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Call for Partners and Advisors
UNDP is seeking partners and advisors to help shape, connect and scale the ecosystem of skills, services and tools needed for AI diffusion.
We are looking for organizations and experts that can bring relevant expertise, networks, market access, demand, investment perspectives or other capabilities to help identify promising approaches, connect them to users and markets, and inform the Programme’s first activities.
This is a partnership and advisory call, not a funding or procurement call. Organizations do not need to have developed an AI tool or service to express interest.
EXPRESS YOUR INTEREST
Expressions of interest close 30 October 2026.
AI does not diffuse by models alone. Trustworthy AI needs testers, evaluators, adapters and local implementers. This work is an opportunity for job creation.
AI systems do not perform equally well across every language, sector or operating environment. As AI is adopted into new sectors, institutions and communities, additional work is needed to make it effective and trusted in practice. AI systems need to be tested and evaluated, adapted to local languages and contexts, configured for certain sectors and workflows, and monitored and maintained over time.
Together with partners in the 100 Diffusion Pathways by 2030, UNDP recognizes that better models do not automatically produce better outcomes. People are still needed to make AI function in the real world; AI models themselves are just the beginning.
AI Diffusion is the work of turning what AI can do into meaningful value for people.
This challenge depends on locally available capabilities that help AI systems perform reliably and responsibly. Today, the people, services and tools that provide those capabilities are not equally available everywhere. Many remain concentrated in a relatively small number of technology markets. The necessary resources are often costly to access, or have not yet been developed for the languages, sectors and contexts where adoption is happening.
About the Programme
The AI Hub for Sustainable Development and the UNDP AI Trust and Safety Re-imagination Programme are developing the AI Diffusion Jobs and Tools Programme to strengthen this capability layer and expand where the jobs, services and economic value created around AI diffusion can develop.
The Programme is being designed around a simple premise: promising AI diffusion capabilities are already emerging, including from young people, start-ups, researchers, professional communities and public-interest organizations, but many of them struggle to reach the businesses, institutions, sectors and markets that could benefit from them.
The Programme will work with partners and advisors to better understand where demand is emerging, identify promising tools, services and workforce capabilities, connect relevant actors across markets and sectors, and develop practical approaches for strengthening the ecosystem around AI diffusion.
This includes understanding which skills and professional roles are critical, where important capability gaps remain, which tools and services show potential, what is preventing promising approaches from reaching wider markets, and what kinds of partnerships can help these capabilities scale, while retaining local participation and value.
The Programme will not provide direct funding through this call. It is being developed around non-financial collaboration, expertise, networks, market connections and programme-design partnerships.
Building the capabilities and jobs behind AI diffusion
As AI diffuses more widely, demand will grow for this work, creating new jobs, services and business opportunities. AI evaluators, localization and language specialists, sector experts, trainers, assurance providers and technical service firms can provide the capabilities organizations increasingly need to make AI fit-for-purpose. They will also ensure it remains compliant as it diffuses into existing systems and data environments.
The missing market of expertise
Read UNDP's insights on the ecosystem of skills and services needed for AI diffusion.
Cars did not scale because everyone learned to build engines. They scaled because mechanics, inspectors and service organizations grew around them. AI is at the same inflection point.
This labour market is already emerging. LinkedIn’s 2026 global labour market report found that 1.3 million new AI-enabled jobs had emerged globally over the previous two years.
Across the 18 partner countries of the Italy–Africa Mattei Plan, where the AI Hub for Sustainable Development works, young founders, researchers and implementers are already contributing to this capability layer. They are training and evaluating models in languages including Amharic, Kinyarwanda, Luganda, Swahili and Arabic dialects; building benchmarks and local test sets; deploying systems on low-cost devices where connectivity cannot be assumed; and training the health workers, extension officers and teachers who use them.
These examples show that capabilities are already emerging. The challenge is how to connect promising tools, services and skills to sustained demand, wider markets and pathways to scale.
Tools, datasets, benchmarks and other resources make this work easier, more reliable, more affordable and more scalable. They can enable more professionals and organizations to provide services such as AI evaluation, localization, sector adaptation and assurance in their own markets.
Local knowledge is an essential part of this capability layer. Languages, regulations, institutional environments, user needs and existing systems differ across contexts. Making AI work in those settings requires people and organizations that understand those realities from the inside.
Where this capability layer develops matters
The countries and markets in which these jobs, services and capabilities develop shape who participates in AI diffusion and who captures the value created. These areas overlap, and relevant work may span more than one.
There is already a substantial gap in AI adoption across countries. Microsoft's 2026 Global AI Diffusion Report found AI usage among the working-age population at 27.5 percent in the Global North, compared with 15.4 percent in the Global South, with the gap continuing to widen.
Closing that divide will require more than access to AI technologies. If the capabilities needed to adapt, evaluate and integrate AI remain concentrated in a small number of markets, the jobs, services and economic value created around AI diffusion will concentrate there as well.
This matters particularly in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, where small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make up more than 90 percent of businesses and many widely spoken languages remain underrepresented in digital and AI systems. SMEs are rarely able to build all these capabilities in-house, while language and contextual adaptation depend on local knowledge and expertise.
Expanding access to local tools, services and skills can allow more businesses, institutions and professionals to participate in AI diffusion and retain more of the value created around it.
Capability areas the Programme will focus on
The Programme will focus on capabilities that help AI systems work effectively, reliably and responsibly across different contexts, while supporting local agency and value creation.
AI evaluation, safety, reliability and assurance
This includes the tools, services and methods that help organizations test AI systems, understand how they perform both before and after deployment, identify potential risks or harms, and identify when outputs become inaccurate, inconsistent or otherwise unsuitable for their intended use. This may include evaluation and assurance platforms, testing methodologies, benchmarks, monitoring tools, safeguard tools, services that assess performance across different settings or over time, AI evaluation services or other approaches that help organizations assess whether an AI system is appropriate for a particular use.
Localization and contextual adaptation
Tools, services and expertise that help AI work across different languages, cultural contexts and operating environments. This may include language datasets, evaluation by linguists and other local experts, tools for testing AI in underserved languages, or services that help organizations adapt AI systems to local institutional and regulatory requirements.
Sector adaptation and integration
Tools and services that help organizations adapt and integrate AI for certain sectors, institutions and use cases. This may include sector-specific testing resources, technical services that adapt AI applications for fields such as health, law or public services, or approaches that help organizations incorporate AI into existing workflows.
Who this call is for
Ecosystem and network partners
Organizations that can identify promising tools, services, training initiatives and practitioners; reach relevant professional or industry communities; and connect the Programme with existing innovation, professional and practitioner ecosystems.
Technical and sector advisors
Organizations and experts with relevant knowledge of AI evaluation, assurance, localization, systems integration, workforce development, regulatory requirements, or specific sectors and operating environments.
Demand and deployment partners
Organizations that can help identify concrete institutional or market needs, connect promising capabilities with potential users, and create pathways for testing, adoption and wider use.
Market, investment and scaling partners
Organizations with experience in investment, market development, entrepreneurship, commercialization or scaling that can help the Programme understand what is required for promising AI diffusion capabilities to move from individual projects toward sustained demand and viable markets.
Potential partners and advisors could include professional communities and bodies, research networks, universities and training institutions, technology companies, industry and business associations, innovation hubs and accelerator programmes, investors and foundations, public institutions, development organizations and other organizations working with industries, innovators or practitioners involved in evaluating, adapting, integrating or assuring AI systems.
Partners and advisors do not need to have developed a tool or service themselves. Some organizations may also have their own relevant tool, resource, service or training initiative that they wish to contribute or help scale through the Programme.
Organizations may contribute in more than one way. For example, a university may bring research expertise and access to emerging talent while also identifying relevant tools or training programmes; an industry association may help surface market demand and connect the Programme with firms in its network; a technology company may contribute technical expertise, mentors or pathways for promising capabilities to reach new users; and an investor or foundation may bring insight into financing and scaling promising capabilities.
What we are looking for in partners
Strong expressions of interest should explain:
- How you could contribute to the Programme, including the expertise, networks, resources, market access or other capabilities you could bring.
- Where you have relevant experience, including countries, sectors, professional communities or markets in which you currently work.
- What you are seeing in the AI diffusion ecosystem, including emerging demand, capability gaps, promising tools or services, workforce needs or barriers to scale.
- Who you could help connect, including practitioners, institutions, users, investors, professional communities or other relevant actors.
- Relevant experience from your work, including initiatives, partnerships or programmes that demonstrate your ability to contribute.
- Any tools, services, resources or training initiatives of your own that may be relevant to the Programme, where applicable.
We are particularly interested in partners and advisors that can offer grounded perspectives on: where demand is emerging, where capability gaps remain, which tools and services show potential, what skills and professional roles need to be developed, and what would help promising approaches reach wider markets while retaining local participation and value.
Why partner with us?
The jobs, services and tools that enable AI diffusion represent a growing global opportunity, but the market around them is still taking shape.
This creates an opportunity for organizations with relevant expertise, networks, demand, investment perspectives or market access to help shape how these capabilities develop and where the resulting economic value is created.
By expressing interest, partners and advisors may have opportunities to:
- Help shape the Programme around the priorities of different markets, industries and communities of practice, including barriers preventing promising tools, services and workforce models from reaching the people and organizations that need them
- Identify promising capabilities and unmet demand across countries and sectors
- Connect practitioners, institutions and markets working on similar challenges
- Contribute technical, sector, market or investment expertise to Programme design and activities
- Participate in selected advisory sessions, consultations and convenings with other organizations working on related challenges
- Gain early insight into emerging trends, needs and opportunities shaping the AI diffusion jobs and tools ecosystem
What happens after you submit?
Following the close of this open call, the AI Hub for Sustainable Development and UNDP AI Trust and Safety Re-imagination Programme will review submissions to identify potential programme partners and advisors whose expertise, networks, market reach or other contributions align with the Programme’s priorities.
Selected respondents may be invited to follow-up discussions and a small number of programme design and advisory sessions based on their experience and potential contribution to the Programme.
These engagements will help inform the Programme’s initial priorities, partnerships and approaches to strengthening the AI diffusion jobs and tools ecosystem.
Submitting an expression of interest does not create a funding, procurement, contractual or partnership commitment between UNDP and responding organizations.
The AI Hub for Sustainable Development and UNDP AI Trust and Safety Re-imagination Programme will host two information sessions on the AI Diffusion Jobs and Tools Programme. The sessions will explain the types of tools, services and capabilities being sought, the expression-of-interest process, and opportunities to contribute as an advisor or programme partner. Sessions will be held in English and recorded.