased industry engagement, bolstering cooperation with other standardization bodies, as well as leading in emerging tech discussions and building strategic partnerships.</p> <p class="ai-optimize-9">Before 2010, he held executive roles, including Director of Standards for Nortel, and contributed to over 90 international standards bodies. With a PhD in Computer Engineering from Pennsylvania State University, he is an IEEE Senior Member and has served on the IEEESA Board of Governors. A key voice in the global ICT arena, he is a regular keynote speaker at events like the Global Cybersecurity Forum and is frequently interviewed by top media outlets.</p> <p class="ai-optimize-10">Fluent in Arabic, French, and English, with knowledge in Spanish and German, Bilel's global perspective has been shaped by living and working in Tunisia, Canada, the USA, and Switzerland.</p>
Lan Xue
Distinguished Professor and Dean
,
Schwarzman College Tsinghua University
Dr. Lan Xue is a Distinguished Professor and Dean at Schwarzman College Tsinghua University. His teaching and research interests include global governance, crisis management, and science, technology and innovation policy. From 2000 to 2018, he served as Associate Dean, Executive Associate Dean and Dean of the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University.  He also holds adjunct positions at Carnegie Mellon University and the Brookings Institution. Dr. Xue advises the State Council, chairs China's National Expert Committee on Next Generation AI governance, and is a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese Association of Science and Technology. Internationally, he serves on the UN Sustainable Development Solution Network board, UN Committee of Experts on Public Administration, and UN Internet Governance Forum Leadership Panel. Dr. Xue is a recipient of Distinguished Young Scholar Award from National Natural Science Foundation of China, Cheung Kong Chair Distinguished Professor of the Ministry of Education, the Fudan Distinguished Contribution Award for Management Science, the Distinguished Contribution Award from Chinese Association for Science of Science and S&T Policy, and the Second National Award for Excellence in Innovation in China. He holds a PhD in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University.
Abby Daniell
Director - Worldwide Public Sector
,
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
As the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Director for the International Organizations team, Abby Daniell is the executive responsible for the team that drives the digital transformation of organizations such as the United Nations, European Commission, and World Bank. Prior to this role, Abby led the AWS Latin America, Canada and Caribbean public sector programs team responsible for implementing workforce development, diversity and inclusion, disaster preparedness, sustainability, cybersecurity, and other programs in the Latin America, Canada and Caribbean markets. With more than 25 years of global private and public sector business experience, she manages AWS teams that enable public sector organizations to expand globally. Abby is quoted in international press and speaks at public sector and industry events regarding cloud technologies and education, innovation, and workforce development. She previously worked as the commercial director at the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica where she formed part of the management team and assisted U.S. companies doing business in Latin America. Before joining the U.S. Embassy, Abby was the associate publisher of The Tico Times, Central America’s leading English-language newspaper. She represented the newspaper at the Inter-American Press Association. She lived and worked in Costa Rica for two decades and is a fluent Spanish-speaking professional. Abby moved to Costa Rica after working as a communications director on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. for a member of congress from Seattle, Washington. She holds a Master of Business Administration from The George Washington University School of Business in Washington, D.C. and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Washington in Seattle. Abby loves the outdoors and is an avid hiker, runner, and PADI certified Open Water Diver. She has served on several nonprofit boards of directors, including the Costa Rican North America Cultural Center.
Juan Lavista Ferres
Corporate Vice President & Chief Data Scientist, AI for Good Lab
,
Microsoft
Juan M, Lavista Ferres is currently the Chief Scientist and Lab Director of the Microsoft AI For Good Research Lab, where he works with a team of data scientists and researchers in AI, Machine Learning and statistical modeling, working across Microsoft AI For Good efforts. These efforts includes projects in AI For Earth, AI for Humanitarian Action, AI For Accessibility and AI For Health. Juan joined Microsoft in 2009 to work for the Microsoft Experimentation Platform (EXP) where he designed and ran randomized control experiments across different Microsoft groups. Juan also worked as part of the Bing Data Mining team, where he led a group applying data mining, machine learning, statistical modeling and online experimentation at a large scale as well as providing data services for Bing. Juan started the Microsoft efforts related to SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome), and his work has been published in top academic Journals including Pediatrics. His work has been covered in New York Times, CNN, Chicago Tribune, USNews, USAToday , and over 100 news outlets around the world. Juan is involved in working to define the data science discipline within Microsoft, and is currently the editor of the Microsoft Journal of Applied Research (MSJAR). Before joining Microsoft, Juan was the CTO and co-founder of alerts.com. Previously, he spent 6 years in Washington working at the InterAmerican Development Bank applying data science to understand the impact of programs for reducing poverty and inequality in Latin-America and the Caribbean. Juan has two computer science degrees from the Catholic University in Uruguay, and a graduate degree in Data Mining and Machine Learning from Johns Hopkins University. He lives in Kirkland, WA, with his wife and three children. He has been a speaker in the US at Strata, IEEE, Berkeley, Cornell, and in many countries including Canada, Switzerland, Argentina, Colombia , Costa Rica, and Uruguay, and he also was a TedX Speaker.
Pro Bono Award Panel
Jacek Siadkowski
Co-Founder and CEO
,
Tech To The Rescue (TTTR)
Jacek Siadkowski is the Co-Founder and CEO of Tech To The Rescue (TTTR), a nonprofit foundation and a global movement connecting technology companies ready to work pro-bono with nonprofits to solve critical social challenges. With over 8 years of experience as a social entrepreneur, Jacek has led efforts to bridge the tech and social impact sectors. Under his leadership, TTTR has grown into a network of over 1,500 tech companies offering pro bono support and 2,000 nonprofits with impactful projects, delivering innovative solutions for poverty, healthcare, education, and climate action across 100+ countries. Named one of Forbes’ 30 young Poles changing the world, Jacek is also an Ashoka Fellow and LinkedIn Top Voice, recognized for inspiring global audiences.
Mary Jacques
Executive Director, Global ESG and Regulatory Compliance
,
Lenovo
Mary leads the corporate organization responsible for driving Lenovo’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and Regulatory Compliance programs. In her role, Mary advances Lenovo’s ESG strategy, performance and governance through her regulatory expertise, vision and passion for sustainability. Under Mary’s leadership, Lenovo became the first PC company with SBTi-validated net-zero targets and has garnered industry-leading ESG recognition including AAA ratings from MSCI. Mary oversees programs supporting the transition to a circular economy, climate change mitigation, ESG risk management and regulatory disclosures. Mary is most proud of her success in developing a diverse and thriving team focused on promoting meaningful and lasting change, establishing strong ESG governance structures and KPIs, building robust compliance programs in a highly dynamic regulatory environment, and supporting award-winning ESG reporting. Mary began her career as an engineer with IBM’s Corporate Environmental Affairs organization within its Engineering Center for Environmentally Conscious Products. She then served as the Environmental, Health, and Safety Risk Manager at MIT before joining Lenovo. Her commitment to building organizations dedicated to sustainability and compliance has been the touchstone of her career. Mary earned a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science and Policy and a Master of Environmental Management in Resource Economics and Policy, both from Duke University
Christopher Fabian
Co-Founder
,
UNICEF's Innovation Unit
Christopher Fabian is a technologist who co-founded UNICEF's Innovation Unit in 2006 with Erica Kochi. He currently runs UNICEF Ventures, a team which looks at emerging technologies in the service of positive global change. In 2015, he led the launch of UNICEF's Venture Fund, the first fund of its kind in the United Nations which invests in early stage "frontier technology" like drones, data science, machine learning, crypto-currency, 3D printing, nano satellites, and genetics. The Innovation Fund (11.2M$) has made over 30 investments in 26 countries.  Chris's teams have worked on infrastructure platforms for low infrastructure environments, including award winning work on RapidPro, an SMS-based information system with more than 3.5M active users in 35 countries. Chris is currently focused on scaling UNICEF's work on data science and drones.  UNICEF Ventures has invested in "Magic Box," an open source data analytics platform that combines data and engineering from companies like Amadeus, IBM, Google, Telefonica, and others to produce insights and new scientific methods that help the organization make better real-time decisions.  Chris lectures at universities including NYU, Tsinghua, and Singularity at NASA..  In 2013 he was recognized as one of TIME Magazine's "100 Most Influential People."
Najwa Aaraj
CEO
,
Technology Innovation Institute (TII)
Dr. Najwa Aaraj is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Technology Innovation Institute (TII), the applied research pillar of the Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), the overarching advanced technology body in Abu Dhabi responsible for driving research and development for transformative technology outcomes. Previously to her role as CEO, Dr. Aaraj was the Chief Researcher at the Cryptography Research Center (CRC) and the Autonomous Robotics Research Center (ARRC) TII. Dr. Aaraj earned a PhD with Highest Distinction in Applied Cryptography and Embedded Systems Security from Princeton University (USA). She has extensive expertise in applied cryptography, trusted platforms, security architecture for embedded systems, software exploit detection and prevention systems, and biometrics. She also specializes in shaping the robotics and self-organized autonomous vehicles ecosystem in the UAE and beyond - exploring their application across air, land, on-sea and underwater. She has over 18 years of experience with global firms, working in multiple geographies from Australia to the United States. Before joining TII, Dr. Aaraj was Senior Vice President of Products & Cryptography Development at DarkMatter, a cyber-security leader based in the UAE. She was formerly at Booz & Company, where she led consulting engagements in the communication and technology industry for clients globally. She also held a Research Fellow position with the Embedded Systems Security Group at IBM T.J. Watson Security Research in New York State, and with the Intel Security Research Group in Portland, Oregon, where she worked on Trusted Platform Modules and contributed to an early prototype of a TPM 2.0 based firmware. She also was a Research Staff Member at NEC Laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey. Dr. Aaraj has written multiple conference papers, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) journal papers and book chapters, and received patents on applied cryptography, embedded system security, and machine learning-based protection of Internet of Things (IoT) systems. Dr. Aaraj is on the advisory board of New York-based Neutigers, a leading-edge startup revolutionising the next generation of energy/latency-efficient artificial intelligence (AI). She is also Adviser within the Strategic Advisory Group at Paladin Capital Group (Cyber Venture Capital) and Adjunct Professor at the Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (Machine Learning Research Group). In addition, she is an Adviser to multiple security and Machine Learning startups including Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University. She is also a board member of Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB). She received a Special Recognition award at the Arab Woman Awards 2021, held in partnership with the United Nations to recognise the notable achievements of the region’s women. Additionally, Dr. Aaraj received the Wu Prize of Research Excellence from Princeton University.
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Harness the power of AI to create compelling visual representations of your vision for a better future. Submissions are open until 15 May 12:00 CEST. The winner will be invited to attend and showcase their work at the AI for Good Global Summit 2025, taking place in Geneva from 8-11 July.

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AI for Good Film Festival

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Innovation Factory

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FAQsFrequently Asked Questions

Who can apply for the AI for Good Impact Awards?

The awards are open to individuals, SMEs, large corporations, non-profit organizations, academic institutions, and government bodies from around the world. Applicants must be at least 18 years old.

Can we apply if our project is still in the design phase or only an MVP?

Yes. While it’s beneficial to have a fully working solution, early-stage projects such as MVPs (Minimum Viable Products) are welcome to apply, provided you can clearly articulate the potential impact (backed by initial results) and innovation of your solution.

Can one organization submit multiple projects?

One organization can submit more than one application, providing they submit different projects to different categories.

I developed this project with partners or collaborators. Who should submit the application?

Collaborative projects are welcome. The primary applicant should be the organization or individual representing the project throughout the awards process. You can and should credit all relevant collaborators in your application. They will all be equally recognized as finalists or winners should your project be selected. Only the entity applying will be eligible to receive the physical trophy at the award ceremony.

What needs to be included in the application?

Your application should include a detailed description of your project, measured impact of your solution, supporting documentation, and any optional multimedia materials (e.g., pitch decks, demo videos). All applications must be submitted in English.

What are the award categories?

There are three award categories: AI for People, AI for Planet, and AI for Prosperity, each focusing on the ethical and impactful use of AI for societal benefit. In each category there are two awards: a General Award and a Pro Bono Collaboration Award.

How many winners will be selected? Is there one per category?

Yes, typically, there will be one winner per category. The exact number may vary at the discretion of the organizers.

How are submissions judged?

Projects are evaluated by a panel of experts on innovation, impact, scalability, sustainability, relevance to global challenges, and ethical considerations. A weighted scoring rubric is used to ensure fairness.

Do I need to attend the event in person to receive an award?

Finalists are highly encouraged to attend the AI for Good Global Summit, but presence at the event is not mandatory to receive an award.

What is the Pro Bono Award?

This award recognizes outstanding voluntary collaborations in which individuals or organizations offer their services, expertise, or technology solutions for free to a nonprofit, social enterprise, or public interest initiative.

What qualifies as a pro bono project?

Projects must be provided without financial compensation and with the primary aim of creating social impact. You must clearly explain the scope, roles, and outcomes of the pro bono collaboration in your application.

What qualifies a project for the awards?

Eligible projects must:

  • Incorporate AI as a core component
  • Align with a specific global challenge
  • Be an existing solution with a proven impact (can be an MVP with results and
    potential for scaling)

What if I don’t have demo videos or documents yet?

That’s okay. Explain your current solution and impact via the application form. Your narrative around design, collaboration, and impact is also highly valuable. A link to a working MVP or solution is also an excellent asset.

What do winners receive?

Awardees will receive:

  • A trophy and formal recognition
  • Visibility and promotion through AI for Good and Tech To The Rescue channels

Will I retain ownership of my project and materials?

Yes. You keep full ownership of your IP. However, by submitting, you grant the organizers the right to use your materials for promotional purposes, with appropriate credit.

Where can I find the official rules and deadlines?

You can read the full Terms and Conditions here.
Submission opens: 13 March 2025
Deadline: 15 May 2025 at 23:59 CEST

Who can I contact for support?

For technical help or questions, email: aiawards@itu.int