Navigating societal transformation in the age of AI

Context

Artificial intelligence is accelerating deep shifts in how people learn, work, access services, and participate in public life. Global evidence highlights three cross-cutting dynamics parliaments must anticipate: (i) unequal exposure to AI’s labour market impacts and gendered effects across routine roles; (ii) persistent connectivity gaps that can widen inequality and exclude communities from digital public services; and (iii) a fast-moving governance landscape with new international reference points for rights-respecting AI and digital public infrastructure.   

Description

This session will explore how AI is accelerating broad societal transformations and what this means for the role of parliaments. AI influences how citizens access information, interact with institutions, and participate in public life. It is also reshaping labour markets, education pathways, and systems of social protection. Left unmanaged, these shifts risk deepening inequalities, eroding trust, and leaving many behind. 

Through panel discussion and working groups, participants will examine how parliamentary action can help societies adapt to this new reality: aligning AI innovation with the Sustainable Development Goals, putting safeguards in place to protect rights and fostering public debate on ethical boundaries, labour-market transitions, and digital public infrastructure. The module will highlight approaches to embed societal values into AI policy, and how oversight and legislative functions can guide transformation towards resilience, fairness, and human rights.

Organization

09:30 – 11:00 Societal transformation and institutional readiness

• Poll:
  - Write one word that describes how you feel about AI in your parliamentary work?
  - How confident do you feel in understanding and using AI in your parliamentary work?

• Panel discussion. Guiding questions: 

  • What are the most significant ways AI is transforming societies today,  in work, services, and public life, and which of these shifts should parliaments prioritize in their response?

  • How can parliaments ensure that AI-driven changes do not deepen divides, whether gender gaps, rural–urban divides, or connectivity gaps,  and instead advance equity and inclusion?

  • As digital public infrastructure and AI tools become central to governance, what safeguards and accountability mechanisms should parliaments put in place to protect rights and build trust?

  • Looking ahead, what are the most important actions parliaments should take to help societies navigate AI-driven transformation in a way that aligns with human rights and the SDGs?

11:00 - 11:15 - Coffee break

11:15 – 13:00: Building Futures Together

• Group work: Each group works on one thematic driver of societal transformation (for example, AI in labour markets, information ecosystems, social protection, or DPI).

  • Step 1 - Mapping direct and indirect effects. Purpose: To surface how AI-driven changes ripple through society and parliaments’ work. 

  • Step 2 - Developing negative and positive scenarios. Purpose: To stretch thinking about alternative futures depending on action or inaction.

  • Step 3 - Pathways for parliamentary action. Purpose: To define concrete roles for parliaments in steering towards the positive scenario.

• Discussion of results, reflections and conclusions