Once envisioned as open, digital spaces are now shaped by a few dominant actors (public and private), often prioritizing extraction over inclusion. Marginalized communities and regions beyond major tech hubs are left without a voice in shaping these systems. On the other hand, the disruption brought by recent digital technologies is eroding trust and the social fabric that underpins our societies. 

To ensure technology serves the public good, new institutional approaches are needed- ones that empower people, protect data rights, and foster fairness. Despite power concentration by a reduced group of actors, grassroots efforts are challenging the status quo, proving that a more equitable digital future is possible.

The question remains: how can technology help build institutions that truly serve society?

The Challenge

A handful of big corporations own enormous amounts of wealth and key technologies for the world exerting a disproportionate influence on society. 

Professor Mariana Mazzucatto has referred to this concentration of power as a new form of digital feudalism. The economic and technological landscape is driven by extractive, short-term, and self-serving models, where efficiency and profit take precedence over resilience, equity, and sustainability. Power is concentrated in a few platforms, data governance remains opaque, and prevailing narratives favor individualism over collective well-being.

Recent research reveals that regions with broader access to digital technology tend to experience greater income inequality.

Nevertheless, this adverse effect is less pronounced in areas with robust formal and informal institutions. Institutional innovation is key to ensuring that technology benefits society equitably. Authors such as Acemoglu and Johnson argue that strong democratic institutions can steer technological progress toward shared prosperity, well-being, and sustainability, rather than deepening inequality and elite control.

Rapid technological change makes it increasingly difficult for governments to keep up with constant disruptions and transformations.

According to the Edelman Barometer, 59 percent of the population thinks that governments are ill-equipped to regulate emergent technologies. It also creates new problems in democracy and social trust. The World Economic Forum’s latest Global Risks Report highlights misinformation as the greatest risk for the next two years, with cybersecurity ranking fifth.

This is especially concerning for groups that have historically been excluded from shaping technology, such as indigenous communities. With artificial intelligence, they face a dual risk: the extraction and unauthorized use of their knowledge and cultural expressions without recognition or benefit, and their exclusion from development processes, leading to tools that fail to reflect their values, needs, or rights. Without their active participation, AI not only reinforces historical marginalization but also reshapes their identity and autonomy without their consent.

Pathways for Institutional Innovation

Technological and digital change can benefit society but only if our institutions evolve to keep public purpose at their core.

•    The Sovereign Tech Agency is dedicated to advancing, enhancing, and sustaining open digital infrastructure. Its mission is to sustain a secure, resilient, and diverse open-source ecosystem. By supporting the people and communities behind the code, it ensures open-source development remains strong and inclusive.
•    In Kyiv, Ukraine, the city’s Digital Platform, originally a mobility service, adapted as war reshaped reality. It evolved into a crisis-response tool, alerting citizens to airstrikes, supporting businesses in distress, and fostering participatory decision-making to reinforce democratic resilience.
•    In Moldova, the government recognized the threat of misinformation and established a dedicated institution with an adaptive networked mandate, connecting inter-institutional efforts within and beyond government to tackle the growing problem.

Diverse organizations signal how more inclusive forms of the digital space are possible. While many of the following are not yet institutions they are key for searching the path.

•    The Inclusive AI Lab – a global consortium uniting industry, academia, and the civic sector – co-designs inclusive and sustainable AI data, tools, services, and platforms with a special focus on the Global South.
•    Similarly, Kabakoo, an EdTech platform, empowers young Africans with learning opportunities, combining high-tech and indigenous knowledge to collaboratively solve real-life challenges.
•    Lelapa is developing culturally sensitive AI solutions, claiming to have launched the first African LLM based on IA. Lelapa AI develops culturally informed AI solutions tailored to African contexts, ensuring that technology reflects local languages, values, and realities. By prioritizing community-driven innovation, it challenges the dominance of external tech paradigms and fosters more inclusive, relevant digital ecosystems.
•    In New Zealand digitalisation brings new opportunities for data-driven decision-making as the Māori Data Governance Model emerged to claim communities’ data sovereignty and ensure that data systems do not reinforce historical exclusions.

These initiatives challenge dominant paradigms by demonstrating that technology can be more inclusive, context-aware, and co-designed with those it impacts.

They reimagine digital ecosystems where diverse knowledge systems, local agency, and cultural sensitivity shape the future of AI and innovation.

Technology is not neutral—it follows the direction set by the institutions and paradigms that shape it. Inclusive governance determines whether it reinforces existing power asymmetries or fosters models that serve collective well-being.

The question is: how do we design institutions that ensure technology advances equity, resilience, and the common good?

Conversations around this and other issues regarding institutional innovation in an unsecure world will take place at the upcoming Istanbul Innovation Days on 25-26 March. Read more about the themes and agenda, and follow us live: https://istanbulinnovationdays.org/