AI is entering a new phase, with 2026 expected to mark a shift from experimentation to real-world collaboration. Microsoft executives describe AI as an emerging partner that amplifies human expertise rather than replacing it.
Microsoft says the impact is becoming visible across healthcare, software development, and scientific research. AI tools embedded in Microsoft products are supporting diagnosis, coding, and research workflows.
With the expansion of AI agents across all platforms, organisations are strengthening safeguards to manage new risks. Security leaders argue agents will require clear identities, restricted access, and continuous monitoring.
Microsoft also points to changes in the infrastructure powering AI. The company says future systems will prioritise efficiency and intelligence output, supported by distributed and hybrid cloud architectures.
Looking further ahead, the convergence of AI, supercomputing, and quantum technologies stands out as the main highlight. Hybrid approaches, the company says, are bringing practical quantum advantage closer for applications in materials science, medicine, and research.
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The UK government has formed a Women in Tech taskforce to help more women enter, remain and lead across the technology sector. Technology secretary Liz Kendall will guide the group alongside industry figures determined to narrow long-standing representation gaps highlighted by recent BCS data.
Members include Anne-Marie Imafidon, Allison Kirkby and Francesca Carlesi, who will advise ministers on boosting diversity and supporting economic growth. Leaders stress that better representation enables more inclusive decision-making and encourages technology built with wider perspectives in mind.
The taskforce plans to address barriers affecting women’s progression, ranging from career access to investment opportunities. Organisations such as techUK and the Royal Academy of Engineering argue that gender imbalance limits innovation, particularly as the UK pursues ambitious AI goals.
UK officials expect working groups to develop proposals over the coming months, focusing on practical steps that broaden the talent pool. Advocates say the initiative arrives at a crucial moment as emerging technologies reshape employment and demand more inclusive leadership.
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Africa cannot realistically compete with the massive capital and computing resources driving frontier AI research in the United States and China, and it does not need to do so.
Instead, Nicholas Okumu contends, the continent’s AI strategy should pivot toward building efficient, practical systems tailored to local needs, from healthcare triage tools in referral hospitals to agriculture, education and public finance solutions grounded in African contexts.
Large, resource-intensive models require infrastructure and ecosystems that most African nations cannot marshal, but smaller, efficient models can perform high-value, domain-specific tasks on ordinary hardware.
Drawing on events from innovation forums and real-world examples, the columnist argues that Africa’s historical experience of innovation under constraint positions it well to lead in relevant, efficient AI applications rather than replicating the ambitions of frontier labs.
The article outlines a three-phase pathway: first, building foundational datasets governed by national or regional frameworks; second, deploying AI where it can deliver transformative value; and third, scaling successful tools to regions with similar development constraints.
If this strategy is followed, the piece argues, African-designed AI systems, particularly those that work well in low-resource environments, could become globally valuable.
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Taichung Municipal Hospital for Geriatric Rehabilitation and Comprehensive Care has introduced 20 AI-enabled Aibo robots to support medical staff, help mitigate labour shortages and improve patient services.
The Aibo robots, developed by China Medical University Hospital and EverBot Technology, can guide inpatients, offer basic health education, conduct telemedicine interactions via built-in cameras and respond quickly to questions, learning from each interaction to improve accuracy.
Each robot features autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance, and is integrated with hospital systems, allowing one AI server to manage up to 30 units simultaneously while protecting patient data with firewall security.
The hospital also uses other AI systems, such as an ambulance-linked platform for early heart-attack detection, while additional Taiwanese medical facilities are expanding robotic support for deliveries, patient interaction and surgical assistance.
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The UN will hold a high-level meeting of the General Assembly on 16–17 December 2025 to conclude the WSIS+20 review, marking 20 years since the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) outlined a global vision for an inclusive and people-centred information society. The review assesses the progress made by countries and stakeholders in implementing the WSIS outcomes agreed upon in Geneva in 2003 and in Tunis in 2005.
The WSIS+20 process examines the progress made over the past two decades while also identifying remaining challenges, including persistent digital divides, gaps in access to information and communication technologies (ICTs), and the need to harness digital tools more effectively for sustainable development. The high-level meeting will feature four plenary sessions with statements from UN member states, observers, and other stakeholders, in line with a recent General Assembly resolution.
A key outcome of the meeting will be the adoption of a final WSIS+20 outcome document, which will reflect on achievements so far and outline priorities for future action. Alongside the main sessions, a series of in-person, virtual, and off-site side events starting on 15 December 2025 will showcase innovations, share experiences, highlight emerging digital issues, and announce voluntary commitments aimed at strengthening an inclusive and development-oriented information society.
Diplo and the Geneva Internet Platform will provide just-in-time reporting from the high-level meeting. Bookmark this page; more details will be available soon.
Google has released a new AI playbook aimed at helping organisations streamline and improve sustainability reporting, sharing lessons learned from integrating AI into its own environmental disclosure processes.
In a blog post published on The Keyword, Google states that corporate sustainability reporting is often hindered by fragmented data and labour-intensive workflows. After two years of using AI internally, the company is now open-sourcing its approach to help others reduce reporting burdens.
The AI Playbook for Sustainability Reporting is presented as a practical, implementation-focused toolkit. It includes a structured framework for auditing reporting processes, along with ready-made prompt templates for common sustainability reporting tasks.
Google also highlights real-world examples that demonstrate how tools such as Gemini and NotebookLM can be used to validate sustainability claims, respond to information requests, and support internal review, moving AI use beyond experimentation.
The company says the playbook is intended to support transparency and strategic decision-making, and has invited organisations and practitioners to explore the resource and provide feedback.
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The US tech company, Oracle, has expanded Oracle Database@Google Cloud to India, making the service available through Google Cloud’s Mumbai region.
Enterprises can access Oracle Exadata, Autonomous AI Database and AI Lakehouse services while keeping data in the region to meet sovereignty and regulatory requirements.
The multicloud offering allows organisations to combine Oracle enterprise data with Google Cloud analytics and AI tools, including BigQuery, Vertex AI and Gemini models.
Customers can modernise applications and migrate mission-critical workloads without sacrificing performance, security or low-latency access.
Oracle Database@Google Cloud is available through the Google Cloud Marketplace, enabling customers to procure services via trusted partners instead of navigating complex contracting models.
Oracle and Google Cloud partners can also integrate the service into broader multicloud solutions.
The launch reflects growing demand for flexible multicloud architectures in India, supporting AI-driven innovation, advanced analytics and accelerated IT modernisation across regulated and data-intensive industries.
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NVIDIA has announced the acquisition of SchedMD, the developer of Slurm, a widely used open-source workload manager for high-performance computing and AI environments.
The company stated that Slurm will continue to be developed and distributed as open-source, vendor-neutral software, with support maintained across a broad range of hardware and software platforms used by the HPC and AI communities.
Slurm plays a central role in managing complex workloads on large computing clusters, handling job scheduling, queuing, and resource allocation. It is used by more than half of the top 10 and top 100 systems on the TOP500 supercomputer list, reflecting its widespread adoption and significant impact.
NVIDIA stated that the software is also critical infrastructure for generative AI, helping developers manage large-scale model training and inference. The company has collaborated with SchedMD for over a decade and plans to increase investment in Slurm’s ongoing development.
SchedMD said the deal will enable Slurm to evolve in tandem with accelerated computing demands while remaining open source. NVIDIA said it will continue to provide support, training, and development to existing customers across various use cases, including research, industry, and public sectors.
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Visa has launched a Stablecoins Advisory Practice through its Visa Consulting & Analytics unit, reflecting rising institutional interest in stablecoin-based payment infrastructure. The service aims to help banks, fintech firms, merchants, and enterprises assess strategy, market fit and implementation.
The move comes as the global stablecoin market exceeds $250 billion in value and emerging reports of an annualised stablecoin settlement run rate of $3.5 billion as of late November. According to the company, demand is rising among financial institutions exploring faster and lower-cost payment rails.
Visa Consulting & Analytics will offer services ranging from market education and strategy development to use case sizing and technical integration. The programme draws on Visa’s network of consultants, data scientists and product specialists to support clients navigating regulatory and operational complexity.
Several financial institutions have already participated in early engagements, citing the need for clearer frameworks as stablecoins gain traction in cross-border payments and digital finance. The advisory practice reflects broader efforts to support responsible adoption alongside emerging standards.
Visa has previously piloted stablecoin settlement using USDC and now supports more than 130 stablecoin-linked card programmes across 40 countries. The company is also testing stablecoin-based pre-funding for international payouts.
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The third UK-EU Cyber Dialogue was held in Brussels on 9 and 10 December 2025, bringing together senior officials under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement to strengthen cooperation on cybersecurity and digital resilience.
The meeting was co-chaired by Andrew Whittaker from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Irfan Hemani from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, alongside EU representatives from the European External Action Service and the European Commission.
Officials from Europol and ENISA also participated, reinforcing operational and regulatory coordination rather than fragmented policy approaches.
Discussions covered cyber legislation, deterrence strategies, countering cybercrime, incident response and cyber capacity development, with an emphasis on maintaining strong security standards while reducing unnecessary compliance burdens on industry.
Both sides confirmed that the next UK-EU Cyber Dialogue will take place in London in 2026.
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