The WBA Digital Inclusion Benchmark measures and ranks the world's most influential companies on their efforts to advance digital inclusion, tracking how companies are expanding access to digital technologies, improving digital skills and literacy, and ensuring safe and inclusive digital environments for all. The 2026 edition assessed 200 companies across key sectors of the digital economy including telecommunications, software, hardware, and digital platforms. The benchmark is developed in close collaboration with an Expert Review Committee and partners including GRI, ITU, and the Alliance for Affordable Internet, with a methodology designed to incentivise companies to understand where digital exclusion risks are highest and act to bridge the digital divide, while keeping human rights and social impacts at its core.
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The emergence of frontier technologies, particularly AI, has immense potential for solving some of the world's greatest challenges, but it also presents many risks. These include reducing the need for human intervention, threatening job security, posing dangers to privacy and enhancing potential for discrimination.
AI can play an important role in achieving the SDGs. But it also carries huge human rights and other risks that can cause serious harms if it is developed without careful scrutiny, transparency and commitment to responsible principles. In 2023, 28% of ICT firms used AI, higher than any other sector.xxvi Holding digital technology companies accountable for the way they develop and use AI has become more critical than ever.
Research Guidance:
The companydisclosesthat it conducts human rights impact assessments (HRIAs) on its AI systems, whether developed internally or sourced from others. These assessments may be periodic or case-specific and must go beyond general human rights due diligence. The company must describe the scope of the HRIA (e.g., which tool, region, or community it applies to),identify the individuals, groups, or communities that are currently or potentially affected,and identify the human rights risks and impacts associated with the company‚s AI use or deployment.In addition, the company shoulddemonstratethat it carries out stakeholder consultation and continuous monitoring of human rightsimpactsthroughout the AI lifecycle to ensure respect for human rights.