As World Leaders Gather at the UN, a New Research Action Policy Lab in the Global South Sets Out To Prove AI Can Create Opportunity

The Institute for Human Flourishing launches during UNGA high-level week, backed by The Rockefeller Foundation, Schmidt Philanthropies, and the Government of India.

News Summary

• The Institute for Human Flourishing (IHF) — a new Research Action Policy Lab headquartered in India — will work to ensure AI raises incomes, expands agency, and creates opportunity for vulnerable communities around the world. IHF will prove what works, turn evidence into replicable playbooks, and inform policy so pro-worker outcomes become the default.
• Founded by Ravi Venkatesan and led by CEO Urvashi Aneja, IHF is headquartered in India and makes its global debut before an international audience of philanthropists, policymakers, and employers gathered in New York for UNGA week. A high-level panel will explore the central question of our moment: how AI can expand opportunity rather than concentrate it.
• The Government of India’s Expert Group on Human Flourishing has formally endorsed IHF’s establishment.

NEW YORK | September 23, 2026 — As global leaders convene in New York for the United Nations General Assembly and as AI continues to reshape labor markets around the world, the Institute for Human Flourishing (IHF) launched today with an urgent mandate: ensure AI raises incomes, expands agency, and creates opportunity for communities around the world, especially those vulnerable to AI-driven labor disruption. IHF, founded by global business leader and entrepreneur Ravi Venkatesan and led by CEO Urvashi Aneja, will test what helps workers navigate AI disruption and push what works into policy and practice.

“India has the chance to show the world a different model — one in which AI becomes a tool for mass flourishing rather than mass displacement. But that will not happen by default,” said Ravi Venkatesan, Founder, Institute for Human Flourishing. “It requires institutions that connect evidence, practice, and policy. That is why we have built IHF.”

Institutional choices — not the technology itself — will shape AI’s economic impacts. For India and the Global South, the risks differ from those rich countries face: entry-level Information Technology (IT) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) roles — the main pathway into the middle class in many countries — are thinning, while export-led growth via cheap labor is weakening as automation caps wages. The larger risk is a missed opportunity: nearly 90% of India’s workforce is informal, and AI could augment farmers, artisans, and micro-enterprises at scale, yet investment targets large firms instead. The binding constraint is diffusion, not capability — reorganizing work, dislodging information gatekeepers, building institutions. Prosperity isn’t automatic; IHF exists to help steer it.

IHF will also create:

1. A Livelihoods Lab that will run live, co-designed demonstrations of human-AI collaboration in real organizations with real workers, with every finding published as an open public good regardless of outcome.
2. An AI and Jobs Observatory that will track worker experiences and develop a foundational Index of Human Flourishing that measures outcomes beyond income — capturing agency, dignity, capability, and economic security.
3. A Policy and Narrative program that will translate findings into evidence-based advocacy and connect a Global South advisory network [across shared priorities].

“The question is no longer whether AI will transform work in the Global South — it already is. The question is whether that transformation raises incomes and expands agency for the majority, most of whom work in the informal economy,” said Urvashi Aneja, CEO, Institute for Human Flourishing. “That outcome will be decided by institutional choices, and those choices need evidence. IHF exists to build that evidence in the field, with real workers and real enterprises, and to make sure it shapes both markets and policy.”

The Government of India’s Expert Group on Human Flourishing has formally endorsed IHF’s establishment.

“India’s approach to AI has been anchored in inclusion — technology as a public good that expands opportunity for all,” said S. Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India. “Building rigorous evidence on how AI can strengthen livelihoods, particularly in the informal economy, complements the Government’s efforts under the IndiaAI Mission. We welcome the Institute for Human Flourishing’s contribution to this agenda.”

IHF’s global launch event at The Rockefeller Foundation in New York featured a panel moderated by Andrew Sweet, Vice President of Innovation at The Rockefeller Foundation, with panelists Urvashi Aneja, Rohit Kansal, Secretary to the Government of India, Dept. of Rural Development, and Manu Chopra, Co-Founder and CEO of Karya.

About the Institute for Human Flourishing 

The Institute for Human Flourishing (IHF) is a global action network dedicated to designing, demonstrating, and scaling pro-worker AI transitions in the Global South. Headquartered in India, IHF runs live demonstrations in real organizations, measures what is happening to workers, and translates evidence into policy across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Learn more at https://humanflourishing.in/.

About The Rockefeller Foundation

Investing $30 billion over the last 113 years to promote the well-being of humanity, The Rockefeller Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on unlikely partnerships and innovative solutions that deliver measurable results for people in the United States and around the world. We leverage scientific breakthroughs, artificial intelligence, and new technologies to make big bets across energy, food, health, and finance, including with our public charity, RF Catalytic Capital (RFCC). For more information, sign up for our newsletter at www.rockefellerfoundation.org/subscribe and follow us on X @RockefellerFdn, Instagram @rockefellerfdn, and LinkedIn @the-rockefeller-foundation.