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Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform society and advance sustainable development for all.
Recent research shows that digital technology, including AI, can directly benefit 70 percent of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Despite this immense potential, AI development today is unequal, and its trajectory will widen these disparities unless we take collective action. We face an AI equity gap, which presents significant challenges.
Only 2 percent of the world's data centres are in Africa, and only 5 percent of AI innovators in Africa have the compute power they require. Worldwide, one in every 3 people don’t have internet access. In 2023, the AI sector in the US received US$67.2 billion in investments in AI, compared to just $15 million in Kenya and $2.9 million in Nigeria.
If everyone is to participate in and benefit from the AI revolution, 2025 is a critical year. What we build must stand on a foundation of equity and sustainability.
The countdown to 2030
With just five years to go until the 2030 Agenda deadline, UNDP is spearheading a global collaboration for inclusive, sustainable digital transformation, which recognizes AI as a cornerstone technology.
Several high-level meetings will shape the global AI agenda, starting in Paris, where the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit takes place in mid-February. It aims to explore ways that AI can meet pressing development challenges, including better health, a more stable climate, gender equality, and sustainable infrastructure.
In April, Rwanda will host the inaugural Global AI Summit on Africa, which will focus on how AI can create and harness inclusive economic opportunities.
In June, the Hamburg Sustainability Conference will work towards a Declaration on Responsible AI for the Sustainable Development Goals.
In July, the AI for Good Global Summit, the UN system’s leading AI event that takes place annually in Geneva, will connect AI innovators with public and private sector leaders to scale impactful AI solutions globally.
As private sector and countries race to harness the AI opportunity, these platforms and forums, alongside other significant digital moments and milestones throughout 2025, will help shape and guide the future of AI development.
From possibilities to realities
In 2025 UNDP will be working to bring the global community together with a shared vision of ensuring that all countries can actively participate in shaping and harnessing AI's transformative potential.
This thinking underpins our approach – how and why we support countries in building inclusive and safe AI and broader digital ecosystems, strengthening capabilities, and implementing solutions that benefit both people and planet.
Since 2021, we have supported more than 120 countries on their digital transformation journey, and just in 2024, more than 1,300 UNDP projects and programmes had a digital component in them.
Our AI assessments provide actionable insights, allowing countries to address critical gaps in technical infrastructure, human capital, governance, and capacity to help shape their national AI strategies. This complements our Digital Readiness assessments, already completed in more than 50 countries, which gives governments a holistic view of digital opportunities and challenges.
Through the AI Hub for Sustainable Development, an initiative co-designed with the Italian G7 presidency, we’re strengthening AI foundations for economic growth in areas of data, green compute, talent, and enabling ecosystems. Timbuktoo is UNDP’s bold initiative sparking up the African innovation ecosystem by supporting and investing in Africa’s top talent and startups.
Shaping the future of AI means identifying and mitigating context-related risks to ensure that the interests of people and planet remain at the centre of this technology. Our AI Trust and Safety Re-imagination Programme recognizes the need to shift from a reactive to a proactive approach in managing risks. Through a global call, we are gathering practical experiences and innovative solutions that will re-imagine trust and safety approaches that support closing the AI equity gap.
Leaving no one behind in an AI future means preserving the immense cultural and linguistic diversity of the present. Prioritizing the design and development of AI technologies that are inclusive, accessible and relevant to everyone is important, regardless of the language they speak.
Our Local Language Accelerator Programme addresses the structural challenges faced by those who speak ‘low-resource languages’, such as the 20 million Lingala speakers in the DR Congo, or the 9 million Quechua speakers in South America.
And with our UN partners like ITU, we are working to empower countries and communities around the world, including on its design, governance and use. With capacity-development the priority request from UNDP’s partner countries, this will be a key focus of our work this year.
We’ve also worked alongside more than 25 countries as they design and implement safe and inclusive digital public infrastructure that enables seamless data exchange and provides the quality and reliable data and other foundational components essential for developing impactful AI solutions.
In India, for example, DiCRA, an open-source digital solution, developed by UNDP in partnership with Telangana State, provides intelligence to enhance climate-resilient food systems and food security through remote sensing and pattern detection AI algorithms.
UNDP has been also exploring AI applications to address local challenges in crisis response, disaster prevention, and climate action. In Panama, our Accelerator Labs tested Generative AI tools for a deeper understanding of climate change risks through visualization techniques.
UNDP’s Crisis Response Hub features an AI chatbot that has proven effective in crisis response efforts in Syria and Türkiye. We will continue to build on the successes of these in-country expertise and delivery to ensure that AI serves everyone.
A year of opportunity
Insights from UNDP’s upcoming 2025 Human Development Report will also spotlight the impact of AI on human development targeting the challenges of expanding societal transformation driven by digitalization.
Within UNDP, we are prioritizing the use of AI to ensure that our organization can leverage cutting-edge technologies effectively and responsibly.
2025 will be the year of UNDP’s ‘AI Sprint’ – we will be investing in AI foundations, skillsets, and capacities to ensure we are able to support AI-enabled development for our partners.
The AI inequity gap is more than a moral challenge. Left unchanged, the AI divide will exclude billions of people and hinder progress on the SDGs. By charting a new course now, we can create new markets, ensure equal participation in the AI revolution, and give everyone a voice in shaping AI's future. 2025 can be the year we work together to bend the arc of AI development to deliver a more equitable and inclusive digital future.
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Source: UNDP