The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has introduced an AI-powered virtual colleague, dubbed ‘Ms FAO AI,’ to serve its global personnel, marking a significant step in the agency”s digitalization strategy.

According to FAO information today, Director-General QU Dongyu announced the initiative, describing it as a reflection of the organization”s collective willingness to evolve and lead. ‘This is not only a technological advancement, but also a reflection of our collective attitude, our willingness to learn, to change, and to lead,’ he stated.

The new HR Avatar, characterized by Qu as a ‘companion’ rather than a ‘robot,’ is a multilingual service designed to be available around the clock to all FAO staff worldwide.

Its purpose is to assist employees with informed decision-making and provide answers to their queries. The organization expects the virtual assistant to make its existing services more reliable, inclusive, and accessible, thereby improving service delivery for its Members.

This development follows the successful launch of another AI application earlier this year. HR CertusCare, an AI-powered chatbot, was implemented to manage staff interactions with Human Resource topics in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. It offers swift responses on subjects including social security, health insurance, and recruitment policies.

Both the Ms FAO AI avatar and the CertusCare chatbot are designed to learn from user interactions. The Director-General encouraged staff to engage with the new systems, even with unexpected questions, to enhance their capabilities. ‘To do a good job, one must first sharpen the tools,’ Qu said, referencing a Chinese proverb.

These new applications are intended to lay the groundwork for a future integrated, one-stop system for greater staff support, streamlining HR processes, and reducing routine workloads.

While emphasizing the importance of technological advancement, the Director-General underscored that human values remain paramount. ‘Innovation and application are key to FAO,’ he remarked, ‘But no innovation can succeed without human values – we need to always put people first. Technology must serve humanity, not replace it.’

Qu identified the virtual tools as a major milestone in his ongoing campaign to ‘modernize systems and to modernize thinking,’ an initiative he began upon taking office in 2019.