International Telecommunication Union Annual AI Governance Report: Leading the Future of Artificial Intelligence
Based on the Annual Governance Dialogue and the Global Trends White Paper, this report systematically analyzes key issues such as the rise of agents, global governance coordination, the concentration of infrastructure power, security risks, and emerging inequality gaps. It provides policymakers and professional researchers with a multidimensional action framework and forward-looking analysis.
Detail
Published
22/12/2025
Key Chapter Title List
- White Paper: Themes and Trends in AI Governance
- Theme 1: The Year of AI Agents
- Theme 2: AI and Socioeconomic Impact
- Theme 3: International AI Governance Coordination
- Theme 4: AI Standards and Best Practices
- Theme 5: AI Infrastructure and Computing Power
- Theme 6: AI Safety and Risk Management
- 2025 AI Governance Dialogue Highlights and Insights
- Global Context: Opportunities and Risks
- Ten Pillars of AI Governance
- Regional Perspectives and Case Studies
- Vision Towards 2026
Document Introduction
This report is the flagship 2025 publication on artificial intelligence governance released by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), produced in collaboration with institutions such as the Oxford Martin School. The report integrates a comprehensive trends white paper with the outcomes of a high-level AI governance dialogue that brought together over 10,000 stakeholders from 169 countries. It aims to provide evidence-based in-depth analysis and practical guidance for the complex landscape of global AI governance.
The white paper in the first part of the report systematically reviews key developments from 2024 to early 2025, identifying seven core themes. The report points out that the AI field is transitioning from chat tools to the year of AI agents. Systems capable of autonomously executing multi-step tasks present novel governance challenges, including traceability, security vulnerabilities, and liability definition. At the socioeconomic level, AI is reshaping the labor market, with its impact presenting a complex picture of simultaneous automation and job restructuring, while also generating new value chains in fields such as education, science, transportation, and agriculture. However, global AI development is highly uneven. Critical infrastructure like computing power and data centers is heavily concentrated in the United States, China, and the European Union, with over 150 countries lacking advanced computing hubs, exacerbating the AI divide.
At the international governance level, the report analyzes how the series of global AI summits from Bletchley, Seoul to Paris have evolved from ad-hoc meetings into structured cooperation platforms. It also explores the progress in AI safety norms and cooperation agreements through Sino-US second-track diplomacy and regional partnerships (such as ASEAN, the African Union, and the G7). Simultaneously, the report provides a detailed examination of the global AI standards landscape led by ITU, ISO, IEC, etc., as well as the development and existing gaps in ethical frameworks, safety testing (e.g., red teaming), and certification programs.
The second part of the report focuses on the highlights of the 2025 ITU AI Governance Dialogue. The dialogue revealed core tensions in global AI governance: the pacing problem between rapid technological evolution and lagging policy-making; the risk of power imbalance due to the high concentration of power (computing power, data, talent) in a few countries and companies; and the inequality and emerging digital divide exacerbated by disparities in connectivity, access to computing power, and language representation. Case studies from countries such as Estonia, Switzerland, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, and Costa Rica demonstrate how nations of different sizes and endowments are adopting differentiated strategies (e.g., Estonia's comprehensive digitalization and AI application, Switzerland's open multilingual models and the International Computing Alliance for Inclusive Networks - ICAIN) to enhance AI sovereignty and inclusivity.
Based on extensive discussions, the report ultimately distills the Ten Pillars of AI Governance proposed by the dialogue co-chairs, serving as input for the upcoming United Nations Global Dialogue on AI Governance set to launch in 2026. These ten pillars cover key areas for action, ranging from principles to practice, multi-stakeholder participation, transparency, inclusivity, capacity building, environmental sustainability, industry focus, standards and safety tools, computing power and model governance, to policy interoperability and agile governance. They provide a systematic blueprint for building a global governance framework capable of navigating risks while unlocking AI's potential.