Guy Ryder – AI For Good Global Leaders Spotlight

The UN Leader Building the Global Rules for the AI Age

Artificial intelligence is advancing faster than the institutions designed to govern it. Bridging that gap has become one of the defining challenges of international cooperation. Few people are more central to that effort than Guy Ryder. He serves as United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Policy in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General.

Governments everywhere are searching for common approaches to AI governance. Ryder is helping translate the United Nations’ vision into practical multilateral action. His portfolio includes implementing the landmark Pact for the Future and Global Digital Compact. It also covers advancing the UN’s new architecture for AI governance. That work sits at the intersection of diplomacy, technology, human rights, and sustainable development.

His participation in the AI for Good Global Summit 2026 comes at a pivotal moment. The Summit follows immediately after the inaugural UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance. The Dialogue is the first United Nations platform of its kind. It brings together all Member States alongside industry, academia, civil society, and the technical community. Its purpose is to discuss how artificial intelligence should be governed for the benefit of humanity. Together, these back-to-back gatherings represent an important milestone in the evolution of global AI cooperation.

From the World of Work to the Future of Multilateralism

Guy Ryder’s career has consistently focused on one central question: how can international cooperation improve people’s lives?

Before joining the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, Ryder served two terms as Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO). There he led the UN agency responsible for advancing decent work, workers’ rights, and social justice. His tenure spanned a period of profound economic and technological change.

Earlier, he served as the first General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). That role gave him decades of experience navigating the complex relationship between governments, business, workers, and international institutions. Today, that same consensus-building experience informs his work on the world’s most consequential emerging policy challenges. Artificial intelligence sits at the top of that list.

Turning Global Commitments into Action

Many global discussions focus on AI’s technological capabilities. Ryder’s responsibility is institutional: ensuring that the international system is prepared for the profound societal changes AI will bring.

He leads follow-up to the Pact for the Future, adopted by UN Member States in 2024. The Pact called for stronger international cooperation on emerging technologies. It also laid the foundation for new global AI governance mechanisms. He also oversees implementation of the Secretary-General’s policy agenda across the UN system. That means ensuring coherence between human rights, sustainable development, peace and security, digital cooperation, and economic policy.

That work reflects an understanding that AI cannot be governed in isolation. Decisions about technology increasingly shape employment, education, healthcare, security, trade, climate resilience, and democracy itself.

Building an Inclusive Global AI Framework

One of Ryder’s most significant contributions has been helping establish the institutional foundations for international AI governance.

The Global Dialogue on AI Governance creates, for the first time, a recurring UN forum for artificial intelligence. Within it, all 193 Member States can deliberate on the opportunities and risks of AI. They do so alongside experts from industry, science, and civil society. The Dialogue works in parallel with the UN’s Independent International Scientific Panel on AI. It is designed to ensure that AI governance reflects the perspectives of the entire international community. Governance cannot serve only the priorities of technologically advanced countries.

Why Multilateral Leadership Matters

Artificial intelligence is often described as a global technology. Yet its development has been concentrated within a relatively small number of countries and companies.

Ryder has consistently argued that the international community must avoid a future in which AI deepens existing inequalities between nations. Inclusive governance, capacity-building, international standards, and stronger multilateral cooperation will all be essential. Without them, developing countries risk simply consuming AI’s products rather than participating meaningfully in the AI economy.

This commitment to inclusivity reflects a broader vision of multilateralism. It seeks to make global institutions more responsive to rapidly evolving technological realities. At the same time, it remains grounded in the principles of the United Nations Charter.

Why His Leadership Matters

The world’s AI conversation often focuses on frontier models, breakthrough technologies, and commercial competition.

Guy Ryder’s work reminds us that another race is equally important. It is the race to build institutions capable of governing those technologies responsibly.

The United Nations is entering a new era of AI governance. Ryder is helping shape the mechanisms through which governments can cooperate across geopolitical divides. Those mechanisms translate shared principles into practical action. They aim to ensure that artificial intelligence advances sustainable development rather than widening global disparities.

At the AI for Good Global Summit, his presence underscores a fundamental reality. The future of AI will depend not only on technological innovation. It will depend on the strength of the multilateral institutions that guide it.