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AI AND DEVELOPMENT Shaping the next fifty years: Technology and the future of sustainable development Dodging the negative disruption AI technology can pose will be critical for the Global South.
By Deemah AlYahya Secretary-General of the Digital Cooperation Organization
As the OPEC Fund marks its 50th anniversary, we are reminded that development is a moving frontier. Over the past five decades, development finance has expanded access to energy, infrastructure, education and healthcare for millions. Yet the decades ahead will be defined not only by what is built, but by how intelligently, inclusively and sustainably it is built. We are entering an era in which artificial intelligence and advanced digital technologies are reshaping the very foundations of our economies. The question before us is whether we will shape it in a way that advances sustainable development, reduces inequality and strengthens global cooperation. In 2026, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reaching an inflection point in the global economy. A recent study by the International Labour Organization (ILO) finds that around one in four jobs globally is potentially exposed to transformation by generative AI. The share rises to about one-third in high-income economies, but falls to just over one-tenth in low-income countries, highlighting how advanced economies face deeper immediate disruption while developing economies risk being left behind. The future of work In emerging markets and developing economies, the challenge is different but equally urgent: ensuring that AI augments productivity and opportunity rather than deepening existing divides, especially where digital infrastructure and skills gaps remain significant. At the same time, global AI investment has surged into the hundreds of billions of dollars a year, with private and corporate AI spending already estimated at roughly a quarter of a trillion dollars in 2024. While market valuations and AI‑related equities have been volatile, new research in the United States alone suggests that AI could already take on work worth several trillion dollars in annual labor value and unlock around a trillion dollars in additional GDP and trillions more in consumer spending, underscoring that the real‑economy returns to today’s investments are increasingly within reach. Taken together, these figures signal not a passing bubble, but a grand structural economic shift.
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