New research has claimed that three quarters (76%) of business and government leaders believe AI will play a key role in helping drive progress towards their sustainability goals.
A study conducted by HP among more than 1,000 business leaders in 10 countries found that the same proportion of leaders consider technology crucial to including traditionally excluded populations in the economy.
More than four in five say they also plan to use AI to increase access to digital education (90%), workforce development (89%), and workforce diversity (86%), which underlines the broader transformative benefits of technology.
AI could have social and economic benefits
Nancy Powell, HP's UK and Northern Ireland sustainability lead, emphasized the importance of providing digital tools and skills to underserved communities: “Everyone deserves an opportunity to access tools and skills that enable them to thrive in the digital economy. “.
Despite the potential for artificial intelligence to impact companies' progress toward their ESG goals, HP noted that worker underpreparedness and global skills shortages could prevent companies from making expected progress.
HP is not the only entity recognizing the transformative potential of AI: US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm recently stated that AI could help unlock more powerful insights to ultimately improve technological efficiency .
Data centers running AI servers have faced criticism in recent months for their intensive energy consumption and use of other natural resources, such as water. While big tech companies have committed to expanding green energy generation with solar and wind farms, more efforts are needed.
The power of artificial intelligence to help advance key goals is undeniable, but the latest revelation that AI could be used to address some of its own drawbacks offers an exciting ray of hope.
