Shahzad Asghar — AI Expert in the United Nations

Shahzad Asghar is a senior United Nations AI and digital transformation leader with over 20 years of experience across UNESCWA, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNOCHA, and CIDA. His work sits at the meeting point of AI governance, large language model applications, cybersecurity, and enterprise data systems, delivered in multilingual, high-risk, and tightly regulated environments where reliability and accountability decide whether a system is trusted.

Role and Focus

As Head of Data and Digital Solutions at the United Nations (UNESCWA), Shahzad leads teams across web delivery, data engineering, and infrastructure and cybersecurity. The focus is consistent: turn institutional mandate into infrastructure that holds under operational pressure, and place AI governance and human oversight where the consequences of failure are highest.

Measured Impact

700,000+ refugees supported through UNHCR's first global interactive voice response appointment system, an 83% reduction in registration service time, 63,000 missing contacts recovered through data integrity analysis, and a 90% reduction in school enrolment delays. Solutions were replicated across five country operations.

Explore the underlying work through the AI projects portfolio, the structured areas of practice, and the Last-Mile AI framework.