From 6–10 July 2026, Soroptimist International representatives gathered in Geneva to contribute to global discussions on artificial intelligence, digital cooperation and technology governance. The following reflections were drafted by Tania Gómez Herazo, SI Advocacy AI Advisor, and cover sessions she attended on 10 July across the AI for Good Global Summit and WSIS Forum 2026.
Reports by Tania Gómez Herazo, SI Advocacy AI Advisor
Women Leading the Digital Future: Shaping Policy Together
Event: Session 486, WSIS Forum 2026
Organiser: ITU and the EU-funded Women Leadership in the Public ICT Sector (WLICT) Action
Date: 10 July 2026, 13:00–13:45, Room B, Palexpo
Closing the week where it began, with women’s leadership in digital policymaking, this interactive session examined why digital policies underperform when all women and girls remain underrepresented in ICT careers and decision-making, and what to do about it.
Building on the ITU Gender Champions and global networks of women in ICT, the dialogue highlighted existing women’s leadership across regions, named the barriers frankly, limited representation, limited access to opportunity, and risks that push women out of public digital life, and explored practical responses: mentorship and sponsorship, leadership pipelines, and multi-stakeholder collaboration ahead of WSIS+20.
What I could reflect on: across five days in Geneva, from ministers’ breakfasts to youth robotics, one lesson repeated itself. Representation is not decoration; it is how policy learns what half the population needs. The task now is continuity, keeping these networks active between summits, turning Geneva’s commitments into action plans, and making sure the woman who found her voice at this table helps the next one find hers.
The First AI Generation: Are We Learning the Right Way?
Event: AI for Good Global Summit 2026, Centre Stage
Date: 10 July 2026, Palexpo
Michael Crow, President of Arizona State University, and musician-technologist will.i.am debated a question every parent and teacher is asking: if machines can do the work, why and how should young people learn?
Crow described ASU’s shift from exclusion to inclusion, 8,000 AI projects, faculty trained as “knowledge navigators,” and AI tutors giving every learner what only the ultra-wealthy once had. On cheating, his answer was disarming: if a test can be beaten by an AI tool, it is the wrong test; everyone must up their game. will.i.am, who credits a school computer lab and inspiring teachers for his own path out of poverty, compared this moment to the printing press and argued that students should build agents that reflect their own beliefs and passions, aimed at real problems, education as preparation, not memorisation. His closing note: when machines can out-think us, our differentiators are creativity, empathy, and love.
My reflection: both speakers, in different registers, confirmed what our Women in AI roundtable concluded two days earlier: human-centred skills must sit at the heart of AI education, and access to these tools must be universal. The girls’ furthest from connectivity today are furthest from this classroom of the future. Closing that gap is an education emergency, not a technological upgrade.
AI for Good Beyond 2026 and Awards Ceremony
Event: AI for Good Global Summit 2026, Centre Stage
Date: 10 July 2026, Palexpo
The closing ceremony looked beyond 2026, but my attention went to the youth. The robotics prize went to the Spartans, a young team from Venezuela, a joyful, defiant reminder that talent is everywhere even when opportunity is not.
The story behind the prize matters as much as the winners. The AI for Good Youth Robotics Championship now reaches around 18,000 children, roughly half of them girls. That balance did not happen by accident: gender parity was written into the terms of reference, and national organisers were required to actively recruit girls. As one organiser told our roundtable earlier in the week, for these children “robots are not gendered, it’s fun, it’s interesting, there’s no risk in learning and playing.”
For me, this is what the intentional design looks like. When we bake inclusion into the rules of the game, literally, girls show up, compete, and win. The challenge for all of us, Soroptimists included, is to carry that same intentionality into classrooms, ministries, frameworks, rules, and boardrooms. The Spartans’ trophy belongs to Venezuela; the lesson belongs to everyone.
