Quick Links
Connect us
Directors Databank
Become a faculty
Blog
Become an Awards Assessor
Publications
Contact Us
Inclusive and Sustainable Artificial Intelligence for People and Planet
The World Economic Forum 2025 at Davos focused on the theme “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age”. The theme centered around 5 priorities: Rebuilding trust; Reimagining growth; Safeguarding the planet; Industries in the intelligent age; and Investing in people. The intersection of sustainability, innovation and partnerships directed interactions at the summit. The underlying principle was that these three issues have overarching interactions when we discuss about growth in Intelligent Age. Throughout the forum, the UN Global Compact engaged with CEOs, Government Leaders and Civil Society to emphasise business-driven solutions and to look at what the public and private sector can do collectively to advance the sustainable development goals. The participants witnessed the power of collaboration to harness innovation, unlock investment and advance transformative solutions that benefit both people and the planet. Together the people can create a more sustainable, inclusive and resilient future.
The role of technology was a central theme: the rapid rise of technologies like AI, Quantum Computing and Green Tech presents both challenges and opportunities for sustainable development. It is critical for companies to adopt ethical AI frameworks, ensuring innovations accelerate SDG progress rather than amplify inequalities. Ethical technology integration is key to addressing climate, equity and operational challenges.
The discussion on impact of artificial intelligence and its economic effects remains uncertain. There is a massive investment in AI but little clarity about what it will produce. Examining AI has become a significant part of studying the impact of technology in society, from modelling the large scale adoption, innovations to conducting empirical studies about the impact of robots on jobs. It seems a lot of growth comes from technological innovations, the way society has used AI is of keen interest. Making an estimate of new job creation and present job loss needs inputs and mathematical modelling for scenario creation and not for projection. Plenty of forecast about AI have described it as revolutionary; other analyses are more circumspect. We have to be careful on defining the scale at which we expect changes. How different will the economy going to be because of AI by 2030 when SDGs would be attained. One could be a complete AI optimist and think millions of people would have lost their jobs because of chatbots, or perhaps that some people have become super productive workers because with AI they can do 10 times as many things as they have done before. Experts believe that most companies are going to be doing more or less the same things. A few occupations will be impacted, but we are still going to have journalists, we are still going to have financial analysts, we are still going to have HR employees. It is going to impact a bunch of office jobs that are about data summary, visual matching, pattern recognition etc.
The focus is needed for global reflection integrating inter alia questions of safety, sustainable development, innovation, respect of international laws including humanitarian law and human rights law and the protection of human rights, gender equality, linguistic diversity, protection of consumers and of intellectual property rights.
One of the crucial concerns about AI is whether it will take the form of machine usefulness, or whether it will be aimed at mimicking general intelligence in an effort to replace human jobs.
Governments around the globe have been concerned about the impact of AI and therefore AI Action Summit 2025 was co-hosted by India and France at Paris on February 10 and 11, 2025, with participation from over 100 countries. This Summit has highlighted the importance of reinforcing the diversity of the AI ecosystem. It has laid an open, multistakeholder and inclusive approach that will enable AI to be 'human rights'/ based, human-centric, ethical, safe, secure and trustworthy while also stressing the need and urgency to narrow the inequalities and assist developing countries in artificial intelligence capacity-building so they can build AI capacities.
Acknowledging existing multilateral initiatives on AI, the Summit identified the following main priorities;
- Promoting AI accessibility to reduce digital divides;
- Ensuring AI is open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure and trustworthy, taking into account international frameworks for all;
- Making innovation in AI thrive by enabling conditions for its development and avoiding market concentration driving industrial recovery and development;
- Encouraging AI deployment that positively shapes the 'future of work' and 'labor markets' and delivers opportunity for sustainable growth;
- Making AI sustainable for people and the planet
- Reinforcing international cooperation to promote coordination in international governance
To deliver on these priorities:
- Founding members have launched a major Public Interest AI Platform and Incubator, to support, amplify, decrease fragmentation between existing public and private initiatives on Public Interest AI and address digital divides. The Public interest AI Initiative will sustain and support digital public goods and technical assistance and capacity building projects in data, model development, openness and transparency, audit, compute, talent, financing and collaboration to support and co-create a trustworthy AI ecosystem advancing the public interest of all, for all and by all.
- The leaders have discussed, at a Summit for the first time and in a multi-stakeholder format, issues related to AI and energy. This discussion has led to sharing knowledge to foster investments for sustainable AI systems (hardware, infrastructure, models), to promoting an international discussion on AI and environment, to welcoming an observatory on the energy impact of AI with the International Energy Agency, to showcasing energy-friendly AI innovation.
- The leaders also recognize the need to enhance our shared knowledge on the impacts of AI in the job market, through the creation of network of Observatories, to better anticipate AI implications for workplaces, training and education and to use AI to foster productivity, skill development, quality and working conditions and social dialogue.
- Harnessing the benefits of AI technologies to support global economies and societies depends on advancing Trust and Safety. There is an urgent need to address the risk of AI to information integrity and to continue the work on AI transparency.
There is a need for inclusive multi stake holder dialogues and cooperation on AI governance. The focus is needed for global reflection integrating inter alia questions of safety, sustainable development, innovation, respect of international laws including humanitarian law and human rights law and the protection of human rights, gender equality, linguistic diversity, protection of consumers and of intellectual property rights.
Commitment to initiate the global dialogue on AI governance and the independent international scientific panel on AI and to align ongoing governance efforts, ensuring complementarity and avoiding duplication has extreme relevance. The International Labor Organization estimate that nearly 75 million jobs globally are at complete risk of automation due to AI. NASSCOM estimates that the Indian AI market will grow at 25% to 35 % CAGR by 2027. A significant share of India's IT workforce is employed in low value added services which are the most susceptible to automation. Workers may not immediately benefit from the productivity and profitability gains associated with technological advancements which can lead to enduring options. India is the country with the youngest workforce population, and thus have a rich talent pool available for capitalizing on emerging technologies by investing it education and skilling intitiatives.
Back to HomeAuthor
Pradeep Chaturvedi
Vice President - Institute of Directors
He is former Advisor FAO & former Chairman, Institution of Engineers, Delhi. He is a Mechanical Engineer & has been involved with Environment & Energy Policy (planning & implementation) of energy projects under the UN Agencies for over three decades in India & other Asian and Pacific countries. He is Vice-President, World Environment Foundation & Institute of Directors, India.
Owned by: Institute of Directors, India
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the articles/ stories are the personal opinions of the author. IOD/ Editor is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information in those articles. The information, facts or opinions expressed in the articles/ speeches do not reflect the views of IOD/ Editor and IOD/ Editor does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.
