Agents of change:
Re-skilling for
AI futures

ABOUT THE EVENT

This workshop will bring together experts, policymakers, and regional stakeholders to confront the central challenge: How do we rapidly upskill and reskill the global workforce to harness agentic AI’s potential in accelerating the SDGs?

As artificial intelligence evolves from predictive tools to autonomous, goal-driven agents, a new era of agentic AI is rapidly reshaping how businesses operate and how work itself is defined. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has called AI agents the company's "biggest bet" for driving future growth — but this leap forward hinges on a critical question: Is the global workforce ready?

While AI has the potential to accelerate progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), harnessing its potential for impact across sectors also requires mitigating its many risks such as job displacement or loss, and its tendency to exacerbate bias and misinformation.

Recent findings from the 2025 Salesforce Global AI Readiness Index paint a sobering picture. While many countries are investing in AI infrastructure and policy, human capital mobilization remains the most significant barrier to AI adoption, especially in emerging markets like Latin America and Southeast Asia. These regions, though fast-growing and digitally ambitious, face major skills gaps that could inhibit the benefits of AI transformation. Addressing this gap is no longer optional; it is essential to equitable and effective digital transformation..

Without coordinated global action to close skills gaps, especially in emerging markets, AI could deepen existing divides in income, opportunity, and digital access. The UN’s 2023 A New Agenda for Peace and the AI for Good initiative have both emphasized that human-centered AI must be at the core of global digital cooperation, with workforce development identified as a critical enabler of inclusive growth..