Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Development: The Role of Human Development in Global Cross-Country Disparities

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly regarded as a technology that could accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), yet its contribution may depend on broader development conditions. This study examines the relationship between AI capacity, sustainable development, and human development across 167 countries. The analysis combines the Government AI Readiness Index, SDG Index, Human Development Index (HDI), and urbanization data. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression is used to estimate nested models, complemented by Pearson correlation across four HDI groups. In the basic model, AI Infrastructure is positively and significantly associated with the SDG Index, while Development & Diffusion makes no statistically significant independent contribution. The model explains 63.1% of the variance in SDG performance. After HDI and urbanization are introduced, explanatory power increases to 82.2% while the AI Infrastructure coefficient becomes small and statistically insignificant. HDI shows the strongest standardized association with the SDG Index (β = 0.908), although this relationship should be interpreted in light of the conceptual overlap between the two composite indices. Urbanization is negatively associated with SDG performance in the expanded model. AI Infrastructure–SDG correlations are positive and statistically significant across all HDI groups, but differences in correlation strength are not statistically significant. By distinguishing the bivariate association between AI infrastructure and SDG performance from its association conditional on broader development characteristics, this study provides a more nuanced cross-country assessment of the relationship between AI readiness and sustainable development.