Drasko Draskovic, PhD

AI R&D Coordinator,  UNDP Accelerator Labs

United Nations Development Programme

I am passionate about innovation, sustainable development, and creating change. At its heart, innovation is about learning—and by accelerating how we learn, we get better at figuring out what to build and how to build it.

I love everything about ideas — hatching them, developing them, and executing them. But what drives me most is the continuous learning that innovation demands: the discovery of new possibilities, the collaboration that expands our understanding, and the insights that emerge when diverse minds work together. These learning processes don't just generate better solutions—they attract extraordinary people. Innovators are people who believe the world can and should be a better place, and they're committed to learning their way there.

My work is a constant exploration of 'what-ifs' and 'why does it have to be this way.' I use creativity to introduce new ideas and novel approaches, empower teams to foster cultures of rapid learning and experimentation, and help people expand their ability to imagine different futures. Today, we have unprecedented opportunities to accelerate learning—from AI tools that help us process information faster and explore scenarios more thoroughly, to digital platforms that enable global collaboration and knowledge sharing. This potential to dramatically accelerate how we learn has drawn me increasingly toward AI strategy, R&D, and accelerating AI adoption, as I see AI as one of the most powerful levers for innovation we've ever had. By harnessing these capabilities to learn more rapidly about problems, solutions, and possibilities, we cultivate the courage and capability to take action toward realizing a preferred future. This learning-centered approach supports UNDP's drive to be an incubator for the future and accelerates progress towards the 2030 Agenda.

An exciting and hopeful future is possible if we put our minds to it—and if we commit to learning our way forward.

I share ideas and observations about my work on LinkedIn and BlueSky. Feel free to connect with me!