Artificial intelligence could widen the gap between wealthy and developing nations, the United Nations has warned.
The UN Development Programme’s Asia and Pacific bureau released a report on Tuesday titled “The Next Great Divergence”, calling for urgent, coordinated policies to manage AI’s impact.
“We think that AI is heralding a new era of rising inequality between countries, following years of convergence in the last 50 years,” Philip Schellekens, the bureau’s chief economist, told a briefing in Geneva.
The report compares AI to the Industrial Revolution, saying it could create major opportunities or deepen existing divides in wealth, digital access, and skills. Schellekens added that even wealthy countries could face consequences if poorer nations are left behind. “If inequality continues to rise, the spillover effects in terms of undocumented forms of migration will also become more daunting,” he said.
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Focusing on the Asia Pacific region, home to over half the world’s population and AI users, the report highlights benefits such as faster disease detection, improved remote learning, expanded credit access for small businesses, and stronger disaster response. It predicts AI could raise regional GDP growth by 2 percentage points annually, with ASEAN economies gaining nearly $1 trillion over the next decade.
However, the benefits are uneven. Advanced economies like Singapore, Japan, and China are already seeing gains, while nations with poor connectivity, unreliable electricity, and limited tech skills risk falling further behind. Millions of jobs, especially for women and young people, are vulnerable to automation without policy measures.
“No-one can predict with certainty where AI will take us in the future, nor can we fully imagine what it might help create or destroy,” the report states.
“Ultimately, it should not be machines but the world’s people who choose which technologies to prioritize and how best to exploit them,” the UNDP adds.