Before the Tool: What Must Change Inside Organizations for Responsible AI in Crisis Contexts

Artificial intelligence is increasingly present in peace processes, humanitarian response, and conflict-affected environments, but many of the real challenges are not technical. They are institutional. Current conversations often focus on how AI can improve humanitarian response.

This interactive workshop, part of Geneva Peace Forum 2026, flips that question: How can organizations better prepare internally to deploy AI responsibly in the first place? In fast-paced, ever-evolving crises and fragile settings, weak internal AI governance, unclear accountability, and inconsistent data practices can turn even well-intentioned tools, or even a lack of tools, into sources of risk. Without the right internal systems, AI can undermine trust, compromise data safety, and create unintended harm.

This session brings together practitioners, policymakers, and change management experts to examine the organizational conditions that enable, or prevent, responsible AI deployment. Rather than focusing on tools in the field, it centers on institutional readiness: how decisions are made, risks are managed, and responsibility is assigned.

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About Geneva Peace Forum

Geneva Peace Forum (GPF) is a leading annual Peace Forum in the international peacebuilding calendar through which organizations in Geneva and their international partners come together to share knowledge and practice on a diverse range of topics related to peace across contexts and disciplines. Evolving from Geneva Peace Week, the Geneva Peace Forum (GPF) is the flagship initiative of the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform.

Globethics at Geneva Peace Forum

2026 marks the fourth consecutive year that Globethics has hosted a session within this leading forum, following our full-house 2025 workshop Algorithms of Division or Dialogue? Countering AI-Fuelled Polarisation for Peace in Action, our high-level panel Peace in the Fourth Revolution: Unleashing the AI Political Potential in 2024, and our panel on ethical AI, which was the most-watched panel in 2023 and resulted in the policy report Inclusive AI for a Better Future.